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Free plan

Google Ads spend alerts, free for one account

Google Ads spend alerts from SpendCanary email you when your spending jumps, conversion tracking breaks or a new leak shows up. They're free for one account, with no card.

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What you get

  • A check of your account every morning, after 6:00 in the account's time zone.
  • An email straight away when spend spikes, conversion tracking breaks, a new serious leak appears, or a new tool, app or script starts changing your account.
  • A plain-English summary every Monday.

Alerts need Sign in with Google. On the free plan SpendCanary only reads your account and never changes it. SpendCanary works with Google Ads; it isn't made by Google.

A worked example

This is an example, not a real account.

  • Say your account spends about $40 on a normal day. On Tuesday it spends $130. That's more than twice the usual $40 and more than $50, so on Wednesday morning you get an email: about $90 more than usual.
  • Or say a click usually costs you $2.00 and on Tuesday clicks cost $3.20 on average. That's 60% more, and anything over 50% more on a day above $50 gets an alert too.
  • Say you get about 2 leads a day, then Thursday, Friday and Saturday record none while you keep paying for clicks. Sunday's check tells you tracking looks broken. Read how to fix conversion tracking.

"Normal" is the median day of the 28 days before, so one odd day doesn't move it.

What Google Ads gives you

  • For most campaigns, Google can spend up to twice your average daily budget on a single day. You won't pay more than that, or more than 30.4 times the daily budget in a month. A $130 day on a $65 budget is within the rules, so nothing tells you about it.
  • Automated rules can email you when a condition is met, such as a campaign's cost passing a number you choose. You set the number for each rule, and Google says a rule can run up to 2 hours after it's due.

Rules work if you know the number to watch. SpendCanary compares each day with your account's usual day, and watches tracking, leaks and outside tools too, with nothing to set up. If you want spending stopped, not just reported, see the daily spend cap on the Fix plan, or read why spend suddenly jumps.

Common questions

Are the spend alerts really free?
Yes, for one Google Ads account, with no card and no time limit. The Fix plan covers up to 3 accounts.
Do I need to sign in to get alerts?
Yes. Daily checks need Sign in with Google, so SpendCanary can read your account each morning. The one-off free scan does not need sign-in.
Can SpendCanary change my account on the free plan?
No. On the free plan SpendCanary only reads your account. Nothing changes unless you move to the Fix plan and approve a fix yourself.
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