Adwords API pending approval, Can I use my developer Token?

[Aby17]

 
Hello,

I need help concerning the adwords API, I applied late 2011, got rejected but I still don't know why (no explanation provided with the rejection)? so I searched online and on this forum and I was made aware of the fact that Google was rejecting new and even existing API's for no reason, so I re-applied again and it's been almost 2 weeks now and haven't received any replies or clarifications from Google. So right now, I'm developing a software that is based on keyword research and I badly need the API for the high volume of keywords needed to be analyzed and processed. My project is the final phase just need the API to get finish it up, so my question to any one from the Google adwords team: can I use my developer token while my application is pending approval, so can my programer use my token to retrieve some data from the keyword tool such as search volumes (local & Global) and The CPC data...  Please let me know, if it is possible or not? I need a straight answer, Thanks
 

[Anash P. Oommen]

Hi Aby,

Our team doesn't handle token reviews, so here's what you can do:

1. Make sure the email address you mentioned in your AdWords API account is indeed valid. If not, edit it by logging into your AdWords API MCC account, navigating to My Account->AdWords API Center and editing the developer information. 

2. Read the AdWords API terms and conditions at http://code.google.com/apis/adwords/docs/terms.html and make sure that your application is in accordance with the T&C.

3. Write to adwordsa...@google.com seeking details about the status of your token approval. Ping them again if you don't see response within a couple of days. Sometimes it takes a few days for the team to work through their backlog to reach your email.

4. The review team will write back to you (to your contact email) seeking additional details you need to provide or seeking clarifications. Respond with the necessary details. Once the review is over, the team will let you know if your token is approved or rejected, and rejection reasons if applicable.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Anash P. Oommen,

AdWords API Advisor.

[adw...@seonative.de]

Please look for the thread

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/adwords-api/TduN7Ssh3uM

I don´t think that Google is still interested in advertisers using the API, but Google still requires that you have to invest money and time in the development of the API application.

[Anash P. Oommen]

Hi Aby,

Did you hear back from the review team yet?

Cheers,
Anash P. Oommen,

AdWords API Advisor.

On Tuesday, 13 March 2012 05:52:15 UTC+5:30, Aby17 wrote:

[Dave Winget]

I'm in the same boat - it's been about 1 full month now and nothing - I have sent emails to  adwordsa...@google.com as has my partner with out a reply - anything else I can do?

[Snow Globe]

Hello,

First of all thank you Anash for answering some questions on this forum. It is not always easy to get an answer from Google.

On the same boat. We have been waiting for nearly 2 months and have sent many emails, posted many messages, asked local Google people to help us and we are not giving up (we can't or we all lose our jobs).

We adwords certified, analytics qualified, etc. we spend 100% of our time and R&D on adwords and analytics. We have to let go 1 person already because the API token waiting approval so, yes, this is a very serious issue.

We have 1 question: since we have sent our first application, our project has evolved (because we work hard with whatever we had: automated reports, etc. and have been able to set-up new products) and we would like to know how we can communicate the latest version of our project to the API team.

Should we use adwordsa...@google.com? The answer may seem obvious but despite all our attempts to have a constructive dialogue with adwordsa...@google.com, we hardly get any answer.

Thank you,

SG

[Anash P. Oommen]

Hi SG,

I've pinged the review team, so they are looking into your case. You should get a reply from the team soon. As for the changes in your client, the AdWords API T&C (https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/terms) states that you should mail the changes to 3P-Com...@google.com. 

If you have issues with AdWords API, you could ask them on the forum. If they are technical in nature, we will help you out, otherwise, we will try our best to help you find a workaround or an alternate contact to help you.

Cheers,
Anash P. Oommen,

AdWords API Advisor.

On Wednesday, 25 April 2012 14:18:46 UTC+5:30, Snow Globe wrote:

Hello,

First of all thank you Anash for answering some questions on this forum. It is not always easy to get an answer from Google.

On the same boat. We have been waiting for nearly 2 months and have sent many emails, posted many messages, asked local Google people to help us and we are not giving up (we can't or we all lose our jobs).

We adwords certified, analytics qualified, etc. we spend 100% of our time and R&D on adwords and analytics. We have to let go 1 person already because the API token waiting approval so, yes, this is a very serious issue.

We have 1 question: since we have sent our first application, our project has evolved (because we work hard with whatever we had: automated reports, etc. and have been able to set-up new products) and we would like to know how we can communicate the latest version of our project to the API team.

Should we use adwordsapi-tokens@google.com? The answer may seem obvious but despite all our attempts to have a constructive dialogue with adwordsapi-tokens@google.com, we hardly get any answer.

[Snow Globe]

Hello Anash,

Thank you for your help

I did send the latest powerpoint presentation of our project to 3P-Com...@google.com and adwordsapi-tokens@google.com yesterday. Once again, we have checked and re-checked that our business and project complied with the API T&Cs and that it could help our clients (current and future but with no access to the API, we have no product so probably no new clients).

Best,
Benoit

[Anash P. Oommen]

Hi Benoit,

Could you share your API MCC customer id? The review team reached out to me yesterday about it.

