New Google Ads fees will be in place from 1 November 2020. These additional charges will apply to ads served in the following countries:
- Austria = 5% fee
- Turkey = 5% fee
- United Kingdom = 2% fee
Google Ads Fees Explained
In Turkey, the Regulatory Operating Costs are being added due to significant increases in the complexity and cost of complying with regulations within the country.
For Austria & United Kingdom these fees are part of a new Digital Service Tax (DST).
For more information, read this article from Google.
(Microsoft are yet to release any information about this, but we can assume that the DST will apply to other search engines as well as Google).
What does this mean for you?
No change is needed from your end. You will simply start to see this new Google Ads fee within your invoices / statements from 1 November onwards. This means that your final cost will be your account spend + 20% DST.
Next Steps
- Review Your Budget
When forecasting budgets you will need to ensure you are factoring in the additional fee on top of any advertising spend. Make sure to check any insertion orders that you have already set up.
- Review Your KPIs
To ensure that your KPIs don’t take a hit, it is a good idea to review your targets. For example, if your current CPA is £10 and your monthly budget is £200, you will expect to see 20 conversions per month. However, with the new fee in place assuming you are an advertiser in the UK your Actual Spend will be £240. Therefore, your Actual CPA will be £12 instead of your target of £10.
One way to maintain your current CPA target would be to optimise towards a smaller CPA so that the Actual CPA does not change. However this could lead to a decrease in demand / clicks.
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