Why are AdWords campaigns taking so long to go live?

[bakedjake]

I'm hearing rumors of 36+ hours, and it's been about 16 for mine, now.

Jeez... So much for "Start gaining new customers in less than 15 minutes."

Any relief in sight?

[Seattle_SEM]

Because AdWords is currently broken, and always buggy,

[skibum]

Have been experiencing more like 5 minutes from post to live, especially in the evenings recently.

[bakedjake]

skibum - for new accounts?

[TrumanTiger]

With new accounts, I'm also experiencing longer-than-usual delays. So here's what I did: a week ago, I set up a shell of a campaign (a few ad groups with an ad or 2 and a few keywords each) then paused it. I then populated the campaign over the week, resumed the campaign last night, and was live in 5 minutes. May not always be practical, but it did work in this instance.

[skibum]

New ad groups, new keyowrds, existing aco#*$!s, haven't been paying to much attention to how fast new accounts are going live but haven't noticed any major delays.

[TheGuyAboveYou]

If you spend enough money you can get an account rep and get your ads verified in a few hours :).

[dvduval]

Yep, it's been 24 hours for me too. I think Google is trying to roll out too many products without keeping up with their exiting products (ex. the monthly update).

[bakedjake]

24 hours now. Very annoyed.

[rbarker]

AWA mentioned recently Wednesday mornings tend to be slow periods for Adwords editors if that helps. He/she also mentioned the 15 minute claim relates to Google only, not partner sites. Maybe that's causing the delay. For me personally, I've seen ads show on G in less than 15 minutes and also take a few days to arrive.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

I'm hearing rumors of 36+ hours, and it's been about 16 for mine, now.

Yep, it's been 24 hours for me too. I think Google is trying to roll out too many products without keeping up with their exiting products (ex. the monthly update).

There are a bunch of recent threads that cover this topic in more detail - but here are a few headlines:

* In most cases, new or edited ads will appear on Google rather quickly, without being reviewed first. The exact time will vary with the amount of activity on the AdWords site as a whole - as there are thousands of servers updating millions of changes.

* There are exceptions to the above 'rule', however. Usually, these exceptions revolve around ads and/or keywords of a 'sensitive' nature - that must be reviewed before showing on Google. This process can easily take 16 or 24 or 36 hours - or more - especially if the ads have been submitted over the weekend.

* For example, an ad submitted on Friday evening will be reviewed on Monday morning at the absolute earliest - which is something like 60 hours, minimum.

In any case, when ads don't appear right away it is almost invariably something within the particular account that needs to be addressed, not that the AdWords system is no longer working. For this reason, it is always wise to contact AdWords support directly, and ask them to evaluate the account and ads in question.

AWA

[bakedjake]

* There are exceptions to the above 'rule', however. Usually, these exceptions revolve around ads and/or keywords of a 'sensitive' nature - that must be reviewed before showing on Google. This process can easily take 16 or 24 or 36 hours - or more - especially if the ads have been submitted over the weekend.

I know, AWA, and I'm sorry to complain.

invariably something within the particular account that needs to be addressed

I understand that. But the system used to pop things instantaneously.

And when you change something like this, it may be a good idea to notify customers - "Dear customer, there was something in your account we'll have to review further, we project your ads will go live xx/xx/xx", etc. It's just very frustrating to wait, especially when you're used to not waiting.

My high school algebra teacher had a saying - "Consistency thou art a jewel."

FWIW, still not up. I was hoping to not have to pick up the phone, but I guess I'll have to. :-(