An advertiser spent $3,200 on Google Ads and never received the promised credit
According to a Search Engine Land report dated September 11, 2026, some Google Ads promotional credits are being invalidated after advertisers have spent the amount required to qualify. In a case shared by PPC consultant David Melamed, an advertiser who spent $3,200 saw the expected $3,200 credit marked "Invalidated" more than a month later. Google has not explained the revocations, and there is no known appeal path.
The advertiser spent the money, the credit was invalidated a month later
According to Anu Adegbola's September 11, 2026 report in Search Engine Land, some Google Ads promotional credits are being invalidated after advertisers have spent the amount required to qualify, leaving businesses with higher ad costs than they expected. The story originates from a LinkedIn post by PPC consultant David Melamed; Barry Schwartz published its full text on Search Engine Roundtable on September 10, and PPC News Feed summarized it on September 14. In the first case Melamed describes, an advertiser expected a $3,200 promotional credit after spending $3,200 on Google Ads. More than a month after the money was spent, the credit was marked "Invalidated" in the account; Search Engine Roundtable published a screenshot of that status. According to Melamed, the advertiser probably would not have spent that initial $3,200 without the promotional offer. Melamed said he had run into the same problem twice in a short period.
The second case, the MCC billing profile reason and the missing appeal path
In the second case, a new advertiser's credit was invalidated because the account had initially been set up with the billing profile from Melamed's manager account (MCC). In the first case, Melamed does not know what triggered the revocation. All three sources make the same point: there is no appeal path. Melamed knows of no way to appeal an invalidated credit, and the spend cannot be undone. In his LinkedIn post he called the practice "pure theft", a credit pushed to drive spend and then withheld. He also argued that the credits push advertisers to bid more aggressively, since they see the first $6,400 of spend as half price, and that the extra dollars raise competition in the auctions. Search Engine Land presented this as Melamed's own assessment and noted that no evidence was offered that revoked credits actually raised auction prices. Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin replied that she had passed the post along to the team. Google did not explain the invalidations or say whether it plans to change how promotional credit disputes are handled.
Why it matters: the credit shapes the budget, the revocation cannot be undone
Search Engine Land's assessment captures the core issue: promotional offers directly influence how much a business is willing to spend when launching or expanding a campaign. If a business budgets on the assumption that spending $3,200 brings another $3,200 and the credit is later revoked, the qualifying spend cannot be undone and the real ad cost ends up above plan. That is why the publication recommends checking the eligibility terms attached to an offer rather than treating a credit as guaranteed campaign budget. The bigger question is whether Google will provide transparency about revocation reasons and an appeal path. What the sources do not say also matters: which promotional program is involved, how many advertisers are affected and whether the problem is systematic are not specified; Google's reply only says the matter was passed to the team, with no statement acknowledging a general problem. The picture is limited to one consultant's two cases and a short reply from Google; but because the spend cannot be reversed, even two cases deserve attention.
What it means for businesses in Türkiye: a credit is a conditional promise, not budget
First the boundary: none of the three sources mentions a country, a region or Türkiye; the amounts are in US dollars and the cases are Melamed's own client accounts, so whether accounts in Türkiye are affected is unknown. Still, the new advertiser credits Google Ads also offers in Türkiye ("spend X, get X in credit") work on the same logic, so the lessons apply directly. First, do not plan a promotional credit as guaranteed budget or scale the campaign on its strength before it appears in the account. Second, read the eligibility terms up front: the spend window, the billing profile used at setup and whether the account was opened through a manager account can, as the second case shows, become grounds for revocation. Third, if an agency opens your account through its MCC, insist on a billing profile that belongs to your business, so the credit and spend history stay in your name. Fourth, check the credit status regularly; if it reads "Invalidated", no appeal mechanism is known, so the only real protection is never letting the credit drive the spend decision.
The UNALSOFT view
Our reading is this: a promotional credit is not a budget line, it is a conditional promise, and Google sets the condition. That is why the order we recommend to clients in our Google Ads management work is clear: open the account with the business's own billing profile, record the terms of the credit offer before the campaign starts, and plan the first month's budget with the credit counted as zero. If the credit lands, it becomes extra budget; if it does not, the plan holds. Until Google offers transparency and an appeal path, the safest assumption is that the credit may not arrive.
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