Google AdWords
I’ve recently noticed a frustrating AdWords trend.
It seems like every new ad I create takes longer and longer to actually begin running.
Depending on the client, and which AdWords GUI format they’re using, the new ads assume the label of ‘under review’ or ‘Active’, but in either case the ads exist in a state of limbo, unable to accrue impressions or clicks.
Now I understand that there are millions of new AdWords ads submitted everyday, and each one must be reviewed and approved before running, so I don’t expect immediate action. It used to be, however, that new ads would be up & running within a day or two max, after being initially submitted. Lately I’ve had ads that were still waiting to be reviewed a week after I first created and posted them.
I’ve called Google support several times about this issue and it might just be me, but with each new call the reps seem to be getting more and more aggravated about my bringing this issue to their attention.
The most recent Google support person I spoke with told me that it can take up to “48 business hours” for new ads to be reviewed and approved.
48 business hours? What does that mean? Is that six 8-hour business days? It wasn’t until after I got off the phone with the Google rep that I thought about precisely what she had said, so I’m left to wonder.
In any event, there is no doubt that I’ve seen a consistent trend recently of new ads requiring more and more time before they begin running.
My only guess is that with the recent layoffs at Google, numbering in either the hundreds or thousands depending on who you believe, there are fewer Googlers reviewing ads which has lead to the greatly increased approval times.
Regardless of the reason, it’s getting very frustrating.
Has anyone else experienced similar frustrations?
I have just started seeing this trend. I am relatively new to Adwords, but the first 30 campaigns I set up had almost no delay. All of a sudden ads that ran for a couple of days are “under review” or “pending review.” I’m glad you made your post, otherwise I would have thought it was yet another learning curve I had to climb.
Glad I found this. I was thinking I was being picked on. They made me pull all of my products off of Google Base because I had included used items on the same landing pages. At least I think that is why. Now they won’t even answer my emails regarding the matter.. I wonder if they even care how badly they can screw up someone’s business?
You’ve seen that long of a lag? Wow! That is surprising. Fortunately, I haven’t had this issue as my ads appear within minutes. The delay may be caused if you’re using trademark terms as those have to be reviewed. Either way, it’s a shame that there’s that long of a delay any way. Hope this gets sorted out sooner than later. Cheers.
I’ve been waiting for 3 working days to get my Ad reviewed. I am using the word “wine” which seems to be the trigger for a review. I have contacted support and was told that I am in the queue. Seems to be a hell of a queue.
THe problem is the COMPLETE LACK of information google provides. I created 4 ads for our photography business with identical copy – the only difference being the titles and of course the keywords. Two ads were approved within minutes whereas two are stuck in ‘review’ hell. child and baby photography are fine, yet newborn and maternity get pulled up? Why and why no information, if its a keyword then TELL US as it would be far easier to amend the ad and generate everyone some income…or should we all just switch to http://www.bing.com – is that what you want google? GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!
I started seeing this trend too beginning in late April / early May. I manage hundreds of accounts and create several new accounts a week. The new campaigns almost always went live within a day or two. Starting in late April, I saw review taking a week or so. Starting in May, I had an account take 23 days and I have one that is still under review on day 21 (support ticket opened).
Often, the ads and campaign will show has active / approved in the new interface, but it is still not active.
I found that when I contact adWords support, they tend to get the problem resolved in a few days, but I have been trying to give them a break and give them a couple of weeks before I contact them. The last response was they had to verify the billing information on the account.
I have never had an ad or campaign rejected, so it has been a little frustrating. This was one of the reasons I hated Overture / Yahoo was the review process until they updated their process to be more automated.
If this goes on much longer, you might consider selling you Google stock
Even though Google is King, the other guys are catching up with their ad interfaces.
This \"Under Review\" is really frustrating. Even though I have been waiting for 1 day only thus far, sometimes I need ads to run immediately for some short promotion – a day or two – the whole google adwords is pointless if you can\’t get things up and running within minutes, at least in the ecommerce industry! Moreover the whole \"trademark\" restrictions, is even more stupid – how are you suppose to advertise Dell Notebooks if you cannot put Dell in the title of the advert? I thought that the ads have to accurately represent what you are offering, which I desparately want them to do, by saying \"Dell Notebooks\" if I am selling Dell Notebooks, but you can\’t.
I am having the same problems. The past two new campaigns are still in pending review. One I created 3 days ago. IT used to take minutes.
Then I tried putting the ad groups of that new campaign into a campaign that is runnign and no luck. Still pending.
