Hi all,

I wanted to mention a short period of system maintanence, and thought I'd start an 'AWR's Alerts Thread,' that I could also bring to the top of the page in the future, on similar occasions. In the past, I've just piggy-backed on other threads, but I think this is a much better idea.

Anyway, I wanted to mention that, today, for a period of three hours or so (most likely between 2:00pm and 5:00pm Pacific Time) you may notice that your stats are not updating. The timing mentioned here is approximate, BTW - and actual timing may vary. ;)

Stats will be collected as normal during this time, and will then be updated later in the day.

Bottom line, no stats will be lost - they'll just be delayed beyond the usual three hour time frame.

Please accept my apology for any inconvenience this may cause.

AWR

Many thanks AWR! I'll feature it on our forums homepage right away.

Saludos,

Nacho

Hi everyone,

I wanted to take advantage of this special thread to give you all advance notice:

On Friday July 22, 2005, advertisers will be unable to login to their AdWords accounts from roughly 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. (PDT due) to system maintenance. (There will also be a UI message with this same information soon.)

Please rest assured that your advertising will continue to run as normal during this period - and I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. (Though I certainly hope that this advance notice will help to eliminate problems. ;) )

For those among you who are also AdSense publishers, you'll be glad to hear that this will not effect your ability to login to your AdSense accounts.


Lastly, I have a quick question for you all. Is there anyone who feels that having this Alerts thread at the top of the page all the time actually makes it harder to notice when a new alert has been added?

(Nacho, while I'm very appreciative of your having made this thread more prominent, through permanent top placement - I'm thinking of asking that it be removed from the top, and then just allowing it to return to float up, as normal, when an actual alert has been added. Possible?)

AWR

I have this really uncomfortable feeling that no one actually saw my 'Alert' yesterday, since everyone is probably used to the Alerts thread being at the top of the page, and no longer 'sees' it.

So, I'm going to post again, just to get the date changed to today, and to increase the thread count by one - in the hopes that it'll catch the eye.

This is totally selfless, BTW, and I am not doing it simply to increase my post count. No, really, I'm not - even though I am totally obsessive about 'my number', and just gotta get to 250 soon.

(Not that I'm counting or anything. ;))

AWR

PS - As a rule, similar alerts will also be posted on the Inside AdWords blog.

You can get an idea of how many people are looking at the post by keeping track of the thread views.....

You can get an idea of how many people are looking at the post by keeping track of the thread views.....Doh!

Now that is an elegantly simple idea that never even occurred to me. And the good news is that now I have another number that I can obsess about. Thanks AussieWebmaster!

Here I am about to post to the thread again - I've just returned from a meeting to find an email letting me know that my earlier alert was not entirely correct.

Here is the correction: during the scheduled AdSense maintenance, AdSense Publishers will be able to login as normal, but may not be able to access the ‘My Accounts’ tab of their accounts.

(Earnings will continue to accrue during this timeframe, though, and will appear in the reports after the maintenance is complete.)

Sorry for my earlier error. ;)

AWR

When is the new "Min Bid" feature going to take effect, anyone hear anything, see any changes?

A different thread suggests Aug 1st, however, the Google statements to date have not been definitive...

[QUOTE=AdWordsRep]I have this really uncomfortable feeling that no one actually saw my 'Alert' yesterday, since everyone is probably used to the Alerts thread being at the top of the page, and no longer 'sees' it.
[\QUOTE]
AWR, I read the forums by clicking the "New Posts" link, so I see them in a slightly different order; and I did see your post. I don't know how many people read the forums this way, but I scan the new posts each time I visit (usually daily) to see what I've missed.

Just wanted you to know that someone did see your post. :)

Melissa

Just wanted you to know that someone did see your post. :) Thanks Mel66 - Very kind of you to let me know!

I haven't seen your name here for a while - nice to see you posting again. BTW, your rep sent me some nice feedback and a suggestion that you'd written, which I'll be sure to pass along to the right folks.

Thanks very much for that too! :)

AWR

Me again.

