Background

I wanted to create a campaign for one of my YouTube videos a few years ago, so I tried to click the "Promote" (or whatever Swedish Marknadsför is a translation of) button below the video in the YouTube interface.

But it didn't work; I don't remember the exact behaviour or error message(s), but the web interface didn't allow me to pay for the service. Either I simply got timeouts or error messages.

Now, a month ago, I tried again, and on the first attempt, I got only an error message. But on the second attempt, it did work.

The video's views skyrocketed and money was taken from my credit card. However, when I open the Google Ads web UI or the Google Ads Android app, I cannot see my campaign. I can log in, see all my account details, see all billing details (which is accurate and updated correctly), but the list of campaigns is always empty.

I regularly get mails from Google Ads asking me to make recommended adjustments to my campaign, but when I click these links, the Google Ads UI simply says that an error has occurred.

Interestingly, if I type "Google Ads" in Google Search, I'm met with a nice summary of my campaign, but if I click it, I'm taken to the Google Ads UI telling me that "an error occurred" and informing me that I have no campaigns.

Here's a video I made showing me trying almost everything:

https://privat.rejbrand.se/GoogleAds-bug-demo-hb.mp4

Asking for support

I did ask the Google Support forums but got no meaningful reply.

I then contacted Google Support and an agent replied that I simply had clicked the wrong button in the UI, even though I provided several screenshots and recordings of me pressing the button that the agent was asking me to press. This conversation almost became comical; it was like the agent was pulling my leg.

After a couple of weeks, the Google support agent changed her mind and told me that the issue was due to an ad blocker.

I do have an ad blocker installed in Firefox, but it is disabled. I have also tried to use Google Chrome instead (in which I have no add-ons installed), both in normal mode and in incognito/private mode. I also cannot see any campaigns in the Google Ads Android app. I have tried on several different devices and on several different LANs and WiFi networks, in different Swedish cities and with different ISPs.

But the issue is always the same: I can log in, see all my account details and all (very much non-zero) billing data, but the list of campaigns is always empty: It always tells me that I have no campaigns.

I have recorded an ever longer video of me trying several different browsers, with normal and private modes, and several devices (Windows, Android with the Google Ads Android app), but it very much get the feeling that the support agent hasn't actually watched it. It feels more like they are trying to pull my leg.

Unfortunately, the support agent has told me that there is nothing more they can do.

So what can I do?

Is there no amount of money I can offer Google so that I can get in touch with an actual developer or senior technician?

The browser's debug console

If I look in the browser's dev tools, I get a lot of error messages, and something that stands out is "missing currencyCode".

Here's the full log:

https://privat.rejbrand.se/googleadslog.txt

Almost certainly this contains valuable clues.