Update: Google Says Big AdWords Quality Score Bug Is Fixed

Google said a fix was rolling out and that the work was completed Sunday, March 29. See updates below.

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(See updates on this story below.) There are widespread reports from Google AdWords users that their keyword quality scores have fallen significantly on Friday.

I’m seeing the same thing, with exact match brand keywords that previously had a quality score of 10 now are showing a quality score of 6.

From what I’m seeing, and others are reporting, some click prices may be affected, too, but it’s hard to say. Others I’ve spoken to haven’t seen any increases, so it’s unclear if it’s just a reporting bug or not at this point. Update: Google says it’s a reporting bug only. See below for official statement.

google adwords quality score drops

It’s not clear at this time how many accounts are affected. One advertiser posted on the forum that they had confirmation from an AdWords rep that it’s a widespread bug:

“Just spoken to someone at Google and this is a widespread issue/bug that has affected many accounts in the UK. Their engineers are looking into it but they couldn’t give a timeframe when it will be fixed.”

We have contacted Google for a comment and will update here when hear back.

Update 11:09 AM Eastern:  A Google spokesperson issued this statement:

“We’re aware of a bug that is affecting quality score reporting and are actively working to fix this. Rest assured, the bug affects reporting only, not ad serving. We’re expecting it to be fixed in the next day.”

Update 11:23 AM Eastern: Google says a fix is already rolling out. A spokesperson has updated Search Engine Land:

 “We’re aware of a bug that is affecting quality score reporting and are actively working to fix this. Rest assured, the bug affects reporting only, not ad serving. We’re currently rolling out fixes and expect all accounts to see normal reporting by tomorrow.”
Update 3/29/15 6:51 PM Eastern: Google has issued a final statement on this issue:
“The bug affecting quality scores that we posted about on Friday is now fixed. Thank you for your patience as we worked through this. If you paused any keywords yesterday, we recommend that you un-pause them now in order to see the correct scores. These paused keywords will not reflect the correct score until one or two hours after being un-paused.”

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Ginny Marvin
Contributor
Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

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