Google Invoicing

I am about to share with you one of the single biggest factors that allowed me to expand my business as rapidly as I have.

As you guys know, I am 21 years old. Before I was an affiliate marketer, I was doing some arbitrage (in 2004) and some other website ventures. Needless to say, I wasn't rich. My credit was great but my credit limits were fairly constricting when you're talking about spending tens of thousands each month.

For a while, I made due by charging up cards and paying them off, charging them up, paying them off, etc but eventually this caught up to me and my credit score started to decline. Ouch. That's one number you just don't want to mess with!

As I sought for a solution that would allow me to grow, I turned to family and friends for help. For a while this worked and to this day, I still have people willing to invest $40,000 or more at any time which is nice!

Well as of lately, I've been paying for all my ads via Google Invoicing.

What is Google Invoicing?

Google Invoicing allows you to charge up 1 month's worth of advertising and then pay off the bill at the end of the money via checks or wire. Sweet!

With google's invoicing system, you have 30 days after the end of the month to pay off your bill before your account... well... you don't want to know what would happen if you didn't pay after 30 days.

So does this mean that you can spend $1,000,000 and pay it next month? No, not really... With the google invoicing system, you actually are given a "credit line." Once you hit this credit limit (laid out in your approval letter), your traffic will slow down or stop completely.

Applying for google invoicing is pretty simple, but to be accepted, you have to meet some requirements. They don't accept just any advertisers and you shouldn't expect to get in as a brand new advertiser. For example some of the requirements are you must spend a minimum amount each month for three months in a row. I'm not quite sure what this amount is and they don't really say. I know that when I applied for invoicing, I had spent over 5 figures each month for 4 or 5 months with adwords.

To apply for invoicing, you create a support ticket and request an application. Fill out the app, return it and hope for the best.

Now, there are a couple down sides to google adwords invoicing. First, you cannot pay via credit card. It is check or wire only!

Thankfully with affiliate marketing, if you're doing more volume you'll be paid weekly so as long as you're making a profit, it wont be a problem. Save up a pool of money for paying invoicing and you'll be A-OK.

The second major downside is that with invoicing you cannot get an increase in your credit line for 3 months and even after that it's not a promised thing.

If you've built a good relationship with Google, they'll generally work with you. After going through the invoicing application, I expressed my need for mid $xxx,xxx range per month in credit to allow for growth. After a bit of email exchanges, I was granted enough to make sure I didn't hit any limits for a couple months ;).

The third and final major downside to google invoicing is that you REALLY want to be sure that you want invoicing because they wont switch accounts back once they have been changed over. Be sure that you talk to your support person about your needs and such before applying.

If you're really looking to grow your business like I was, this is one method that will enable you to explode quite fast if you were in a similar situation to me.

As a word for the wise, I would highly recommend waiting to apply for invoicing until you spend at least 5 figures per month and are fairly consistent in spending a lot.

Finally, the information above is my experience from a USA account and I'm not sure the process for non-USA adwords accounts or if they even offer invoicing to non-US accounts.

Good luck for those who apply!