A campaign stopped since Friday
On Monday a client's account manager notices leads are down. The paid specialist looks and finds that on Friday afternoon the main ads in the account were disapproved for a policy issue with the landing page. The notification went to the client's marketing inbox, which nobody reads at weekends, and to a former employee's address set up when the account was created.
The same week another client's Meta ad account receives a verification request with a deadline. It is spotted two days before the deadline by chance. A third client has had a campaign limited for weeks because of a trademark issue, and nobody noticed because it was still spending.
Why problems hide
- Each platform reports issues in its own interface, in a different place.
- Email notifications go to addresses set at account creation, often at the client or a former staff member.
- Limited or partly disapproved ads still spend, so pacing looks normal.
- Verification and policy deadlines arrive as banners that are only seen when someone logs in.
- Specialists check their biggest accounts closely and smaller ones less often.
The platforms tell you about problems. They just tell whoever happened to be on the list, in whichever place they chose.
What late discovery costs
Campaigns stop or underdeliver for days before anyone knows, and the client's results suffer. Account-level warnings that go unanswered can escalate to suspension, which can take a long time to resolve through the platform's own process. Clients lose confidence in an agency that finds out about problems after they do. Specialists spend time firefighting instead of improving accounts.
The monitor we build
- Every client ad account is listed with its owning specialist and backup.
- Ad, ad group, campaign and account statuses are read regularly through the Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn and Microsoft Ads APIs, including disapproval reasons and policy topics where available.
- New issues are grouped by client and sent to the owning specialist in Slack or email, with the reason and a direct link to the item.
- Issues that affect delivery most, such as whole campaigns disapproved or account warnings, are flagged as urgent and also sent to the paid media lead.
- Each issue stays open until the status changes, and the monitor records who dealt with it and what was done.
- Notification addresses in each account are listed, so you can see which accounts still send alerts to people who have left.
| Issue | Where it used to surface | Where it goes now |
|---|---|---|
| Disapproved ads | Inside the platform, when checked | Owning specialist, same day |
| Limited campaigns | Rarely noticed | Specialist, with the reason |
| Account warnings | Email to an old address | Specialist and paid lead, marked urgent |
| Verification requests | Banner on login | Specialist, with the deadline |
| Payment problems | Found when spend stops | Specialist and account manager |
The monitor does not appeal or change anything on your behalf. It makes sure the right person knows, fast, with what they need to act.
A normal week with monitoring
Friday afternoon an ad group is disapproved. The owning specialist gets a message with the reason and the landing page named. She fixes the page issue with the client's developer and requests a review before the weekend. On Monday the monitor shows the item resolved, and the account manager can tell the client what happened and what was done about it.
Have ad problems caught you out?
- Disapprovals have been found days after they happened.
- Platform emails go to client inboxes or former staff.
- Limited campaigns have run for weeks without anyone noticing.
- Verification requests have been spotted close to the deadline.
- Smaller accounts are checked less often than big ones.