on April 5thThe tenthGoogle Ads coordinator Jenny Marvin confirmed that Google Ads reports having an issue with response time.
This issue was originally reported on April 1streetresulting in a large subset of users receiving error messages, high latency, and other unexpected platform behavior.
As of April 7thThe tenthThe issue appears to have been resolved for the majority of users but it is still listed as an ongoing disturbance.
Who is affected?
A large number of users who rely on the Google Ads platform have been affected by this issue.
Specifically noted in Google’s status dashboard, responsive search ads (RSAs) have been going through a longer-than-average approval process for new or updated ads.
It has been reported that some RSAs take more than 48 hours to be approved.
How often does that happen?
When reviewing the Google Ads Status dashboard, it appears that issues with Google Ad Manager and Google Ads happen at a relative rate.
For Google Ads Manager, there are usually 1 or 2 problems per month. In March there were four cases registered. The longest outage for a Google Ad Manager was 11 days and nine hours.
In Google Ads, there are usually one or two problems per month. The last major disturbance was on December 16, 2021 and lasted for 14 days and 19 hours.
Why do we care
While you can still access the online Google Ads interface, it is possible that your account is experiencing response time issues.
This can be extremely frustrating for any marketer; Especially those with deadlines or a long to-do list in front of them.
Unpredictable behavior from the platform you spend hours on every day can disrupt your work schedule, deliveries to your customers, and more.
For example, if your customer expects to show new ads during a disruption, you won’t be able to meet that deadline. You not only have to deal with the shortcomings of the work, but also with dissatisfied customers.
Response time can also cause reporting delays and inconsistencies between clicks and sessions in Google Analytics. This is another frustration that marketers must deal with and educate their customers.
What can you do?
Fortunately, most response time or bug issues with Google Ads are fixed in a timely manner. In the meantime, you can arm yourself with the right tools if you run into these issues in the future.
this is Quick article Defines conversion delay reports and campaign types available for this type of report.
Google has it too Useful resource To explain how response time can affect Google Ads clicks and Analytics sessions. Provides reasons why your data may not match from one platform to another.
Use this guide to help educate yourself and be confident when talking to your clients about these issues.
Google can be technical in its terminology, so make sure you frame it in a way that you and your customers will understand. Even if there is nothing you can do about the problem, it shows that you are actively investigating and taking a proactive approach.
Finally, bookmark your Google Ads status dashboard to track any future incident and get real-time updates from the same source. You can find it on the dashboard here.
Featured image: lithian/Shutterstock
