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Glitch. Paused campaigns show. Active ones don't. I need help!

Old glitch appearing. No control over campaign.

         

Terra Incognita

12:22 am on Oct 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I know this is an old topic and before posting I checked the old threads. It seems a lot of people had in 2002 problems with the control over their campaigns. I'm experiencing the following phenomenon.
Paused campaing continues to run and I get charged. A new campaing, active, doesn't show at all. Account is not slowed and no flagged keywords in any adgroup.
I e-mailed CService with a request for assistance in getting a refund, stop showing the paused one and starting to show the active one but now,24 hours later I don't think I'll get an answer. I changed multiple times the status of different campaigns hoping it will "unclog" the Google Pipe but got the middle finger shown to me instead (sarcasm).

1.Anybody found a trick about how to make this system do what it's supposed to and somehow go around this flaw.
2.Anybody having experience with getting credit from Google?

anallawalla

1:10 am on Oct 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



You need to phone Adwords support to resolve this. I have not experienced such a glitch myself.

Terra Incognita

4:12 am on Oct 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



All right. Where do I find a number? I checked everywhere.

anallawalla

11:04 pm on Oct 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



The number I can see in older threads is 866 2GOOGLE (866-246-6453).

Terra Incognita

12:29 am on Oct 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thank you anallawalla!
I tried it and it seems to be still a valid one but they don't work (or accept calls) over the weekend. I'll call again on monday.
Do you think it's smart having a separate account for cases like this one? I will be able to move an active but not appearing campaign to it and hopefully see my ads run. Some people do tricks like open two separate browser windows while being logged into the same account and then trick the system somehow. I wish I understood the logic behind it and how they achieve their results.

anallawalla

1:18 am on Oct 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Re a separate account, you need to check first with Google as they won't let you target the same domain from two accounts. We have two accounts for two domains partly because another company was acquired and the account came with them. Both appear on a combined monthly invoice and this had to be negotiated.

The phone number works on US weekdays, but in our case we have an account rep and I can punch in the extension numbers. I don't know what happens to someone without a rep, i.e. how long before you are sent to a support person.

Did you try making contact from within your account as a technical problem - as opposed to a CS or billing question?

Terra Incognita

3:02 am on Oct 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Yes. I e-mailed from within the account to the technical dept.(not billing) requesting assistance. Now 48 hours later still no response. That is why I'm posting here. Only their autoresponder acknowledged my message.
What you just said about Google not permitting two separate account targeting the same domain wasn't something I knew. I was just about to discover it painfully. Thanks for mentioning it. Meanwhile I've added more keywords and kw combinations. No change. Campaign is active but ads don't show. I feel like blacklisted without reason.
How long have you been doing this and on what scale?
BTW how long did it take you to become successful? I'm relatively new.

anallawalla

3:58 am on Oct 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



If one were allowed to open multiple accounts, then it is possible for many ads from the same company to dominate the first page, and this does happen where affiliates are allowed to advertise in competition with the vendor.

I've been doing it almost two years mainly for one client. The scale is big enough to get a Google rep. When I try a new PPCSE I throw between $25-$100 and test with my best 2-3 keywords to see the click behaviour.

I have learnt to take recommendations with caution because something that works in one niche might not in another.

AdWordsAdvisor

7:48 pm on Oct 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Terra Incognita, since the subject of AdWords support is such a big part of this thread, I thought I revive a post from the past that sheds some light on how to get quick and effective support.

Please see this thread, and in particular post # 3:

[webmasterworld.com...]

Anybody found a trick about how to make this system do what it's supposed to and somehow go around this flaw.

I'm not aware of any problems at work with the AdWords system - and if what you're describing were widespread, I'd have heard about it several times already this morning. This sounds like something unique to your account, and AdWords support will probably be able to get to the bottom of it quickly.

It is worth keeping in mind, though, that because of server delays - when one pauses or resumes something it may take a hour or more for that change to update through all the servers.

AWA

Terra Incognita

9:40 pm on Oct 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



AdWordsAdvisor,
Thank you for responding. I was just about to call a specialist when to my big suprise I got an e-mail from your team.
They were explaining that

1. My active campaign was not running because it was "flagged" pending editorial approval. Not that it wasn't waiting for it since thursday night,whole day on friday,saturday, sunday and monday noon.
2. The paused campaign they say had an AdGroup active and this was the reason it ran.

Naturally the following questions arise:

1. Why didn't they indicate somehow that there is nothing wrong with the active campaing and that it is pending upon approval and why did it take them so long? It makes me believe that if I hadn't pushed the issue it would still wait for that approval!

2. Is it logical to assume that the active status on an AdGroup overrides the paused status on the whole campaign?

3. Does that mean that in the future I should manually pause every AdGroup instead of pausing the whole campaign or even worse? Never to have active AdGroups under a paused campaing status. I mean what's the right way to do it? I don't think Googles rules describe anything like that.

AdWordsAdvisor

11:35 pm on Oct 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Why didn't they indicate somehow that there is nothing wrong with the active campaing and that it is pending upon approval and why did it take them so long? It makes me believe that if I hadn't pushed the issue it would still wait for that approval!

I'll pass your comment, and your frustration, along to the right people, Terra Incognita.

For a bit more info on the approval process, including the timing involved, please see this recent thread - msg. #8:
[webmasterworld.com...]

Is it logical to assume that the active status on an AdGroup overrides the paused status on the whole campaign?

No - if the campaign itself were paused, then an active Ad Groups within it would not continue to run. I can't being to offer an alternate opinion on this, though, as I have seen neither the account, nor the email.

This is a good opportunity to say that, if a response from AdWords support doesn't make sense, then please feel free to reply directly to that email and ask for another look and/or clarification.

As a related aside, the more clearly one is able to explain the situation (including details as to which campaigns, Ad Groups, etc. are involved) the more useful and accurate the answer is likely to be.

We receive a surprising number of emails which are variation on this theme: The body of the email is entirely blank, and the subject line says 'Can't see ad. Please fix'. And when we look at the account, there are 10 campaigns each with multiple Ad Groups, and hundreds of keywords. Hmmm. Where to start? ;)

AWA