Google has largely resolved a significant reporting issue that affected its advertising platform, with some competitive metrics still awaiting restoration.
Why we care. The issue exposed some advertisers to data from other Google Merchant Center accounts, raising privacy concerns and disrupting normal reporting services.
Chronology of events:
- July 30: The problem begins and is reported by several advertisers
- July 31: broadcast problem resolved
- August 1: Google suspends access to certain reports
- August 4: Most reporting services restored for unaffected accounts
- August 6: Almost all services restored, with some competitive measures still pending
The impact:
- Advertisers served ads for products from other accounts
- Affected advertisers could see products from other accounts in their reports
- Several reporting services were temporarily unavailable
What’s next:
- Google will contact affected customers with more details
- Credits will be provided to affected advertisers in the coming weeks.
- Incorrect data has been deleted from the affected accounts
Between the lines. Google stressed that the issue was caused by an ad serving bug and was not related to customers migrating to the new Google Merchant Center.
The main thing. Although Google has largely got the problem under control, the incident highlights the potential vulnerabilities of complex advertising ecosystems and the importance of responding quickly to data privacy concerns.
Updated August 8. Google has confirmed that all reporting services have been restored.
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About the author
Anu Adegbola was Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. It covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.
In 2008, Anu’s career began with
lead digital marketing campaigns (primarily, but not exclusively, paid search) by strategizing, maximizing ROI, automating repetitive processes, and improving the efficiency of every part of marketing departments through leadership inspiring on the agency side as well as on the client and marketing technology side.
Outside of Search Engine Land article editing, she is the founder of the PPC networking event – PPC Live and the host of weekly PPCChat Roundup podcast.
She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on SMX (USA), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), BrightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon. , PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.