An Introduction to Billing in Microsoft Advertising adCenter

Can you guess what the most frequently asked questions for adCenter service teams are? Those that top the list are not “Why is my ad not showing?” or “Can you help expand my keyword list?”; the most frequent questions are all around billing processes. While these can be confusing at times, paying for your clicks is overall a fairly straight-forward procedure and should be a smooth experience. Below you can find some basic instructions how to choose your payment method and what to look out for.

Currently adCenter offers three payment methods: credit card, PayPal and invoicing. The first two can be easily set up when you create your account, while invoiced accounts require a certain spend threshold and the assistance of a service team member. Credit card is by far the most common payment method. For advertisers that migrated from Yahoo! and are new to adCenter, it is important to know that a pre-payment option is not available.

When you first sign up to adCenter, you complete the “General Information” section, then proceed to “Payment Information”. All you need to do is entering your credit card information …

… or choose PayPal as your preferred payment method.

In both cases you then pick your currency, then read and sign Terms & Conditions online.

Once done, you’ll be taken to this screen where you can start creating or importing campaigns.

If you later decide to add more accounts (you can create up to 6 under one user name) just navigate to the Accounts & Billing tab and choose “Create Account”. The new account will be associated with the credit card (or PayPal account) already filed.

If you need to update your credit card information or add a new credit card, you would again navigate to “Accounts & Billing” and choose “Payment Method”. Here you can conveniently update an existing card or add a new one.

Assuming you’re all set up with billing and your campaign is up and running, now let’s move on to the actual payments.

The day that you create an account is your monthly billing date. For example, if you create an account on October 21, your billing date will be the 21st of each month. Typically, you are charged once a month, unless you reach your billing threshold earlier.

New advertisers with credit card billing and a couple hundred bucks of daily spending are often confused why their credit card gets charged multiple times a day. The simple answer is that the initial threshold is set at $50 and applies to all accounts. After a brief period though, you will see larger amounts (up to $2,500) charged against your credit card.

Pending charges can be seen on the Billing page of your account. Under the Accounts & Billing tab just click on the Billing tab.

When clicking on the invoice number on the left, it opens a PDF file you can download to your computer and print for your records.

Did you notice the “Bill me now” button in the upper right corner of the screenshot above? If you do not want to wait until Microsoft charges you the “Bill me now” option allows an advertiser to charge your account balance immediately to your credit card or PayPal account. Just be aware when choosing this option you will be charged the full outstanding balance and you cannot specify the amount.

If for any reason the credit card you entered for your account is declined three or more times, your account status is changed to Credit Hold. To remove your account from Credit Hold status, try using a different credit card. If that does not remove the Credit Hold status, you should reach out to Microsoft Advertising adCenter Support for more information.

Accounts with invoiced billing require an advertiser to sign a printed version of Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) and to sign an Insertion Order (IO) to specify the maximum budget for a given time period. Consequently invoiced accounts can only be created by adCenter Service Specialists. The internal setup process takes a few days. Invoiced accounts are recommended for larger advertisers with a monthly spend above $1000 and a dedicated service contact only.

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