a few days ago (actually on the 16th this month), I started an AdWords campaign (it is not my first) and my ads are not showing up.
I sit well under my apprx. 25 keywords for that campaign (it is for ringtones and similar).
The campaign is "active", the keywords look good under "traffic estimate" and I get an estimate from G for more than 5000 clicks a day.
First I was irritated and played around with target countries, languages, maximum budget, etc.
But still: I get NO impression.
I wrote a mail to G, but got NO feedback till today.
The account is new and the 2 campaigns were established on the 16th of November with around 30 keywords each... targetting Germany and US/UK...
Have ever had ZERO impressions of a high-rank keyword collection? Do I miss something here?
Totally puzzled,
P!
I don't know about other possible reasons.
this is getting ridiculous... maybe my budget of 150 USD per day is to low to take me serious?
There IS NO FEEDBACK from Google on that topic... Meanwhile I tripple-checked EVERYTHING...
I work with around 60 keywords, ALL normal, campaign active and ZERO impressions since the 16th.
If G is still reviewing the ads, the interface SUCKS and gives you no hint for that. I am really angry and think of shifting to Overture right away :-(
I mailed three times already, it must be possible to contact a paying customer within 1 week, if the customer has a problem, but it seems that G has a problem, not me...
G Inc. should check their customer service structure in Germany asap!
argl!
P!
Only thing else I can think of...
Check your junk mails to be sure that they haven't replied. Quite often the replies from Google are considered as spam and are directed to the junk mail folder by the anti spam software.
Excellent point, james_allot.
This seems like a good time to plagiarize myself, and re-post some info from a long-ago thread, on the subject of getting the best customer service from the AdWords Support folks.
So, here it is again, in a slightly edited form:
* If you are sending an email, please use the 'Contact Us' link, found on every page of your account. This will enable the customer service team to immediately find the account associated with your question.* However, if for some reason, you are unable to use the 'Contact Us' link, then please use only this email address: adwords-support@google.com
* If you're using the adwords-support@google.com email address, rather than the 'Contact Us' link, then please identify your account by Customer ID and/or email address. A surprisingly large number of emails come in each day with absolutely no way to identify the account associated with the question. As you might imagine, this makes a meaningful response much more difficult. And slower.
* Please note that using any other email address than the above will slow down your response.
* Please be aware that customer service folks are working Monday through Friday. So writing to support on Friday night means that your reply will be delayed until at least Monday.
* Also, be aware of peak periods and slack periods. Highest volume of email occurs on Monday. Volume is lower, and turnaround time is potentially quicker mid-week. So if your question is routine rather than urgent, please consider writing mid-week.
* We strive for a maximum turnaround time of 24 hours, for business days. Most often, it will be faster. During very high volume periods, yes, it can be slower. But believe me, we are all tasked with not letting that happen.
* Please ensure that our replies are not being filtered out by your email program as 'Spam'. I've talked with many advertisers who are upset at our lack of response, who then find that those responses have been sent, but filtered and sent to a 'junk mail' folder. (Related note: almost all email from AdWords will have the word 'AdWords' in the subject line.)
A few more general thoughts:
* Be as succinct and as specific as possible with your questions. In many ways it is best to ask a single question (or a very few) per email. Asking 5 or 8 questions in one email may slow your response down a bit.
* Provide whatever background information will be required to answer your questions fully and quickly. Please include pertinent dates, Campaign and Ad Group names, the keywords in question, and so forth. If we have to guess, it'll slow your response down, and make it less meaningful.
* If you get an reply that doesn't meet with your satisfaction, then please reply directly to that email. This will send it directly back to the person who answered it, who is already familiar with your account. This will prevent duplication of research. Be sure to explain what was missing from our original answer.
I hope this might help.
And to all of the above I should add the AdWords support will be on a limited basis tomorrow and Friday, due to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US.
And, BTW, I'll not be posting here on WebmasterWorld on Thursday and Friday, for the same reason. ;)
AWA
thanks for the re-posting... nevertheless I suspect that it is your customer service in Germany that is the bottleneck.
My userdata indicate me as german and I guess the stuff is directed there. Anyhow, I will try to get in touch with the US customer service if nothing happened until monday. Sticky me, if you want to help out here.
For the others: Thanks for the real hints, I checked AGAIN everything:
- creditcard is fine
- no google mail in spam folder, just the WELCOME mail in normal inbox
- every single keyword is GREEN/Active
- estimation is promising :-)
I still believe its a human problem in Germany... do they direct the customers to the next local employee in terms of controlling ads?
Thanks everybody, I will now bother support until they give in ;-)
P!
What seems to have helped was to re-save the keywords. Impressions and clicks had kicked in the next time that I looked.
Even if this method works, you must keep reporting these instances to Google. They need to be inundated with complaints from users and then perhaps they'll take these problems seriously and stop blaming apparent software problems on low budgets or low bids.
All sorts of strange things have started happening. A lot of people in forums that I participate in are giving a second look at the smaller PPCs.
The worst was the other day when I clicked my ad in the #2 spot and the #1 ad turns up! Who paid for that? I'm sure it was me. Probably charged me for the #1 bid for that matter. Now, I'm not in the habit of clicking my ads, so who knows how often this is happening in the "field".
I saw a never before used keyword go into "trial" after only 3 days and 4 impressions with no clicks. I mean, it was targeted, we need a little more of a chance than that to get out of the gate.
I'll copy and paste keywords and phrases that are getting impressions and clicks into the diagnostic tool and get back "No ad group using this term"!
This is terrible watching a system I had started to understand succumb to insanity in such a short period of time.
A sometime ghost :)
BUGS... yes, I have seen the same for my adwords with the "checking tool":
no ads for that keyword...
something is REALLY broken with their software :-/
Well, I guess I have to get back to more SEO for my target keywords...
P!
I just got an email back from the german account manager and she confirmed that the "experts" were reviewing the campaigns... right after the mail, the traffic kicked in and the overview displays that nicely!
P!