In one ad group, I have one ad approved, & the rest ‘Pending Review’.
How the hell are I supposed to find out which ad performs well when the others are lagging behind?! Talk about skewed metrics!
Mee Too…! This post and the comments are spot on. I started noticing it in the past few months, and I have had ads stuck in the review que for more than 7 days at a time.
I totally agree with Tony Frost: Much of my frustration stems from launching a new campaign with several ad groups and ad variations, hoping to do a market test, only to find that 1 or more of my ads take days to go live.
And it makes it even more un-nerving if you have a limited ad budget to spend, but need to kick up the daily spend just to get the ads momentum going. Not knowing when those ads are going to go live (within reason) and therefore when to pause them if you exceed your actual budget (v. the daily one you set higher in Adwords just to get some clicks coming in..) gets really stressful.
As others have expressed, I am glad I found this post, was feeling singled out. One note too: if you routinely spend a significant dollar amount with Adwords, you should be able to recruit the assistance of a good account rep at GGL, to help remove some of the restrictions. I have done this with at least one client’s account, and it has made a world of difference. We have virtually no wait time on new ads for that account.
Hi all, Got same problem, as with everyone else It was good to find more prople with same problem. Its been 7 days now and still under review…. only new to google and didn’t think it was going to be this hard, a bit stressful when ya just want the ads up for the traffic to flow.
thanks all and best of luck
In my case, my new ads assume the label “under review” in new interface GUI and the label “active” in old version (the some ads!). I try a lot of new ads and all of it have the some problems. I’m waiting for a week and the problem persists. Everithing else is correct and active but this ads have no clicks at all.
i am having same problem , past few days my campaign still under review , google gets sucks . they making billions $ every year . but sucks
The same delay problem here. It’s frustrating, though I have “only” waited for 3 days so far… Don’t they understand that it’s their own profit they are rejecting…
Get it together Google. You don’t own the world.
Bing is here. They want me to advertise. They will even run my ads the same day I list them.
What a concept.
Guess where I’m going. I’m saying CYA to the almighty Google. Maybe someday Google, you will learn that WE are the customers. You are supposed to cater to US, not the other way around. Get over yourselves. Your #1 position will not last forever. Oh what a happy day that will be.
Had a the same problem. When I first created my ads, they were approved in about 2 days. I modified the text, and now I’m stilll waiting; it’s been another 5 days and they still are “Pending Review”.
We noticed the phone wasn’t ringing and then figured out that 2 out of 3 campaigns were “”"under review”"” And the bastards don’t even tell ya it’s under review.. This could hurt google. All it takes is something better to come out.. (bing) Good luck with your reviews everybody! For now we are sweating it out and praying our ads will miraculously come back online. Bing looks better and better every time I try it. Wish it didn’t have any ties to MS.
Days!? I’m an old adwords hand but had not used the system recently. I just put in a few ads, expecting them to be available “immediately” (like they were last time I used the system) so I could split-test a couple of concepts.
If the new trend is for ads to take days to be approved, Adwords has lost a lot of it’s appeal: the ability to test and split test instantly is what I’m looking for. Guess it’s time to look for a new strategy.
Ok, my problem seems to be a confusion with the new UI. “Pending Review” means the ads ARE running, just not yet on the content network. Approved came up about 30 minutes after my last edit, but ads were still on the search network (the one I care about) pretty instant.
Hitting certain words int he add (“click”, trademarked names, etc.) can trigger “Under Review”, in which case the ads ARE NOT running. That’s what seems to be taking so long.
I think Google needs to change the name of “Pending Review” to something that more accurately reflects that the ads ARE running, just not on the content network.
For “Under Review” ads, I made copies of the ads and tweaked until they were accepted immediately, then if/when the “Under Review” ads are approved, I’ll pause the other versions. I realize that this may not work for everyone, but an idea to try if (like me) your tired of waiting.
I am happy to have found this.. I had an Adword campaign running for two weeks through a PPC management service. For no reason the ad stopped running.. I contacted the service and they contacted google. Apparently the ad is now under review.
What is a real concern is the total lack of communication. This seems to be a trend with everyone. Perhaps google is just too busy to even respond to paying customers. It’s amazing to think that they are simply too busy review our ad and take our money.
This is all so true…why can’t Google be bothered to support AdWords users??? I was so excited at first and now I’m grrrrr
:(:(:(:( not happy G
The criteria for under review seem vague, arbitrary and misleading. Google does not notify advertisers what is going on either thus wasting their time further.