Per the posts farther above, please don't forget that you'll be unable to login to AdWords from approximately 9:00 to 11:00 (PDT), due to system maintenance.

That's a little less than two hours from now, as I write...

AWR

Thanks AWR! I've been reading, but haven't had a lot to say lately. :)

And you're welcome on the feedback! Just tryin' to make things even better than they are! ;) Our rep is great. We met at Ad-Tech Chicago a couple weeks ago and it was a very productive meeting.

Melissa

Hi all,

I wanted to quote the Inside AdWords blog, regarding some mantenance planned for this Saturday, and on the following Saturday as well:

The pages under the 'My Account' tab will be temporarily unavailable this Saturday from 12:00 to 2:00 pm PDT and next Saturday, August 6th, from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT due to maintenance. While you'll still be able to log into your accounts, you won't be able to view invoices, change your billing address, or update your credit card during this time. Don't worry, your campaigns will still be running normally while you're out enjoying the summer sun! And may I add my apology for any inconvenience this will cause.

As I've mentioned before, we will do our best to provide early alerts on Inside AdWords, whenever possible - so it's worth keeping an eye on, at least once or twice a week. ;) As a reminder, you'll find it here: http://adwords.blogspot.com/

AWR

I use the blog exactly for that purpose checking announcements.

I use the blog exactly for that purpose checking announcements. Now that is what I like to hear!

OK, let's try something new. ;) Today, I have an Un-Alert. (Or would that be a de-alert?)

In my last post, I reported that the 'My Account' tab would be unavailable on August 6th, from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT due to maintenance.

Earlier today I learned that there almost certainly will not be maintenance on that day. Good news!

That'll teach me to post alerts so far in advance!

AWR

Hi everyone,

I wanted to let you all know that we are in fact currently launching the keyword status changes and quality-based minimum bids - and that the launch will be completed shortly.

Once everyone has had a chance to get their bearings, I'll do my best to answer questions over the next few days - given that it is rather busy over here at AdWords at present. ;)

In order to reserve this thread for Alerts, though, let's not start a new discussion on this subject here. It looks as if Mel66's thread "AdWords Smart Keyword Evaluation Is Live" is where the action is: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=7361

AWR

I'm sure that by now you all have seen the message on the Campaign Summary page of your accounts, but just in case you haven't, here is a 'heads-up' regarding upcoming site maintenance:

On Friday August 19, 2005, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. PDT due to system maintenance. Please note that your campaigns will continue to run normally during this short downtime, with no loss of stats, etc.

Please accept my apology for any inconvenience this may cause.

AWR

Hi all,

This is an 'alert' of a different stripe, since it's about a vacation. My upcoming vacation, to be exact. Yep, after three years at AdWords, I am actually going to take an entire week off. ;)

As many of you will know, Monday September 5th is a Holiday here in the US (Labor Day), and I'll be gone that day and also the following four days as well.

Executive Summary: I'll be away Sept. 5 thru Sept. 9th, returning on Sept. 12th. Be sure to miss me while I'm gone. ;)

AWR

Just now heading out the door. See you all on 9/12. :)

Hi everyone,

Quoting from the AdWords blog @ http://adwords.blogspot.com/:

On Friday, September 23rd, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. PDT [?] due to system maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your accounts during this short downtime, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Just wanted to make sure everyone was aware. ;)

AWR

May want to alert people to check for possible changes to destination urls if they have used bid management tools or uploads on Tuesday and part of Wednesday.
A more detailled report than the one posted on the Google blog would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all, just got back to my desk after the latest round of meetings, etc. So, my apologies for a late-ish notice regarding system maintenance.

Earlier in the day a brief post was made to the Inside AdWords blog (adwords.blogspot.com) which said: Once again, straight from our tech team:

We'll be performing routine maintenance on the AdWords system from 9pm to 11pm PDT today, Friday, October 21, 2005. While your ads will continue to run as normal, you won't be able to log into your accounts during this maintenance period. I've just learned that the maintenance may well require a bit more time than previously reported, and may extend to 1:30 am.

One last note: this'll also apply to AdSense accounts. As with AdWords, everything will be running as normal, but publishers won't be able to log into their accounts.

