You guessed it. It was a test by Google or they decided to just change it back to the old system after a few months.
Do I blame myself as they never announced this change? They hardly ever announce changes so this does not apply. Do I blame Google? They change so much all the time that maybe I just need to quit expanding or goofing with them.
I might be burning out as before all I saw was opportunity and now I just see the possibility of new pain and wasted time.
When they came out with that little icon that tells you if the ads are showing - that was the last straw.
Keywords that are 'active' and getting a few impressions have an icon message the says the CPC is below the min. What the f? If cpc is below min then why are they marked as active?
This has turned into absolutely the worst ad system ever... even worse than about.com's system when it existed. I can't imagine delivering such as piece of poo to my users, since I'm not a monopoly, i'd be fired on the spot.
Aaahhh, now I feel better.
ps.. and, 20% of the time the system crashes when saving data.
It is so slow that I get a cup of coffee between saves.
Half the features work half the time.
Forget about using the keyword tool and picking 20 keywords - you get knocked out and can't login for 10 minutes unless you kill all your cookies.
wow, these posts seem like they're from some universe completely opposite of mine... an anti-universe... maybe G has me on a special pipe to the good stuff... hehee.
...ps.. and, 20% of the time the system crashes when saving data.It is so slow that I get a cup of coffee between saves.
Half the features work half the time...
wow, these posts seem like they're from some universe completely opposite of mine...
An interesting observation. I think we may all 'suffer' from a very human tendency to think that if something is happening to us, it must be happening to everyone.
As an example, I've seen many an email in which an advertiser can't log in - and assumes it must be a system issue occuring in all accounts. Most often, though, this turns out not the case. Usually, such things turn out to be one-off issues associated with particular machines, older OS versions, outdated browser versions, changed security settings, cache/cookies, and etc.
AWA
<edit> fixed quote and typo </edit>
[edited by: AdWordsAdvisor at 6:46 pm (utc) on Oct. 24, 2006]
Can't support your rant, but I have to tell you that there ACTUALLY is some truth to this:
... 20% of the time the system crashes when saving data. and
It is so slow that I get a cup of coffee between saves.
- Not 20%, but more than it should be
- Slow, slow, slow ( not get a cup of coffe slow, but slow enough to make it difficult to manage more than one account )
20% of the time the system crashes when saving data
This is happening to me also. Although 20% is a bit overreacted I think. It happens sometimes in my case.
Forget about using the keyword tool and picking 20 keywords - you get knocked out and can't login for 10 minutes unless you kill all your cookies
Something like this also happens to me from time to time, I don't get kicked out but I'm getting some sort of search error. Sometimes i can pick as much keywords as I want, and sometimes it "can't find" anything for the most obvious common keywords. When I come back later it suddenly finds keywords for the exact same searches. Very odd.
[edited by: Roolio at 7:31 pm (utc) on Oct. 24, 2006]
Take note AWA - i'm not exagerating much.. been using your system since early days.
Today, for instance... i go in and modify a bunch of bids. Poke around here poke around there. Then I go to change the content bid setting on several ad groups as once... Bingo, I get the nasty crash message that says your engineers have been notified.
All my software is up to date. Software is my business so I know what I'm doin (somewhat).
Other time today I saved some changes with an ad group and was brought out to the top level campaing managment screen.
And don't tell me you can click a whole bunch of keywords in the keywords tool and not get knocked out when trying to save. I talked to support and they say to always copy and paste the selected keyword list before trying to save.
And don't get me started again on your stupid keyword diagnostic icon... Active keywords - ohhh sorry - they aren't REALLY active they just look like they're active.
Minimum bids are raised without further notice. Keywords get deactivated because you were bidding only 38 Cent and the minimum bid gets raised to $40 Cent. And you are loosing money because your ads don't show. Would it be so hard to write an email 48 hours in advance: "Your minimum bid will be raised, please adjust your bids if you don't want your keywords to be deactivated". But that would spoil the surprise - wouldn't it.
Or you receive an email that your ad that had been running for three years has been deactivated because the "description URL" does not match. And the list goes on and on.
I recently found some old posts on webmasterworld where people were complaining that Overture had raised the minimum bid to 10 Cent. Good old times, they'll never come back...
This happens a lot to me but is pretty benign. Just hit the back button and try again.
Anyone else notice that Google can search the entire web for qwerty in .02 seconds but can't search my adwords account in less then 30 seconds. It is a bit better now but for a while we told employees to keep lists of where stuff was as the search was almost useless.
If AWA does ever come back to this thread, he would do well to at least listen when more than one of us is saying:
... A good percentage of the time the system crashes when saving data. Actually it just responds with a message that the save did not process.AND
... It has been way too slow ever since the last Saturday maintenance. It is making it very difficult to manage more than one account.
I used the Adwords interface for 3 straight hours this morning and not one single hiccup occurred. (new adgroups moving keywords, copying adtext, bulk changes of CPC, etc)
And it wasn't too slow either.
AWA, thanks for fixing this so quickly! ;)
Don't give too many kudos to AWA just yet. I'm very happy it's all great for you, but it's still an issue over here.
An interesting observation. I think we may all 'suffer' from a very human tendency to think that if something is happening to us, it must be happening to everyone.
I can't agree with that. Sailor doesn't state he believes this is happening to everyone. To me it looks like he is just describing his situation.
I also believe that if the trouble doesn't happen to all of us, or even if the trouble happens to just a few of us, that doesn't prove that the system is OK and that the errors are just isolated incidents.
It is sunny day here in MD and that is all that matters to me.
I suspect it is raining somewhere though.
AWA, Please note the two problems that initiated this thread -- THEY ARE REAL
... A good percentage of the time the system crashes when saving data. Actually it just responds with a message that the save did not process.
AND
... It has been way too slow ever since the last Saturday maintenance (around Oct 21st). It is making it very difficult to manage more than one account.
I have personally reported this to my rep, but the engineers just keep asking me more and more and more and more questions.
They should be able to tell from this thread that I am not the only one with the issue, so they may be more willing to debug the problem without trying to debug my machine.
Also, AWA please look at [webmasterworld.com...]
How many PhDs does it take nowadays? Sheesh.
AWA, Please note the two problems that initiated this thread -- THEY ARE REAL...
So noted, and I have been exploring this as time allows.
They should be able to tell from this thread that I am not the only one with the issue...
Of the folks in this thread who are experiencing occasional-to-frequent 'crashes' and system slowness, may I ask that you either contact AdWords support with the particulars of your case, or that you reply here with an approximation of the number of Ad Groups and Keywords in the affected accounts?
Many thanks!
Also, AWA please look at [webmasterworld.com...]Yes, also looking into this.
AWA