Further, I do not believe anyone is actually reviewing anything, some idiot has likely put a wrong setting in the software which is pulling up too many key words in ads and Google is losing millions in revenue as a result.
Same problem here I can’t understand why they do that they must be loosing so much money before I used to experiment some stuff and lose money or gain by learning now guess what I CAN’T it’s under review!! And my ass they are reviewing millions and trillions of users billions of ads.. their automated system just got them to lose billions.
Thanks for the posting. I have been waiting 24hrs so far and all I got in responce to submitting a suport ticket was an automated responce which did not even address the problem.
I have since replied and received a reply which states the following.
“Thank you for your email. We understand that you’re concerned about your ad’s approval and the visibility of your ads. It appears that your account is under review, which may be the reason. We periodically review accounts for security purposes and to verify billing information. We’ll consult a specialist team regarding the status of the review and will provide you with an update shortly. We sincerely appreciate your patience”.
“We review ads based on the order of submission. Please be assured that your ads will be reviewed shortly”.
No idea how long this going to sort out but hopfully not long.
I think the main concern for everyone is the lack of information provided, all it would take is an automated email or popup stating the account status, reason for delay and approximate time to solve.
This way we would not waste hrs logging in and out of the account to check the status when we could be earning money.
If Bing and Yahoo get there act together they could finaly begin to make a dent in Googles monopoly.
I’m pleased, yet dissapointed to have found this thread. Pleased in that I see I’m not alone in this google mess. Dissapointed in that my faith in the almighty google has been shaken.
I too suffer from the now infamous “under review” plague. I’ve currently been waiting, get this folks, almost 2 weeks for an ad to go live. I’ll admit tha i’m fairly new to google adwords but this is terrible and i do stress terrible service.
To add insult to injury, I felt a little high on myself when i realized that if I called google support the ads would then be approved within an hour. That lasted 1 call. I called yesterday and after entering my customer ID into their automated POS system, I was informed “We’re sorry, we can only offer phone support to some of our customers”. In other words, I don’t spend enough money so I sit in the mess and wait.
I am beyond baffled that Google believes they can maintain their reign on top when they so blatantly ignore their paying customers.
Now on day 4 of ‘Under Review’ for us
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN EDITED. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM SWEARING – no matter how frustrated you might be!
I’m Sorry But this is Bullshit,
I hear you all, and when this happened to me. I decided to google this problem. I couldn’t believe how long people had to wait, we are talking weeks here and more.
The google support page comments had complaints and google responded along the lines of please contact us through email we can possibly speedy up the process. So I figured I would email them, after navigating links and links, I got to there email form.
I got a reply the next morning stating that its in a queue and they can’t do it manually but would have to wait. Funny considering the google employee left comments stating that if we do email them they can take control and hurry up the process.
It is also funny how I got a response to my email in 1 day but my F****** AD’S ARE STILL UNDER F****** REVIEW.
I’m sorry but this is Bullshit. When you are running a business and you want to compete with competitors in a play by play tactic move and google blocks you like that. Totally f***s up the motion of the direction you were going for.
Funny how google can run a business, but doesn’t know how a business works……
FIX YOUR F****** PROBLEM GOOGLE!!!!
I will not be paying for adwords again, too much free SE traffic out there. They were quick to take my money but slow for me to ejoy what I paid for.
Same problem. I made my ad on September 13th and am still waiting for it to be ‘approved’.
It is somewhat frustrating, but what can we do but stay positive.
Hopefully http://www.bing.com will be better.
I just had to wait for hours escaping from ‘under review’ status. Try some combinations of your ads/words, and your landing page. IMO, the system has caused this matter due to some stop words or poor landing page quality, so it is asking for a manual review. Keep trying-trying-and trying, and stop crying
Google is evil. I can’t wait until their monopoly gets broken up or competition deals them a healthy blow.
Having the same problem. This is incredibly frustrating & I will be taking at least part of my budget away from Google and giving it to Bing & Yahoo.
Go to yahoo they give you an account manager if you spend more than 5k a month and unlike Google if you do something they dont like, they tell you. Also if there an opportunity to spend more, they will show you how. Its not a complicated concept, advertisers should be treated like people like they are getting a favor.
For that reason here are my Top Reasons Why Google Adwords is the Worst Ever.
Never give you answer you are a paying customer.
Never give you an account manager.
Allow people to double serve.
Have employees that take compensation to get accounts banned.
