Slimy Google Ads Salespeople, and Why There Are No Free Lunches in Life

I recently received an email with an enticing subject line.

“Stay connected with customers with $4,000 Google Ads credit”

Currently, I don’t do a ton of paid advertising. But with $4,000 in free money, that could change. I opened the email.

I’ve seen (and taken advantage of) similar offers before from Google. They offer me a credit reimbursement of whatever I spend in the first 30 days after activating some coupon. For example: on a $150 offer, you get reimbursed up to $150 in ads spent in the first 30 days after activation.

Thing is, the only amounts I’d ever been offered before were $150 and $300. Both times, I accepted: I ran some ads and spent the amount Google offered. It was legit: they credited me back the amount promised. So, I like these little gifts from Google.

I know these offers are real (I think that Google knows that I know, too). So, $4,000? That’s a lot to spend on ads (for me) — but they’re giving me a dollar-for-dollar credit. Shit, why the hell not?

This one required a bit more effort to get the deal, which seemed reasonable: I had to “schedule an appointment with a Google Ads specialist” to get my credit activated.