For instance, my ad will show for "blue widgets" but not for "red widgets" even though both of those are listed as keywords for the ad. It's even more frustrating for me; because, many of ads were at the premium spot. Now they're gone.
I did talk w/ a Google rep, and she said they are aware of the problem. However, there is no estimated time when the glitch will be fixed. Thankfully, she said "all engineers" have pulled from their projects to fix the system.
The only way I've been able to get my ads to show is to remove my negative keywords. Usually, I wouldn't even consider this, but I am missing out on some very time sensitive traffic.
We've been trying to figure out how to get our ads back on line: [webmasterworld.com...] .
We'll go paste the negative words to another program and see if our ads won't go back on.
Have to wait until Google advises that the problem has been fixed before putting them back on.
You might also want to call and complain; because, I was told I would be compensated for my troubles. Not that I think they will be returning the thousands in lost revenue over the last two days.
I knew if I hung around WW long enough someone would solve the problem.
I'll now send another support ticket and mention WW.
My best performing exact match was having almost no impressions (and clicks) and I was about to get crazy...
This is an huge bug, Google and us loosing money...
Sorta ironic that my negative keywords are having such a negative impact on my Adwords campaign! ;)
Other than the incorrect e-mail that I received from support telling me it was a budget problem there has been no further communication from Google support.
A company is best judged on how they handle a crisis. The fact that they have decided not to advise their advertisers what is going on and the short term correction needed does not impress me at all. Even if it ended up costing them a little in terms of a credit to the affected clients it would be good long term PR.
To not tell us is wrong.
I don't know if this helped, but I emailed support with the exact keywords with which I was having problems.
seasalt
Still no word from Google support.
For the broad match words they are only showing occaisional matches.
For instance when I put in:
widget1 widget2 which is the broad match term it shows up. When I enter widget1 widget2 stores it comes up.
When I enter widget1 widget2 diving it doesn't show up where diving is not a negative word.
It doesn't seem to matter at this stage whether I leave the negative words in or not. It's almost like they have a list of acceptable extensions and a black list.
Still no word from support.
This is probably the first clear signal of non-ethical behavior by Google that I saw.
It seems that *some* ads with negative keywords are no longer showing for all the keywords associated with the ad.
I thought I was out of my head, glad someone can corroborate what I've been seeing here. Our impressions are down around -20%, and I'm just doing work-arounds until they fix it.
It's one thing for them to think "we'll let our customers know when the problem is resolved" however what about the thousands of clients who do not see the posts here and haven't gotten an answer to their support e-mails in 3 days.
Come on Google - we expect more from you than this. This is how Over would deal with it and you know what we all think of them.
I can only imagine the number of advertisers who are missing out on key impressions. Not to mention the thousands in lost revenue.
Btw, if anyone took my advice to remove their negative keywords beware that your CTR may plummit. I'm sure people are aware of this, but I hate to lead someone new to Adwords astray.
I think part of what muddied the waters this weekend is that we recently raised the clickthrough ratios that are needed to show ads. Your non-exact keyword variations need to maintain a higher CTR than before to achieve a strong relevance threshold. This article mentions more details about it:
[zdnet.com.com...]
It's possible that there's something else involved, but I do believe that the negative keywords issue was resolved on Friday. In general, there are many reasons why advertisers might not see their ads every time they search on a keyword. Google spreads the delivery of ads throughout the day to make sure advertisers do not accrue all of their clicks in the morning. When the number and cost of clicks meet an advertiser's daily budget, we cease to show the ad until the following day. Additionally often the number of ads appearing on pages in our ad network is limited. Therefore only the highest ranked Google AdWords ads will be shown on any given page. I'm hoping that those reasons plus the increase in clickthrough threshold explain anything after the 10th.
I'm happy to try to help debug if people think that there's something else going on, and I know that a couple AdWords people will check this thread too. Messages #8 and #9 help me think that this fix went out correctly, but Tropical Island--let me know if you still see any issues. I'm hoping that the situation is resolved, but let me know if it doesn't seem like it from your perspective.
Hope that helps,
GoogleGuy
Thanks for the explanation.
Here's our problem.
Our area has both a Spanish name and an English name both heavily used by all language tourists. The term is widget1 widget2 and the ad shows with both translations - no problem.
On the Spanish side the term widgetsp1 widgetsp2 has had a CTR in the last 7 days of 2.4%. When we type in widget1 widget2 scuba the ad appears.
On the English side the term has had a CTR of 3.3% in the last 7 days. When we type in widgeten1 widgeten2 scuba the ad does NOT appear.
This is a service we offer and if we have to set up a seperate search term for it then OK however how do I catch all the possible permutations of the broad match of our region. We offer many services that were being caught by the broad match and those we didn't want we used negative key words. The example above was not listed when I checked the search term tool as I assume many other terms are not.
This is NOT a budget issue. I recently doubled our budget and we have never come close to the old budget.
Broad match under the old system would mean that when someone typed in widgeten1 widgeten2 scuba our ad would come up. This was the whole purpose of braod match. Now other than physically checking each and every possible term (100's for each term) that some tourist might type in I have no way of knowing if my ad is appearing or not. That in my mind is a glitch.
The other major issue is that Support has still not answered my e-mails except for the 1st one on Thursday telling me it was a budget problem which is was NOT.
My information is same as GG has reported - that the negative keyword issue was resolved late on the 10th. I'll be paying close attention to this issue (and thread), and will certainly post with any addtional information that comes my way during the day.
I'm also compiling everyone's comments from this, and related threads, and will forward a summary to AdWords management and product teams - probably late Tuesday.
We have a single keyword we use in broad match. No negative keywords at all. Yet we're down to 10% of normal daily click-thros. Broad Match isn't working properly.
Neil
We are alone in most searches and at most 1 or 2 other ads in the balance. Posistion is not a factor in the ad NOT appearing for simple broad match extensions.
But now I did a test, about 8 different searches and I have found for example that searching for "key1 key2" do not show my ad, although that combination is specified to show, but is not appearing at all in any position. (before negative addition was at position 1.2 / 4.7%)
the bid is entered as
key1 key2
(broad match)
No budget issue for sure. No cache issue, no ip issue.
other equivalent combinations shows correctly.
Also it seems that for all combinations included exact matchs I have lowered (from position 2 to 3 usually) instantaneously (or a competitor did change the bid at the moment I entered negative keywords?)
Please get back to me asap and tell me if I can remove negative keywords again to restore full delivery, because in the meantime I am loosing money.
Adwords Ticket [#4303372] reply 1.
Fer
It seems that the negative keywords added reseted some stats and that may be the cause of position change, because I am seeing some keywords combinations returning to original position now, anyway that was not the issue, and I am not sure about it. Clarifying just to avoid panic...
Fer
AdWordsAdvisor, please give this issue maximum priority, this is no joke, I am loosing earnings to help you solve the bug, and you are probably loosing lots of money because of it.
Waiting 3 days to receive a support answer that may be generic, not accurate or another request is not what I was expecting...
Bug is currently active.
The simple broad match extension that I have illustrated in previous posts is still not appearing.
As ferfer suggests, we are working on this as a top priority, and I will certainly continue to post as I am updated.
Please know that your comments are being heard, taken seriously, and acted upon. I know it sounds corny - but seriously, thank you for both your comments and your patience.
Fer
Google negative bug update by Fer
Bug seems to be random today for the first time, Ads for keyword combinations that I were unable to see, now are showing sometimes (when showing I am at 1st position), refreshing the screen will bring my ad 1/3 of the times (not accurate)
However, the overview seems to be that things should be much less buggy within the next few hours.
