Does Pause really Pause?

[Need3lives]

I have noticed on several occasions now that ad groups that I have had paused for SEVERAL days, immediately upon 'resuming' them, these ad groups show something like 2 or 3 clicks on 250 impressions or something. That is on the page refresh after you hit resume. The only explanation I can think of is that Google is actually running my ads, even when I have asked them to be paused, and that by unpausing them, these stats suddenly show up as a result. If so, this seems like a major issue - what is the point of having the pause option, if you can't really pause?

[Robsp]

As Google uses many servers and partners there is always a delay when you issue a "pause" and likewise happens when you resume. Do not worry a pause is a pause (at least in my campaigns)

[donb01]

It always pauses for me, but they do warn you that the number of clicks and impressions shown may be 3 hours behind what the actual stats are.

Considering the volume of searching going on, I could believe it would be possible that if you refresh your page right after you unpause your ads, and you have a fairly popular keyword, that you could have some real hits.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

I have noticed on several occasions now that ad groups that I have had paused for SEVERAL days, immediately upon 'resuming' them, these ad groups show something like 2 or 3 clicks on 250 impressions or something. That is on the page refresh after you hit resume.

Interesting - and haven't heard of this before. I'd guess that it may have something to do with the 'date range' change while you are viewing your stats/resuming.

Does Pause really Pause?

Yes, it really does. But here a couple of things to keep in mind, that are entirely normal and to be expected:

* When you make any change in your account, it must be updated in many, many servers. So there'll almost certainly be a delay before your change is fully updated by all servers. (In the case of pausing an ad, for example, it may mean that you'll continue to see your ad run for a short time.)

* Also, and again due to server delays, stats typically run about three hours behind. So if you pause an ad, say, in this moment, you'll most likely continue to see stats come in for about three hours. These are impressions and clicks that occurred before you paused, delivered 'late' (as expected) due to server delays.

AWA

[Need3lives]

Thanks for the reply AWA. In this case, it was for an Ad Group that had been paused for several days, and I was looking only at data for the current date. It basically went from 0 clicks/impressions to a handful of clicks and several hundred impressions, on the screen refresh when I hit 'Resume'. And, obviously, I was charged for those clicks. No big deal, since the amount of money was small, but I was suprised to see it.

Actually, I had noticed it once before, on another Ad Group I had paused for a few days, but I assumed it was user error and ignored it. It was when I saw the second time that I did a double take...

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Thanks for the details, Need3lives, which I'll pass on to the tech team.

AWA