Have you been experiencing delays when trying to contact Google support? You are not alone.

Search advertisers working for brands and agencies of all shapes and sizes are uniformly complaining. Many of these advertisers, like us, are part of the Google Partners Program. These complaints are relatable and frustrating.

When I started at Mediology over a decade ago, the Google support team was fantastic. We were assigned a dedicated rep for all our accounts, and they were available for any type of question. They provided vertical research, training, troubleshooting, and access to beta products, to name a few wonderful bygone services. Fast forward a couple of years, and while we still had dedicated reps, they were assigned per client. This still worked, until Google decided that dedicated reps were only needed for clients that spent over a certain threshold. Any other help needed to go through their randomized support team.

This made our lives a bit harder, but for the most part our team could still get access to most of the services.

Then Google started rotating the reps every few months.

It was not possible to build a rapport with a rep; for them to understand our clients’ goals. Every three months I’d be meeting with a new rep and would have to explain the client’s needs all over again. These new reps were less focused on actual support, and more focused on trying to get our campaigns to spend more money. They also didn’t seem to care. I don’t blame them for this, as it sounded as if they were working from a rigid directive.

The reps we have now, which are like rare Pokemon that randomly pop up in our inboxes before they disappear again, have no support skills. They cannot help with troubleshooting because they don’t know the platform. They no longer provide in-depth research or beta products. They simply review our accounts, tell us which automated features we should be turning on, how much more we should be spending, and then leave. These reps should not be defined as support. They are sales.

There are rumours swirling that Google will look to AI to help with their massive support issues. Likely this will result in even more layoffs of Google staff. If the current reps are only concerned about reaching certain targets and not helping with campaign issues, such as wrongful disapprovals or glitches in set ups, then I’m not sure how much worse AI can be to what we have now.

Google support in its current state is not set up for anyone’s success, not even Google’s. Not our clients (which are their clients), nor their services or business. I understand that Google wants to make money, but the increasing lack of support every year is affecting our campaigns, and from there our overall media plans and how much we use Google. As the product worsens, more consideration will be made on whether it will be used.

This is a letter from a paid search specialist, officially sending out an S.O.S.