As always, we do apologize for any inconvenience this may create.

AWR

Hi all - Just a quick note that I'll be out of town on Monday, and not able to read/post here. I'll be in the Land of No Computers.

Back Tuesday. :)

AWR

Hi all,

Just a heads up that, in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, I'll be out of the office Thursday through Sunday, and not reading/posting on this Forum.

(I think there is a good chance my absence would not have been noticed anyway, as my posting here has tapered off of late - due to lots of extra tasks in the past few weeks!)

At any rate, have a great holiday, all you US based Forum-members!

AWR

I realize my participation in this Forum has been minimal of late, and for that I apologize. Because this season is among the busiest for advertisers, it is also among the busiest for me - and I have had far less time to devote to AdWords Forums than usual, both here and elsewhere.

In any case, I wanted to give you all a heads up that I'll be away from the office from 12/23/05 through 1/02/06 - returning on January 3rd. Once I get caught up a bit, I hope to make a fresh start in the new year, and carve out time to post more often.

See you all in 2006. I hope that 2005 has been a great year for all of you, and that 2006 is even better! :)

AWR

We all appreciate the efforts you have made on the forum this year and will be glad to see it continue next year.

We all appreciate the efforts you have made on the forum this year and will be glad to see it continue next year. Thanks AussieWebmaster! I didn't see your post till now, when I returned to this thread to report the following:

I'll be out of the office from Friday 2/17/06 through Tuesday 2/21/06, and won't be reading or posting in this excellent forum. Back again on the 22nd.

AWR

My apologies for this late breaking alert - I've been away from my desk most of the day, and not able to post. That said, please note the following messaging from our tech team:

The pages under the 'My Account' tab will be unavailable tonight, Friday March 17th, from 7:00 to 10:00 pm PST for system maintenance. You'll still be able to log into your accounts during this time, but you won't be able to view invoices, change your billing address, or update your credit card during this maintenance period. Rest assured, however, that your campaigns will continue to run normally.

As always, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. BTW, the Inside AdWords blog is an excellent source for such notifications @ http://adwords.blogspot.com/

AWR

No doubt you all have seen this message at the top of your Campaign Summary page - but in case you haven't it's worth posting here:

On March 24, 2006, AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM Pacific Time due to system maintenance. Please note that your campaigns will continue to run normally during this short downtime. We apologize for any inconvenience. As previously mentioned, the Inside AdWords blog @ http://adwords.blogspot.com/ is an excellent source for such notifications as well.

AWR

After Friday's maintenance, if your payment had been declined (before Friday night) and you update your credit card the payment server is not synchronizing with the Adwords server. As a result, once you have paid off your balance and it shows as being 0 under the "account" tab, you still get a message under the "campaigns" tab saying that your campaigns are paused because Google was not able to process last payment. Ads will not start running again.

Also, from what I have been able to gather from others who use Adwords, for those whose credit card has been declined after Friday night... their ads are still running instead of being paused due to non-payment.

Do you have any info on this or when it will be resolved?

Thanks a million!

A quick head's-up. The message quoted below was posted a short time ago, over on the Inside AdWords blog:

This just in from our tech team:

On Saturday, June 24th, the AdWords system will be temporarily unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT due to system maintenance.

While you won't be able to log in or make any changes to your account during this time, your ads will continue to run as normal. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. AWR

Wanted to let you all know that I'll be away from the office from later tonight until Wednesday morning July 5th - in honor of Independence Day, here in the U.S.

Have a great long weekend, for those you who are also celebrating. ;)

AWR

Uhh oh, another alert about time off!

My manager has been pressuring me to take an actual vacation, and I've finally succumbed. It's even started to sound like a great idea, in fact.

Long story short, I'll be away from Adwords until July 24th - and not reading or posting in this forum during that time.

Luckily, I was able to arrange for a trusted colleague to check in on this forum a couple of times per week, and post as times allows. To make it easy, I've loaned him my user name and login. To differentiate him from me, however, he will sign his posts as AWR2, rather than AWR. So if you see that, you'll know what's up.

