Google Ads CPC Bug Inflates Click Prices

Google Ads posted about a bug that impacted some non-US campaigns cost per click (CPC) prices. Specifically that the CPCs were inflated. Some advertisers are reporting inflation numbers over 300 or 400 percent.

Google said it was just non-US campaigns, but it seems like some are complaining about US campaigns as well.

Google wrote “We’re aware that a subset of non-US campaigns are affected by a technical issue causing cost-per-click (CPC) to be incorrectly inflated.” Google didn’t initially give a time of when this would be fixed. Google added that this was escalated yesterday afternoon and wrote “we’re aware of a problem with Google Ads affecting a significant subset of users.”

Google this morning posted an update, it is not fixed, but wrote “Our team is continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by May 25, 2022, 7:00 PM UTC with more information about this problem. Thank you for your patience.”

Here are some of what advertisers are seeing in terms of price surges:

seeing some impossible increases in the US in Branded campaigns today vs Yesterday – @adsliaison
#PPCChat pic.twitter.com/4wS90TF8bN

— Greg (@PPCGreg) May 24, 2022

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pic.twitter.com/wEGTDv7b46

— ppc cindy (@ppc_cindy) May 24, 2022

Google had a similar bug in November 2021 where Google ultimately refunded advertisers for the overages.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Update: At 2:57pm ET, Google fixed the issue and wrote:

The problem with Google Ads has been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.

The earlier issue causing inflated cost-per-click (CPC) has been mitigated. No action is required but you may see ongoing impact to reporting while we work to repair data before month end.