AdSense, Where's my Payment?

Over the last month or two I think I've seen more payment related questions in the AdSense help forum than ever before. There seems to be a small flood of them, this month alone. Some of the questions have related to the new line entry on the payments page, where Adsense now shows the amount of earnings that have been deducted due to invalid activity (usually accidental clicks, or from "bad" traffic and/or bots - often not the direct fault of the publisher).

Prior to this change when deductions were made, it wasn't noted how much of that deduction was due to invalid clicks. For more on this update to the Payments page, see the recent article on the Inside AdSense Blog.

But the vast majority seem to be "why wasn't my payment issued?" ... these questions have come from publishers world-wide, and many are from publishers that have been collecting payments regularly without any problems.

Most of the publishers have either reached, or exceeded the payment threshold and have long ago entered all the required details to verify their accounts and payment methods. So where is the payment? Why hasn't it been released (issued) this month?

A few of the publishers who qualify for direct contact with AdSense staff have contacted staff and asked that exact question.

A few indicated that the response said their accounts were under investigation and until that was complete, the payment wouldn't be issued.  How long one of these "investigations" takes is anybody's guess. I really don't know, but I would expect for the most part, it isn't going to be "a few days". Anyone that's been around AdSense long enough already knows that there isn't much that AdSense does "quickly".  I would think it wouldn't be a surprise if the investigation took a week or two, or ... unfortunately, even longer than that.

What sort of investigation it is, or why the account was chosen is something else I can't really answer. We do know that all publisher accounts are monitored by AdSense. We also know that when AdSense finds something to be "irregular" in a publisher's account they'll investigate further. (Also see reasons for payment holds in the help center.)

• Your account is currently under review for compliance with our program policies
  All accounts are monitored for policy compliance and invalid activity. At times, while your account is under investigation, your payments will be temporarily placed on hold. You do not need to contact us about this hold; the hold will be automatically removed at the end of the investigation if your account is policy compliant and your traffic is valid.

Whether that's an odd batch of traffic and/or clicks on ads, or whether it's multiple reports coming in from the website reporting options (such as spam websites, or publisher's spamming groups or people with emails they didn't sign up for, or improper ad placements, etc.) or a payee name change in an account (which isn't allowed), AdSense is going to investigate these issues to make sure the account doesn't become a risk for the advertisers whose ads appear on on our sites.

The bottom line is that nobody can answer for AdSense when it comes to payment issues. If you qualify for direct email support from AdSense you'll be able to access the contact email form in the help center, in which case you can ask for yourself why your payment hasn't been sent.

So far, I haven't personally had to deal with an investigation issue myself, so there isn't much in the way of help that I can offer. I can, however, tell you what I would do if I found myself in this position.

1. I'd start by looking at my traffic over the last few months: where it came from; the referring sites; checking my promotional methods. Fairly often, bad traffic can be an issue, so that's the place I'd start investigating my own stats.
2. Then, I'd consider my methods of promotion. Did I hire someone who might have sent spam emails to promote me? Did someone put my site link on a link exchange (cause I surely would not)? If I hired some off-beat SEO firm, the first thing I'd be doing is asking for an exact copy of every single thing they did to promote my site. (Often, these people do things way outside of AdSense policy without telling you.)
3. Next, I'd review my blogs or websites for content compliance. Is my content original (my own/did I write it myself or copy it?); is any of my content in violation of any policy?; are any of the comments users leave considered spam, or lead to spammy websites?; is my own content sort of spammy and poorly written?
4. Then, I'd start investigating my own social pages and links. Have I spammed my site/post links all over the web using social services? Have I misused social sharing in some way? Have my personal friends or family gone on a "sharing spree" without telling me (which would only make things worse).

I can tell you that if my own account were under investigation by AdSense, I'd be spending 100% of my time investigating my own site, it's visitors, it's contents, and my own actions to make sure that there wasn't anything "odd" going on.

... I wouldn't be sitting around just waiting for AdSense to finish up.

posted by J. Gracey Stinson

When Do I Get Paid? - Adsense Payment Timelines

UPDATING THE PAYMENT TIMELINE
May 31, 2015

Over the last few years, there have been several changes to the AdSense Payment systems. Many more countries have the ability to receive payments by EFT (electronic funds tranfer) or by Wire Transfer and SEPA. For the most part, this is more secure than receiving payments by cheque or Western Union Quick Cash. Usually, it's also quicker than cheque  payments (though it appears sometimes Wire Transfer can be a little slow depending on the bank), and for publishers in some countries, means there is less chance of someone other than the publisher stealing the payment.

Along with changes to payment methods available, there have been changes within the Adsense account too, and publishers who have been transferred in the last year or so will see that their payments page is different.

Payments still work in the same way as previously: payments are verified after the end of the month that you earn the money in, then they're posted to the Payments page. But the payment timeline has changed a little. 

