Google Offers $100 Bribe To Bring Lapsed AdWords Advertisers Back To The Fold

Haven’t used AdWords in a while? Here’s $100. Spend it all in one place — your AdWords account. That’s the gist of a new Google effort to reactivate AdWords users who’ve let their accounts grow dormant.

The company reached out to these users yesterday with a plea, “We’re sorry to see that you’ve stopped advertising with Google, and we want to help you use AdWords to grow your business. To improve your experience, we’ve made a lot of changes to the product to make it even easier for you to increase your sales and leads.”

Typically, Google has used financial incentives like these to bring aboard new advertisers, distributing coupons at conferences, in direct mail, and via print advertising. But this is the first we’ve seen directed at existing AdWords account holders who are no longer actively advertising.

The email outreach directs lapsed advertisers to the Opportunities tab in their AdWords account, an area where Google shows automated hints to help advertisers optimize their campaigns, and also showcases best practices.

The $100 offer presented to these dormant account holders expires at the end of May.