Does it really take them four hours to update links? This is ridiculous.
And it's not like I can pause my campaign until they get the link updated (to avoid losing more money), because that seems to take at least 30 minutes if not longer to go into effect.
Google will not let you know unless you call them - i believe it is 1-866-2google
I think Google is just extremely slow in getting updates validated, because don't they spot check every change before letting it go through the system?
This is really silly, it really looks bad for Google and Adwords when your changes take half a day to activate.
i found that its better to make any updates on tues or best on weds. people do tend to wrap up all their work before leaving for the weekend.
kz
I learned (the hard way) not to make any sudden movements on weekends and just wait til Monday ;)
kz
I somehow don't feel like the "customer."
Dustin,
I certainly agree with that sentiment.
The normal sequence of events is that an ad change will show fairly shortly afterward (10 minutes or less in my experience), but only on Google itself.
The ad/URL change, no matter how minor, must be reviewed by Google humans before it will appear on the Search or Content Networks again. There are virtually no human reviews on the weekend. For that matter, if you make a change on the weekend it will probably be Tuesday until a human gets to it.
Keep in mind, it's also possible that your ad was systematically flagged for review and won't show at all until reviewed by a human. Certain words/phrases (which could have been in your URL theoretically) automatically trigger a stoppage. Surprising words like "children" for instance recently knocked me off pending review. However it doesn't seem likely in this case since the ad eventually showed (unless someone is burning the midnight oil).
Also, as far as I know, the reviewers are all in Dublin, Ireland.
And remember, Google is doing you a favor by taking your money and agreeing to show your ad, so you should be more grateful that your ads ever show at all :)
patient2all
Is this normal? I changed the URL on one of my advertisements to link directly to the product. Four hours later, I'm still waiting on the change to show up on Google.
Just to be clear dustin999, could you tell me what you mean by 'show up on Google' in your question?
Do you mean that you are waiting:
* To see the change updated within your AdWords account, or
* for the revised ad to show on Google when you do a keyword search, or
* for the revised ad to show on partner sites?
Ordinarily, when you change your ad copy, including your URL, you'd see your a revised ad show up on Google somewhere in a range of between 5 minutes to 2 hours, or more - depending on volume of traffic, etc.
If it routinely takes much more that a couple of hours, then that would be unusual - and suggests there may be some other issue at work. So, an email to AdWords support may be in order if its frequently taking more than a few hours for your revised ads to show on Google.
Okay, so you're saying Google doesn't update adwords on the weekends? I wish they would make their policy clear..."
I think we may have a semantics problem here, dustin999. To clarify: when you work on your ads within your account, and save your work, your ads are then 'updated' 24 hours a day/7 days a week. This is an automated process. However, they are not 'reviewed' over the weekend, as this is done by live humans.
All campaigns and changes to campaigns are reviewed prior to running. I assume that fewer people work on weekends, therefore, updates would take longer.
This is not quite correct, kempozone. The changes must be reviewed and approved before running on partner sites - but they will ordinarily run on Google very quickly - as pointed out in patient2all's post just above.
Also, as far as I know, the reviewers are all in Dublin, Ireland.
This is actually not correct, patient2all. Ads are reviewed in many offices, around the globe. And although I am not aware of the actual numbers, I'd guess that a large majority are reviewed here in sunny California.
AWA
Have contacted support several times, but not even a peep back out of them.
Off to try again, but am rapidly losing interest!
The changes must be reviewed and approved before running on partner sites - but they will ordinarily run on Google very quickly.
Thank you for pointing that out. I've often wondered why changed or new campaigns didn't really kick in big time until Monday about noon (CST). Now I have my answer. Thank you very much for the information.
