Search engine giant Google has announced they’ll be introducing a new fee structure for their Google Ads programme, for ads served in the United Kingdom, Turkey and Austria.
As of 1 November, Google’s fees will be increased as follows:
- Ads served in the United Kingdom: a 2% UK DST Fee added to your invoice or statement
- Ads served in Turkey: a 5% Regulatory Operating Cost added to your invoice or statement
- Ads Served in Austria: a 5% Austria DST Fee added to your invoice or statement
Google has cited the cost of compliance in Turkey, and the new digital services tax (DST) in Austria and the UK as the reason for the introduction of their new fees for these countries.
In the UK in particular, the DST is aimed at collecting revenues from digital companies with at least £500-million in global revenue and £25-million in UK revenue, including Facebook, Amazon and Google.
How does this affect you?
- Automatic or monthly invoicing: Google will add the fees to your Google Ads costs once a month, to be paid the next time you are charged. The fees will be added to your account budget if you have set one up.
- Manual/Prepaid payment accounts: the fees will be charged once your monthly budget has been used up, to be paid within your next top-up.
“These fees will also be added on top of your account budget if you’ve set up one. For example, if you have a budget of €100 and accrue €5 in Austria DST Fees for ads served in Austria, you’ll be billed €105 (plus any taxes, such as VAT, that may apply in your country)” according to the Google Help page.
How does this affect your marketing planning?
The higher fees will need to be budgeted for if you’re advertising in any of the three territories, so you’ll need to plan for this, and also be sure to use the correct location settings for your campaigns so that you don’t accidentally expose your ad where you don’t want to.
In this regard, the “People in or regularly in your targeted locations” setting in campaign set-up needs to be carefully evaluated, ensuring you set Turkey, Austria and the UK as location exclusions if don’t want to serve ads there.
Within your budget planning, you’ll either need to factor in the additional cost, or reduce your Cost per Acquisition (CPA) targets to accommodate the extra fees.
For help planning, setting up and monitoring your Google Ads and other paid advertising campaigns, contact Realnet today on 01223 550800 or info@realnet.co.uk