Constant "technical difficulties." in my campaigns

Question about why adwords are experiencing tech difficulties

[Dangerous Daren]

Greetings all,
I wonder if anyone could shed light on the
"Our system is experiencing technical difficulties."
Message returned from Adwords Ad Diagnostic Tool.
Several if not all of my campaigns have this message for at least 1 keyword or phrase, and some of my campaigns have this for the whole keyword set, and have been for several days , or weeks.

Moreover while these keywords are experiencing tech difficulties, thier status is changing day by day to On Trial , then On Hold as the system reports no searches done on these terms. I know searches are being carried out on these as they are popular search terms. ISnt this a bug in googles Adwords , surely an ad / keyword set that is experiencing tech difficulties should not be scored against any searches, and not be punnished that they go on hold?

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Moreover while these keywords are experiencing tech difficulties, thier status is changing day by day to On Trial , then On Hold as the system reports no searches done on these terms...

...surely an ad / keyword set that is experiencing tech difficulties should not be scored against any searches, and not be punnished that they go on hold?

Dangerous Daren, let me clarify the 'tech difficulties' message a bit:

First, and most important, the message does not refer to technical difficulties with the keyword you are checking on. Rather, it refers to difficulties with diagnosing why the ad is not showing.

So, there is no connection between the message and the fact that the keywords have moved to 'on hold' and/or 'in trial' status.

If you are continually getting that message for particular keywords, you may wish to contact AdWords support, as they'll be able to make a diagnosis.

As a related aside, the Ad Diagnostic Tool is doing a very complex job, and you will see it improve in its abilities and accuracy over time. Also, as I mentioned in another thread, it will soon be updated to include 'not shown' reasons related to the new Affiliate Policy, but this has not yet occurred.

Hope that clears things up.

AWA

[PeteM]

In my experience this message means that your ad has not yet been approved.

This is a reply from Suzanne at Google.....

<paraphrased>Some keywords in your account were flagged by Google as they require review and approval before they will show. Your ads were recently reviewed and were approved. You should now see your ads running on the expected keywords,</paraphrase>

As AWA says a quick note to adwords support usually does the trick

[edited by: eWhisper at 2:16 pm (utc) on Jan. 25, 2005]
[edit reason] No email excerpts, please see TOS #9 [/edit]

[Dangerous Daren]

Many thanks AWA & Pete

I have been in contact with support @ AdWords and my problems have now been swiftly resolved.

[PeteM]

Was I right, did they require approval?

[Dangerous Daren]

Yes some of the keywords were flagged and required approval.

I understand that the Diagnostic tool is very complex, and cannot wait for it to be enhanced to deliver better reporting on Adwords.

[patient2all]

I also wrote support about strange things happening with the Ads Diagnostic Tool where it was just plain wrong. In addition to all the usual madness, it was picking adgroups that had no mention of the keyword in the query to be shown.

I gave a lot of detail and they sent me back a tip -- They said to try clearing my cache files and using the Ads Diagnostic Tool to determine why my ads aren't showing when they clearly should be.

patient2all

[Dangerous Daren]

Yet again my major campaign "has technical dificulties"
Ads not showing , and opening the door to competitors to steal my CTR.

I Wish the Diagnostics tool would give some sensible feedback.