Due to a bug, AdWords Partners are told they’re Search Ad specializations have expired

Many agencies with Google Partner status received an email from Google late yesterday telling them, “You’ve lost your Search Ads specialization” and will need to retake their exams.

A bug has apparently triggered the emails after a change was made yesterday and affected Partners in many markets. Steve Seeley tweeted a screenshot of the email yesterday and cautioned others to “not flip out if you got emails like this last night or this morning. It is a bug. Our entire status is blank.”

When Partners login to their Partner account to see their performance, the Company Specialization scores and spend fields are empty.

Italy-based digital marketer, Gianpaolo Lorusso tells us it’s likely a global bug, and is definitely affecting  US, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain.

We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update when we hear back.

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About The Author

As Third Door Media's paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.