I'll see all y'all in a couple of weeks, and I trust you won't give AWR2 too hard of a time while I'm gone. ;)

AWR (now passing the reins to AWR2)

AWR (now passing the reins to AWR2)Is that something like R2D2? ;)

Have a happy vacation!

Little suggestion: you might want to turn off email notifications while you're on vacation so it doesn't pile up.

Is that something like R2D2? Well, AWR2 is much taller but just as smart and friendly. Oh, and he doesn't 'chirp' and whistle all the time, either. :)

Have a happy vacation!

Little suggestion: you might want to turn off email notifications while you're on vacation so it doesn't pile up. Thanks Marcia!

AWR

Well, I've fallen down on the job a bit - at least with the first half of the information below, which is quoted from yesterday's Inside AdWords blog post @ http://adwords.blogspot.com/:

Starting at 4am PDT tomorrow, August 23, the AdWords video ad upload tool will be down for maintenance for approximately 48 hours. During this time you will not be able to upload or modify click-to-play video ads in your AdWords account. However, if you've already created a video ad, it will continue to run normally during this time.

Then, on Saturday, August 26th, the AdWords system will be temporarily unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT due to system maintenance. As with the case mentioned above, though you won't be able to log in or make any changes to your account during this time, your ads will continue to run as normal.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this system maintenance may cause. My apology for not having remembered to do this yesterday. :(

AWR

Starting at 4am PDT tomorrow, August 23, the AdWords video ad upload tool will be down for maintenance for approximately 48 hours. During this time you will not be able to upload or modify click-to-play video ads in your AdWords account. However, if you've already created a video ad, it will continue to run normally during this time. Word has it that this has now wrapped up - quite a bit earlier than was originally announced. You should be good-to-go now if you want to upload and/or modify your click-to-play video ads.

AWR

I apologize for posting this so close to the time of the actual event - but have spent most of the day so far away from my desk. And, I hope many of you will have seen this on Inside AdWords blog already, where it was posted about yesterday afternoon. Quoting from that post:

We will be performing AdWords maintenance from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. PDT on Monday, October 16, 2006. While all AdWords advertisements will continue to run as normal, you may not be able to retrieve reports or upload image ads during this time.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. For reference, the Inside AdWords blog is here: http://adwords.blogspot.com/. It's worth keeping an eye on, as news such as this is routinely posted there.

AWR

Hi everyone - this was just posted to Inside AdWords a few minutes ago, and I'd like to alert you all here as well:

We will be performing additional AdWords maintenance from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, October 17, 2006. While all AdWords advertisements will continue to run as normal, you may not be able to retrieve reports or upload image ads during this time.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. AWR

By now most of you will have seen the notice below, either in your accounts or in the post on the Inside AdWords blog. Still, it's worth repeating here just in case some folks have missed it:

On Saturday, November 11th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to system maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your account during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. We apologize for any inconvenience. AWR

Hi all,

I thought it worth mentioning that I'll be away from AdWords (and thus this forum) until Monday, Nov 27 - in celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US.

For those who celebrate Thanksgiving, have a great one!

See all y'all soon. :)

AWR

I wanted to give you all a week's (!) advance notice that I'll be away from AdWords between December 20th and January 3rd, due to family/holiday commitments.

I won't be reading this forum or posting during that time - so if someone asks me a questions, or asks for comment and I don't respond, it's not that I'm ignoring you. It's that I am not here. ;)

I'll probably mention this one more time, closer to the 20th.

AWR

Happy New Year to one and all. I wish you a very happy, productive, and successful year. :)

I'm very sorry to say that, due to a serious medical issue with a family member, I will not be able to read or post here for some time - likely to be several weeks.

I have missed this forum quite a bit since my last post, and look forward to returning asap. I do apologize for my absence, though I suspect that you all will understand that sometimes stuff just happens that changes things around all of a sudden.

Again, best wishes to you all for 2007!

AWR

AWR despite the problems I hope the new year is good for you.

We will wait - perhaps not patiently but that's just us....

