Google Ads had a wide spread bug or glitch where ads were not showing due to a bug with some sort of location targeting setting. There are dozens of complaints about the ad preview tool showing a notice for ads saying “an ad isn’t showing now” due to the “search location doesn’t match this campaign’s location targeting setting.”
Google has supposedly fixed the issue but the notice is still coming up in the ad preview tool for many advertisers. There are dozens of complaints about this in the Google Ads Help Forum starting back in mid October and lasting through today.
Only 18 hours ago, after over two weeks of complaints, did Google say they resolved the issue. Google told an advertiser “we’ve received an update from our wider team informing that the issue with Ad preview tool is now fixed. In case you are still facing any issues while using the tool, please feel free to share the details (including uncropped screenshots) and I’d be happy to escalate for further investigations.”
Here is what the error looks like in the ad preview tool:
Chris baker of Instaboost Media told me about this and said advertisers are “losing impressions” over this bug. He also told me despite what Google may be telling some advertisers, this is not fixed across all accounts, not yet at least.
You can look through the Google Ads Help Forum to see the number of complaints on this, it is pretty wild. It does now seem to be on Google’s radar – we hope.
Forum discussion at Google Ads Help Forum.
