Partnering with a major company like Google and its advertising platform comes with loads of benefits, but also often significant downsides. In this instance, after a Google policy change required that all payments be made using ACH (a type of payment process), US Mobile decided to sever their connection with Google Ads and instead build a new way to reach customers. And this new method can be quite lucrative.
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US Mobile is designing a referral program that puts most others to shame (via AndroidAuthority). The first two people you refer will earn you $25 each. The third will bring in $75. The fourth, $100. And every referral after that will net you a cool $225, up to a maximum of $1,575 per year. US Mobile is aiming for people with friends and family members that are fed up with their existing carriers and want to make a switch.
Google’s new ad policy represented a massive loss with US Mobile’s old model
The company says that Google’s new policy would cost them around $300,000 per year in lost earnings. The CEO of the company, Ahmed Khattak, said that he would normally use credit cards with incentive programs to pay for advertising costs, but Google’s insistence that all payments be made via ACH eliminates that as a possibility.
Losing more than a quarter million each year in potential earnings is enough to sour any relationship, which might be why Khattack supposedly told Google to “take a long walk off a short bridge,” according to the story. Of course, the referral program isn’t without limits. The first is the literal limit — you can only be paid for 10 referrals per year, up to a maximum of $1,575. The second is that you must pay taxes on any earnings over $600, for which US Mobile will issue 1099 tax forms.
While Google’s policy shift might not seem that influential, Khattak says that Google is hurting all small businesses with this. Restricting payments to only ACH does eliminate the potential for small businesses to offset costs with incentives, but it also saves Google a lot of money each year in credit card processing fees. Still, Khattak has a point; this isn’t the most consumer-friendly move, especially when it’s apparent Google is doing this to maximize its own profits.