Get back as soon as you can.

Take care, AWR. Family comes first.

Melissa

Hi all,

Just a quick heads-up that the Ads Quality update announced last week on the Inside AdWords blog started earlier this evening - and will be completed in the next 3 to 4 days.

Please see today's blog post for more: http://adwords.blogspot.com/

AWR

AWR, do you know if there's any plan to make the Quality Score column sticky, account wide? I'm finding I have to enable the column ad group by ad group - and then when I come back to an ad group later, it's gone again and I have to re-enable. It's quite time consuming. I'd like to be able to just leave the column on. Any idea if this is coming?

Melissa

It appears that the Quality Score update may have been rolled back due to problems. I make that assumption based on not seeing any Quality Score column option under Show/Hide columns in any account I've checked.

I suspect this thread was primarily or possibly solely intended for AWR to provide alerts for us. Because of the severity of the current issues and the massive hours taking risk aversion measures are going to take I hope I will be forgiven for asking for a specific answer here.

AWR, we're seeing huge spikes in advertising costs and drops in conversions. The risk is so great for small businesses that I am seriously considering opting dozens of accounts out of Google's Search Partner network and pausing or deleting every broad matched keyword in every account. I have already posted that other advertisers should consider doing the same.

There are threads here and elsewhere that provide details on the reasons behind those actions. I am well aware that to do so will likely reduce traffic and sales by half or more and to not take action exposes advertisers to more risk than they can afford.

Please read the threads at http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=9817 and http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=16357 and let us know if there is any solution forthcoming from Google soon or we need to take these drastic steps ourselves. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

So that you may plan ahead, I wanted to let you all know this was posted on the Inside AdWords blog earlier this evening:

Last weekend’s regularly scheduled AdWords system maintenance was postponed at the last minute. Therefore, we've rescheduled this month’s system maintenance period to occur from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT on Saturday, May 19, 2007. While you won't be able to log into your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. And, as always, we apologize for any inconvenience caused by our scheduled maintenance. In my opinion, Inside AdWords (http://adwords.blogspot.com) is a pretty good place to keep current with what's new with AdWords -- and I hope that many of you are in the habit of checking it at least once or twice a week.

It is just possible, however, that I am not completely impartial in my opinion. ;)

AWR

A quick question for Aussie, or another SEW moderator: could I respectfully request that this thread be 'un-pinned' from the top of the page?

I honestly think that these alerts (which might be considered useful and time sensitive by some) would be seen by many more people if the 'Alerts' thread came to the top of the page only when it had been posted-to (which does not happen often) rather than the way it is now, being at the top of the page all the time (and thus fading into the background).

Many thanks in advance. ;)

AWR

Just a quick heads-up that I will be away from AdWords (and a computer) on both Tueday and Thursday - returning on Thursday 5/25.

So, if someone asks a question during that time and I don't respond, that'll be why. ;)

AWR

.....I honestly think that these alerts (which might be considered useful and time sensitive by some) would be seen by many more people if the 'Alerts' thread came to the top of the page only when it had been posted-to (which does not happen often) rather than the way it is now, being at the top of the page all the time (and thus fading into the background)......
AWR
I totally agree. These alerts would be far more effective if the thread was "unstuck". Also, why do we need the other thread "Optimizing Ads for top positions" as a sticky thread? Seems strange.

Please, please, please.

Won't someone please un-stick this thread and make it go away? :rolleyes:

AWR (who seems to be getting demanding in his old age - heheh*)

* This may be evidence that it is a good thing that I will be away from AdWords for the month of July, on vacation - and not reading or posting here. I certainly plan to return completely refreshed. :)

Please, please, please.

Won't someone please un-stick this thread and make it go away? :rolleyes:

AWR (who seems to be getting demanding in his old age - heheh*)

* This may be evidence that it is a good thing that I will be away from AdWords for the month of July, on vacation - and not reading or posting here. I certainly plan to return completely refreshed. :)

Okay I unstuck it

Okay I unstuck itExcellent - many thanks AussieWebmaster. ;)

I truly appreciate it.

AWR