Last Thursday, after reports from several advertisers, Google confirmed that there was a major reporting outage. The report editor, dashboards, and reports saved in the Google Ads web interface were broken. On top of that, Products, Product Groups and List Groups pages were down in the web interface, API and Google Ads Editor.
The issue, which Google said only affected a “small fraction” of advertisers, exposed sensitive data across all accounts and disrupted normal reporting services.
Advertisers had a lot to say about these issues, ranging from gratitude that they weren’t in the business of e-commerce and therefore weren’t affected to those who saw the lack of data on product listings/groups as a major barrier .
Practical challenges
Greg Finn, partner at Cypress North, highlighted the practical challenges:
- “The lack of SEO/product group data last week was a major obstacle for these commercial advertisers. Specifically, we have some campaigns (PMax) that offer monthly deals and sale items for certain customers and we were unable to confirm that the campaigns were working properly.
- “While I understand there was an error on Google’s part, flying blind without seeing any the product data is beyond frightening. As an advertiser, I’d much rather see an error and continue working than know there’s an error and have no way to view the product data.
Use of data/Breach
Paid search specialist Sarah Stemen raised questions about the use of data in Google’s auction system:
- “Well, we know that Google knows all product prices, profit margin, MSRP, sales, etc. But seeing the cross-contaminated data makes me wonder if the data is leveraged in auctions more than Google won’t admit it.”
Kate Luke, Head of Digital, highlighted the seriousness of the data breach:
- “Let us not forget that this sensitive data is essential for the companies concerned.”
She called on Google to “speak directly to those affected rather than offering generic ‘resolutions.’ »
Transparency/Deadline
Performance and marketing consultant, Meriem Nacer expressed concerns about Google’s transparency:
- “Will they inform the affected brands and reimburse them, or only respond if contacted? Many may not check their accounts or know how to do so. How did this happen?
Nacer also believes that due to the timing, this cannot be completely unrelated to the Merchant Center Next rollout:
- “They claim this is unrelated to the Merchant Center Next rollout, but the timing coincides with the PMax reporting update and upcoming migration. Is this just a coincidence, or did someone press that “big red button” we always joked about? The situation raises many questions.
Mike Ryan, Head of E-Commercee, summarized the severity of the situation, with particular concern that the problem started earlier than Google claims:
- “This is a serious potential breach of advertiser privacy, and apparently also a huge billing screw-up. Google maintains that these errors only occurred between July 30 and 31, but members of my team say it may have been happening for two weeks or more.
Automation/Food Safety
Julie Bacchini, president and founder of Neptune Moon, highlighted the broader implications, including automation, and questions the sanctity of flow:
- “This certainly raises questions about firewalls between accounts, doesn’t it? I think this is the most concerning element.
- “Reporting and data delays happen. But data leakage is a much bigger problem. And going even further, as automation takes over more and more, will we even know if something like this happens in the future?
- “The biggest issue I have is that this has impacted feed-based campaigns, compromising the sanctity of the feed. I would like a detailed explanation from Google Ads on exactly how another advertiser’s feed data was allowed to infiltrate another account. And what they did to ensure that this couldn’t happen again.
Competitive monitoring
CMO Scott Fredrickson detailed potential competitive intelligence leaks:
- “The screenshots showing the contents of custom labels in reports were scary. For those who don’t know, these labels are completely free. I’ve seen them used for margin allocation, seasonality, inventory control, bestsellers, various promotions, suppliers, divisions, all sorts of things.
Finally, advertisers like Reid Thomas, marketing strategist, viewed the problem as “a tempest in a teapot…because I’ve never had an account where even a week of inaccessible reporting would massively change the strategy, especially since the actual data wasn’t blocked for automations, etc. “.
The majority of responses, however, noted serious concerns about data privacy, competitive intelligence and Google’s handling of the situation. As PPC specialist Chloe Varnfield says: “Trust in Google is low anyway, so this is just another disappointment. »
The incident has prompted many advertisers to demand more transparency and better safeguards from Google to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.