Treat you like you are a little kid and you did something wrong.
Review and shut down accounts for no reason.
Understaffed ( who fires people from the department that makes the most money?)
Poorly trained, every request you make their answer is to look at the anwser center.
Do not allow you to follow up with that person and will not even tell you their last name.
I am frustrated as everybody here.. Google is another Microsoft, do no evil my a**.
my ad is under review for 10 days now…
Has anyone who was under review got the adds accepted yet??- If so how long did it tke? – I myself have been waiting 4 days . . i got annoyed so am now using yahoo and just about to take a look at bing as im hearing good things from them.
Also does anyone have a link to their contact page (email address) as i have been looking for nearly 2 hours. Its soooo hard to cntact them!!
I too have ads in review. as a result, i spend all my money at G’s competitors whilst using their free analytics tools to see how their rivals ads are doing for me.
Google are truly clueless
maybe the worst monopoly we have seen since the turn of the 20th century. Google is EVIL!
It was bound to happen. Google has too much information. It is simply un-ethical. They can get away with anything at the moment.
Google is basically a technology company at heart. They may have employed great business minds at Top Level of management to make money, but they do not know the ABC of Customer Service. How hard it is to staff your money making machine and ensure that all “Under Review” ads are dealt with within 24 hours. Also, ensure response is clear from a human telling what is wrong and what is needed to fix.
Nature has a way of balancing things. Sooner or later, if they keep treating paying customers with disdain, competition will benefit. More and more people will move to Yahoo and Bing and break their monopoly.
Till then, I am afraid Google is on its way to become the new Microsoft.
This is hugely irritating and has already led to me deleting my account and setting up a new one in the vein hope of making the ads work – no joy.
The (under review) message in my account sucks.
Off to Yahoo now.
Well this is just wonderful. I found this thread because I submitted my very first ad yesterday and just now figured out why it isn’t running yet. It’s “under review”.
I set it up to run for 10 days starting yesterday as a test. From what I’m reading here, the end date might pass before they even get around to approving it.
And my previous post is marked “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” I guess it will be a few weeks before even my griping becomes public.
No – we’re quicker than Google!
Its amazing that google continues to do business in this matter. Ive always respected their work and all the great things they have done over the years. But man, this? This is ridicules!
I have been waiting for 4 days now and im still under review….
This is my first and most likely my last adwords campaign. Im new to this and I do not like it already.
Google FIX IT! and if you cant, give us reasons, if yahoo can do it why cant you?
We might just have to put Google its self \"UNDER REVIEW\"
This is very disappointing. I’ve been waiting ten days with my first ad under review. Now I read it might take months and the be rejected anyway!
I once supported Google, but I’ve had it with them. Time to dump Google in favor of Yahoo, Bing, and buying links.
Same problem. You’d think Google would be on top of this.
I believe Google is doing this to get rid of many advertisers. Google makes more than enough money to pay the employees thats for sure. Well we can look at this in a good way since all these thousands of people being turned off by google adwords are quitting the adwords approach and going with other PPC methods. This is good because less competition for those who play by the rules and have patience with the almighty google. lol
and BTW I recently created another adwords account. My ads too are in fact still in ‘pending review’ status. Its been 3-4 days so far.
In my occupation as a web developer I use Google Adwords on a daily basis for 5 or 6 medium-sized sites. On our primary site we spend £1700-£2000 a day on PPC Ads and I never have to wait more than a few minutes for any new campaigns to get up and running. Funny that when I sign up for a personal account with a much lower budget ive been waiting 3 days and my first campaign is still “under review” – and by the sounds of it, this is nothing! It wouldn’t be hard for Google to provide an estimated waiting time for people, in fact its the least they could do considering we’re paying for a service which could potentially make or break our business. I feel sorry for those people who are relying on this as their only source of income and the only advice I can offer is to do what im about to: give Bing a try.
Good luck all. I had changed my ad and it went immediately into “under review” for well over a month and I also decided to close my account and open a new one with no luck, two weeks later on my new account and still “under review”. They dont answer email and their online support is useless. I too have switched to Yahoo and Bing and my ad’s there were running almost instantly.
I’m glad I found this thread! I’ve been waiting for over a month, but I actually signed up with Yahoo at the same time I signed up with Google, and Yahoo was activated in 1 day, and has been directing traffic successfully. Since I am now coming up on the timeframe that I wanted my campaign to end, I won’t worry about whether they approve it or not, will stick with Yahoo.