Payment in Progress may now (in some areas) start late in the evening on the 21st of the month, or the 22nd of the month. In some cases, payments may actually be issued within a day of "Payment in Progress" being shown on the payments page. Once the payment has been issued to the bank, you may see "Payment Issued" on the payments page.

The payment times are not uniform across all accounts and all countries, so the "PIP" (payment in progress) can show up around the 21st/22nd of a month, and be paid out ANYTIME after that, up to the end of the month.

Because the payment system has also changed for how the transfer between YouTube Analytics and the AdSense Payment system works, you'll find that your verified earnings from a YouTube channel may not show up in your YouTube account until somewhere between the 13th and 15th of a month.

As an example, if you monetize a YouTube Channel, and also monetize a blog/website, somewhere between the 1st and 7th of a month, your verified earnings from your website/blog will show up on your payments page as being verified or "payable earnings", but you won't see your YouTube earnings on the Payments page.

This tends to confuse newer publishers. YouTube earnings will be added to the Payments page in AdSense later in the month (by the 15th), which is still in time for you to receive them with the issued payment that month. They'll show up on a separate line, so you'd see one entry for your website/blog earnings, and one entry for your YouTube earnings, and the "Total Payable" earnings will be compiled of both amounts added together.

NOTE: when you own more than one blog/website, earnings show as only one lump sum on the Payments page. The same is true for YouTube - if you monetize multiple channels, your Adsense account will only show one entry for YouTube earnings, and this is the total of all verified earnings from all your channels.

Payment thresholds have mostly remained the same ($100 or equivalent in local funds), but there is a new clause in the thresholds which is causing some confusion for both publishers, and those who help out in the forum.

According to our Terms and Conditions, active accounts need to reach the payment threshold in order to qualify for a payment. Since we don't ever issue payments for less than this threshold, we don't allow publishers to select a form of payment until their earnings have reached this amount.

For whatever reason, they appear to have an option where a publisher may not be able to select their payment method until they actually have reached the payment threshold, yet the chart at the top of the page shows the threshold differently.

If you are unable to choose your payment method after reaching what appears to be the threshold for doing so, you may fall into the group of countries where you must actually reach the payment threshold in order to set up your payment method.
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"When do I get my payments?  This is one of the frequent questions we see in the forum. I suppose it's partly because people just don't read the information available and assume that it's like a lot of other advertising companies, but Adsense timelines are fairly different from a lot of other payment timelines. AdSense payments are set on a regular monthly schedule, and you won't receive your payment the moment you cross the payment threshold.

There are also other requirements that must be fulfilled before payments are released: payment holds need to be removed - your address must be verified, you must choose a method of payment (and verify your bank if EFT is chosen), you must enter a PIN (personal identification number) that AdSense sends by regular mail to your home address, and finally, in some cases, you must also complete a telephone verification.   These "holds" in your AdSense account appear usually shortly after your cross the "verification threshold" which is $10 (or equivalent) and might take up to a couple of weeks to become active after you reach that threshold.  Because the PIN can take up to 4 weeks to arrive (and sometimes it takes a couple of tries to receive the PIN) the verification process can take a little while, but no payments will be released until all these steps are completed, and you have reached $100 or more in verified earnings.

Most of this information is included in the Payment sections of the AdSense Help Center - the Payment FAQ and Introduction to Payments, and Payment Troubleshooting.

Once you have met the Payment Threshold and lifted Payment Holds, you are ready to receive your AdSense payments, which are based on a regular monthly schedule.  Earnings from the previous month are "verified" during the first week of the following month, and once verified they will be posted on your Payments page in your AdSense account.  If you need to make any changes in your AdSense account that affect your payments (address, payment methods, tax info, etc.) this must be completed prior to the 15th of the month - if you don't make those changes before the 15th, your payments will not be made at the end of the month, but will be pushed out to the next scheduled payment date at the end of the following month.

Somewhere around the end of the month (usually between the 21st and 25th) you'll notice a line on your Payments Page that says "payment issued" - this indicates that your payment is calculated and in the process of being sent to you, by whatever method you've chosen in your account.  The dates aren't always the same when this occurs, and they do have up until the last day of the month to actually issue the payments, but most often the payments are issued just before the end of the month.

You'll also see a notation next to the Payment showing "details" - if you click that link it will show you the details of your payment, including earnings (and some adjustments may also show here), and the payment date.

For those who receive payments by methods that require tracking numbers (this does not include standard check payments which are sent by regular postal service), tracking numbers may not appear in your account immediately but should show up anytime within 10 days of the payment being shown on your payment page.

YouTube Payments

As of April 1, 2013 Adsense no longer shows estimated earnings for publishers earning money on YouTube.

At the end of the month, Adsense finalizes YouTube earnings and then transfers them in a lump sum to the Payments page in your Adsense account. This generally occurs around the 15th of the month. So if you had YouTube earnings in January, then those earnings (once finalized) will show up in your Adsense account by the 15th of February, in time to be paid out during the payment cycle.

During the month, you won't see earnings accumulating in your Adsense account.