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Update: my biggest client turned off their card and left me holding $1,850 in ad spend
This went down 3 weeks ago and I'm still mad about it. I run a small ad account for a guy out of Sacramento who sells garage shelving kits. He always paid on the 1st, never late, so I didn't think twice when his card was on file. I pushed $1,850 into a Meta campaign over 9 days, and on day 10 the whole account went dark, ads paused, nothing. Turns out he called his bank and killed the card because of some other charge he didn't like, and he forgot his ad account was hooked to it. When I texted him, he said and I quote, "that's on you for not checking." I ended up eating the spend because if I stop the ads the leads dry up and I lose the account anyway. My advice: put a $50 test charge on the card every month and make them sign a line that says unused budget is still owed, no matter what the platform does. Has anybody actually gotten a client to pay back a dead card balance, or do you just walk?
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craig.max1d ago
Did he seriously say "that's on you"? Man, that would've sent me through the roof. I've been down this road twice and got paid back exactly zero times, so my rule now is simple: card gets charged before the ads go live, or the ads do not go live, period. The $50 test charge is a smart move, do it on the 25th so any bank block shows up while you still have time to yell at them. Also, a signed line in your contract is only worth what it costs to chase, and small claims court over $1,850 eats your week fast. Be honest with yourself, that money is gone, so the real question is whether this guy is worth keeping as a client at all.
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