Hi All,
I've just been to check my ads on AOL USA, and there's something seriously wrong with them.
My ads are showing without a link! Ie the text is there, but it's not clickable.
(The ads have been showing fine for about a year).
When I retried I found that sometimes an ad shows without the title - there's just a dash and then the description and the URL are shown (and the ad isn't clickable - there's no link).
My competitors' ads look fine. (!)
If I switch off Norton Internet Security's ad blocking then I can't recreate the error, so I think maybe that's related.
I'm on the phone to Google right now but I've been waiting about 40 minutes so far - I've been right through what sounded like the William Tell Overture and a selection of ragtime hits.
Does anyone know what's going on?
All the best,
Andy.
PS They're on to Gershwin now - sounds like An American in Paris to me. No, I think it's Rhapsody in Blue.
[webmasterworld.com...]
The URLs with conversion tracking do not seem to be blocked. And the ads that are blocked do count towards impressions, even though users cannot click on them if they want to.
I have conversion tracking switched on.
Re impressions being counted - yes, I assumed they were, and this is why I have a problem with it! My CTR must be depressed (compared to my competitors), therefore presumably I'm getting a worse deal on $/position than them.
All the best,
Andy.
Update:
I think I see the problem.
For ads shown on Google itself: the link from the ad is to google.co.uk (or presumably google.com as applicable).
Whereas for ads shown on AOL: the link is to googleadservices.com, via search.aol.com. I guess this link is being blocked.
So - I've paused conversion tracking, to see if that solves it.
Andy.
Update 2 - I finally got through on the phone - turns out that the reason I couldn't get hold of anyone is that the whole UK team is at a certain conference. :) They're looking into it for me.
