A quick one: Ran into this recently on a client’s AdWords campaign. At first, it really confused me. The ads weren’t showing? Why not?! Because they aren’t allowed? Why not? On the “details and recommendations” page, Google provided a link to explain why not…
I clicked on the link and discovered it was just their terms of service. Huh? I re-reviewed the terms of service for the zillionth time and… there’s nothing wrong with the campaign, and there’s nothing wrong with the keywords, and there’s nothing wrong with the ads. And it wasn’t even a human being who “disallowed” these ads, because I had just then added them.
I was just about to dig out the contact info for Google AdWords support, when I discovered that the ads were in fact running. But the UI still said they were disallowed. Maybe, I thought, it’s because I just now added this ad group, and it’s going to take a little while for the correct information to percolate through Google’s system.
Well, here’s a screenshot from a little while later, after all the latest status has clearly bubbled to the UI.
Ha! What a riot!
It says, “Ad showing? No.” It says the keyword is “not permitted” to show my ads. But look over to the right where there are 4 ad impressions and 1 click-through for that keyword. I wish Google would get its story straight!
-TimK