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A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

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11–20 of 52 posts

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#11

Google should really refund the money to you for that - they must be in breach of a terms of service?

I need to second this, you've done a great job of keeping a level head and focussing on getting the issue sorted. Now it is sorted and they've admitted fault it's time to follow up and ask for your money back.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#12

Google should really refund the money to you for that - they must be in breach of a terms of service?

Just a guess, I'm betting their terms of service are written so it's almost impossible for them to be in breach of them.

Not to say they won't give a refund, but I'm guessing their lawyers have things setup so they aren't obligated to.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#14

It really bothers me, how bad the Google's support is, especially for the products that make them money. It's common knowledge that they can close your advertiser's profile, lock the money and you won't be able to reach them about it. But at the same time, nobody is making a lot of noise about it, although it is a multi-billion dollar company and it is the product that they make most of their money from. Most of B2B…

I guess they don't want to open the floodgates to all the support queries they would get. But it is most frustrating as if one is dealing with the "computer says no" travel agent from Little Britain.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#15
post #2

Well this is unfortunate. I would have expected Google to credit your account accordingly, though. A couple of years ago, we noticed massive automated click fraud that Google's fraud detection algorithms didn't seem to catch (which was kind of strange since all the clicks came from the same IP). However, after sending over some HTTP logs to Google, they removed all the invalid clicks from our account within a day or…

This was added at the end of the post:

> Edit: Since people keep asking, no my account wasn’t credited.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#17

It really bothers me, how bad the Google's support is, especially for the products that make them money. It's common knowledge that they can close your advertiser's profile, lock the money and you won't be able to reach them about it. But at the same time, nobody is making a lot of noise about it, although it is a multi-billion dollar company and it is the product that they make most of their money from. Most of B2B…

Google adwords is not for small advertisers. Period. It may work fine if you spend millions of dollars or if you have so much time and experience in your hands that losing money is not a problem, but it doesn't work for the general population.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#18
post #15
post #2

Well this is unfortunate. I would have expected Google to credit your account accordingly, though. A couple of years ago, we noticed massive automated click fraud that Google's fraud detection algorithms didn't seem to catch (which was kind of strange since all the clicks came from the same IP). However, after sending over some HTTP logs to Google, they removed all the invalid clicks from our account within a day or…

This was added at the end of the post: > Edit: Since people keep asking, no my account wasn’t credited.

It's not clear whether he asked or not.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#20
I run an agency that spent over $5 million on AdWords last year; however, a month ago due to a new policy interpretation where now one isn't allowed to have prominent, clear call to action buttons in image ads, their systems retroactively disapproved all of my ads that were running for over a year, and then suspended all of my client accounts. And they won't jump on a call and offer a clear explanation or assistance in correcting the issue. And this is for someone who's Google AdWords Certified, a Google Partner, and (formerly) an AdWords fanboy. The support has gotten significantly better in recent years, but they routinely destroy the "little agencies" who build their entire business trusting AdWords as a long-term partner and won't hop on a call to help correct issues. Really sad, but I guess when you're making $70+ billion/year, losing a $5 million/year agency isn't a big deal or worth a phone call.
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