Solving common Google Ads errors – Help Center - Channable

This is a helpcenter article of Channable, the tool for product feed management and PPC automation. If you don't have an account yet, create a free trial account now or learn how Channable can help you create dynamic Google Text Ads campaigns easily.

Do you want to learn interactively how to set up a text ads structure in Channable? Learn how to create a Channacademy account in the Channable app through this Help Center article and start with the Basic Text Ads course.

Where can I find the Google Ads errors?

To see if any part of your Google Ads campaigns contain any errors navigate to the Preview step of your ad generator. Here you will see different tabs for the different Google Ads elements such as campaigns and ad groups. Click on the tab you want to see the errors for and to filter on errors, select "By Error" from the Filter drop down menu. Now you see elements that contain errors and the "Status" column will show you which errors occur. Click on the error itself and you will see more information about the error such as what triggered the error and the type of error.

Common Google Ads errors

Policy finding
Line too wide / Too long
Illegal Chars
Connecting with a Google Ads manager account
Inviting multiple account IDs
Account linked to the maximum of managers
Setting up the ad generator only halfway
Creating Ad groups, ads and the information in the ads on different levels
Unusual or no targeting
Incorrectly using ad customizers
Policy exemption error
Value must be unset
Resource not found

1. Policy finding

If you see this error, you have violated one of Google's policies that should be followed when creating ads.

For more information about the policy in question and how to solve the error, click on the red error bar and adjust your text so that it complies with the policy.

2. Line too wide / Too long

This error pops up when the number of characters in one of your text ad elements exceeds its limit.

Click on the red error bar to see which element of your text ad is affected and adjust the length of the texts. Keep in mind that Google uses the following limits:

Headline 1 (30 characters)
Headline 2 (30 characters)
Headline 3 (30 characters)
Description 1 (90 characters)
Description 2 (90 characters)
URL Path 1 (15 characters)
URL Path 2 (15 characters)

Note: Take into account that characters in Japanese, Chinese and Korean count double for Google, which will also affect the above shown limits.

3. Illegal Chars

Whenever you encounter this error, you are using characters in your ad that are not accepted by Google.

Click on the red error bar to see in which piece of text the error occurs and change the text so that the illegal character is no longer used. The character that most often triggers this error is the exclamation point ( ! ) as Google does not accept headlines when they contain exclamation points.

4. Connecting with a Google Ads manager account

When adding a connection with Google Ads in Channable, you need to connect to a client account, not a manager account. We then need to invite this Google Ads account from Channable's Google Ads MCC account. If you connect with a manager account, this will result in errors in your Text Ads, Shopping Ads and Channable Insights.

If you encounter errors because of a manager account connection, create a new connection and make sure it is connected with a client account.

5. Inviting multiple account IDs

When you ask us to invite a list of account IDs or connections that are not created in Channable yet, we cannot send an invite. An example would be if you send us a list of a NL, DE, FR and UK account IDs, while you only have the NL connection ready yet. We want to make sure that what you push makes sense, because some settings cannot be changed anymore after pushing live.

First set up the connection and build the ad templates before receiving the invitation to our MCC-account.

6. Account linked to the maximum of managers

This error means that your account has been linked to the maximum number of managers and therefore Channable cannot be linked.

Unlink one of the managers of your account by following the instructions on this article: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7456531?hl=en

7. Setting up the ad generator only halfway

This error means that either you have not set the Text Ads configuration, you have not built ad templates or did not place keywords. This actually comes down to the same thing as error 4. We want to make sure that what you push makes sense, because some settings cannot be changed anymore after pushing live.

Note: Don't forget to change the default values campaign and title in the campaigns/ad groups steps to a desired static value or dynamic field.

Set the Text Ads configuration, build the ad templates and place keywords before receiving the invitation to our MCC-account.

8. Creating Ad groups, ads and the information in the ads on different levels

This implies you create ad groups on brand or category level but use for example the regular link field for the final URL.

It's important to check if the fields used in the ad templates and keywords match with the ad group level. So, let's say the ad group is set on brand level, then you cannot use the link field in the final URL because you don’t want to land on a specific product page. You want to land on a brand overview page. It's the same for keywords, you only want to use fields corresponding to the ad group level. In short, only use fields that are on the same level as the ad group.

Note: Don't use link, title or any other item specific fields when your ad group is broader than the item level.

9. Unusual or no targeting

This error means that you have either not set the targeting or have set unusual targeting. For example you set "Afghanistan" as a country and "Arabic" as a language, because these are the first ones in the list.

This targeting cannot be changed anymore after pushing live, so make sure you set it up correctly.

10. Incorrectly using ad customizers

This means that all your main templates have an Ad customizer. The Google/Microsoft advertising policy specifies that there should at least be one main template without an ad customizer. More information about ad customizers can be found here.

11. Policy exemption error

This error means that your ads or keywords violate Google Ads policies, here are the steps to solve it in a way that Channable can create ads with these keywords. First, create an ad in your Google Ads environment. This ad should include the keyword which got the policy exemption error, note that Google will give a policy error, but you will need to save the ad anyway. Now, go into your Google Ads account to "Tools & Settings" > "Setup" > "Policy Manager" or click on this link.

Important! You need to be logged in, otherwise, you can not successfully access this link. Select the exemption and click on "resubmit for review". Make sure to select "all ads in this account". Check this explanation by Google to see all the steps.

Google will start reviewing and when they are done and the exemption is approved Channable should be able to push the ads. This can take a few days and after these days you need to remove the manually created ad in your Google Ads account.

12. Value must be unset

This happens when one of the fields is empty or contains a wrong value, but the "next field" is correct. The "Field name" indicates which field is triggering the error. So, for instance, "Path1" is empty, but "Path2" is correctly set.

To solve this you need to either unmap the next correct field or make sure the first field is filled in correctly.

13. Resource Not Found

The entity we are trying to update is not found on Google. This could be because it was removed on Google's side, or because a parent entity was removed. For instance, a Keyword might have this error when either the Keyword, the AdGroup, or the Campaign has been removed.

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