Paused campaign won't stop!

[Fryman]

I have a campaign that is getting loads of clicks. After checking most of them are junk that is not converting, so I decided to pause the campaign.

However, I am sill getting hundreds of clicks. It is like hell, there is no way to make this thing stop! It has been at least 3 hours since I paused it and clicks are still flowing in

Anyone else suffered something like this before?

[poster_boy]

I have the same issue. It's currently being investigated.

I would have to assume that a refund is in order...

[Pengi]

Try reducing your bids down as low as possible
a) may work quicker than the pause as making keywords inacive
b) should reduce your expenditure until th epause kicks in.

[mike_ppc]

3 hours are "normal". Stats in your interface are approximately 3 hours delayed (it is written at the bottom of the interface). Add approx. an hour until your pause request reaches every G server. So if you receive other clicks in 1 hour, you should really worry. But not yet!

[poster_boy]

I received clicks to numerous campaigns that were uploaded five days earlier - and had never been activated.

There is a clear problem.

[Fryman]

"3 hours are "normal". Stats in your interface are approximately 3 hours delayed"

This has nothing to do with reports being delayed, I pause a campaign and still get hundreds of visitors. So now I am supposed to pause a campaign and expect visitors and clicks to continue for several hours after?

[Green_Grass]

"expect visitors and clicks to continue for several hours after?"

Yes. If it is a 'big' campaign being displayed on content side also, it may take upto a few hours for it to completely stop. This is also my experience. By 'big' , I mean big budget.

[aeiouy]

Yeah campaigns don't get shut off instantly. They have to propogate through the system and it can take several hours to stop.

[Fryman]

Wow, that sucks. Yes, it was a big budget campaign.

I don't recall seeing anything about this in the TOS. Heck, I am a Qualified Individual and don't remember ever seeing anything about campaigns taking hours to stop. The whole theory seems absurd since I have started campaigns and after a few seconds I start getting clicks, no need to "propagate" at all.

So a campaign takes a few seconds to go live, and then several hours to stop? I don't think so.

[poster_boy]

So a campaign takes a few seconds to go live, and then several hours to stop? I don't think so.

Fryman, I'm with you.

While the majority here seem to think this is normal behavior, in my experience, it's most definately not. Historically, once paused - my campaigns have always gone offline within minutes.

(Search only, I cannot speak to how Content Match reacts.)

This is simply a bug. And, I hope it's fixed soon.

[DamonHD]

Hi,

I don't believe it is a bug.

While stats and changes *can* propagate quickly, it is reasonable that some changes will take a long time to get into all the nooks and crannies, especially when the servers are busy.

I always assume that although some servers may respond within seconds to my AW changes that others will take hours.

There are no sharp deadlines in huge distributed systems, unless, for example, you wish to argue against general relativity (A Einstein) and Byzantine Generals (Leslie Lamport)!

Rgds

Damon

[poster_boy]

While I seem to have had a different experience with "pause" status than others here... my specific situation this time around is pretty clear. Every paused group in a newly submitted campaign (that had never, ever been activated) ran for nearly a week. Not a keyword here or there - all of them. That's a bug.

The good news is - the problem seems to have been resolved yesterday. But, there are still click charges over the week to deal with...

[DamonHD]

Hi poster_boy,

Yes, your "feature" does definitely sound like a bug. Hope it gets properly sorted...

Rgds

Damon

[SimonHarrison]

I made a post about this, it contained a full transcript from a google representative claiming that they can charge you for up to 24 hours after you cancel the campaign, irrlevant of how much this may cost you. In addition a clause was shown to me that essentially stated that Google are not responsible for the over charge as they are not in control of their system.

It made for very interesting reading, however my post seems to have dissapeared.

[edited by: SimonHarrison at 10:03 pm (utc) on Oct. 26, 2006]

[exmoorbeast]

Oh dear, I just lost 3000 usd in 3 hours on a seasonal kw! Yeah a pause doesnt mean a pause....they should make that clear, it's more like a gradual pause right! it's like a really old steam train slowing down!

edit spelling..hopefully not my loss....you know how long Adwords can take sometimes to update figures, i await with baited breath!

[SimonHarrison]

Make it clear?

I think they should mention it anywhere... at all.

I'm not strictly sure it can be legal to charge somebodies credit card against their will for a cancelled service.

Actually I'm more intrigued as to where my post went with the full transcript from my conversation with Google. It's been completely removed seemingly.

[edited by: SimonHarrison at 10:29 pm (utc) on Oct. 26, 2006]

[exmoorbeast]

yeah...its like a telecoms company charging you after you stop making a call. Completely ridiculous, but you guessed it, they will get away with it. They must get away with so much of that type of thing.

[Green_Grass]

"my post went with the full transcript from my conversation with Google"

You cannot post full transcripts or vebatim emails on WW. This is against the TOS here. You may however, change the words around and let us have the gist ...

[SimonHarrison]

I didn't think it was right to edit it, infact I specifically felt it was only fair to Google to include it in it's entirity, not a version that only took my own points into account.

It was the transcript send to me directly from Google after a support call.

Nothing I could have said could have equalled google's own representatives comments.

It was truly outstanding.

I have to say on most forums if a modertor removes a post they will at least notify you of the reason. I hope sponsorship was not an issue.

[edited by: SimonHarrison at 7:50 am (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]