Cheers,
Anash P. Oommen,

AdWords API Advisor.

[Jeffrey Roberts]

Hello Anash,

I have been waiting almost two months now and my status is still "pending approval" as well. Any chance you can pass my API MCC Customer ID along with Benoit's for review?

Thank You!

Jeffrey Roberts

[Jeffrey Roberts]

My API MCC Customer ID: 949-161-2206

Thanks Again!

Jeffrey Roberts

[Simon Bouchez]

Hi Anash,

I have exactly the same problem. I have sent many emails to adwordsapi-tokens@google.com as well as a full description of our product. We made sure that we are compliant with Google's policy but it's been 2 months and there is no way to have an update on that matter.

This is critical for us (as it seems to be for many people on this forum). Do you think you can help?

Many thanks,

Simon

[Snow Globe]

Hello Anash

Thank you for getting back to me. MCC account number is 334 719 5535

Please make sure that the team considers the V3 of our projects sent to their email on the 25th of april. 
- Our project has evolved since we first asked for a token (early february)
- We have made sure that we fully respect the API T&Cs (we do not offer any kind of competitive analysis anymore as it required using tools that scrap the internet) as the API is vital to our new projects (we now focus on building tools for our clients).
- We can send direct requests from existing (and hopefully) future clients who have been waiting to test our solution.

A restricted access would do (limited number of units) but we are Adwords Seminar Leaders, Adwords Certified Partners and we need to work, experiment.
Cheers
Benoit

[Gage]

We are also waiting: 

Customer ID: 941-905-4279

Anything we can do to expedite the approval process (we are going on week 3 - but have an app waiting on it - so after you help Snow Globe perhaps you could help us as well?)

-gage

[Snow Globe]

Hello Anash,

We have still no news at all.

- We have sent 7 or 8 emails to adwordsa...@google.com (I am not counting anymore)
- We have been posting many times on this forum
- We are not the V3 of the product for which need access to the API (powerpoint presentation sent to adwordsapi-tokens + 3p compliance on 25th of april)
- We have now asked 5 Google employees (including you) to email "API approval" team and it seems the answers given to them was something like "work in progress" (we never saw the answer ourselves).
- We have had to stop our recruitment process because of this issue (this is obviously the most important point - but does anyone care?)
- We are adwords certified, speak at adwords seminar (I am actually speaking on the 7th of may, as requested by Google inc. - let's hope no one discusses the API)
- We have adapted our product line to make sure we comply at 100% with adwords API terms and conditions.
- We have noticed that many people are in the same situation (well it just takes a visit on the forum).

So what else can we do?
The people in charge of approving API access have put in a desperate situation and have completely ignored us for months. We were just expecting answers, solutions and we were ready to adapt to any request.

- Do we need to initiate legal action (we have objective proof from partners using MCCs that tokens can be approved in much less time)?

- Do we need to send 15 registered letters to different Google employees to make them aware of this situation.

- Do we need to use network and connections within Google to make sure that Google top management knows about this (it will take a couple of phone calls but it is a shame to have to use such methods and disturb people that have nothing to do with API tokens within Google's organisation - these are methods used in corrupted organisations as far as I know)? 

- Do we need to get a token via Odesk (or any other developer platform)? We have been offered by several "freelance" developers to use a "adwords API token" they had already used for other clients (once again, if you need proof of this, I can email it to you). Yes, there is now a black market for developer tokens.

Thank you again for taking the time to get back to us - I am sorry that we all have to waste so much time and energy on this issue,

Benoit

[Gage]

Benoit-

See the conversation between a Googler (Eric Koleda) on Twitter and myself at:

(it is true i light-heartily chat but it's becoming very disheartening and upsetting that Google is making this such a PITA)

http://tweetsbetween.com/Jq

[Snow Globe]

Thank you for sharing this

I've also tried for weeks not to worry too much but I have had to stop working with a person I wanted to employ because of the 8/9 weeks complete silence from the anonymous "adwords-apitoken" email. Who knows how long this silence can last? 3 months? 6 months? 1 year? It is sad and absurd and I will do my best sure that the right people at Google know about this. Something needs to be fixed: I received 1 call from adwords team in Dublin today, 1 other call from the Adsense team and no one can answer my 8 emails about a critical issue? There are some very smart people working at Google and I think they will see that their is a serious resource allocation issue here.

Will let you know if I make any progress

Cheers

[Devin]

We are also waiting since Feb 10th, and have sent numerous emails without any response - our MCC is 670-823-7832.

Thanks,

-Devin

[Simon Bouchez]

Hi everyone,

Despite our many emails and post on this forum, we are in exactly the same situation since we applied early february and we did not get an answer from the API team.... Developing a product compliant with the many rules set by Google has been a real investment for us and it would be nice to at least get an answer...

Our MCC is 304-954-0890 

Thanks for your help

-Simon

[mccm...@clickmeasure.com]

We are experiencing the same problem. We began the process in early February. We received a request for additional information on February 23 which we responded to on the same day and now we have not been able to get a response from our emails. I resent everything with a recap earlier this week but still have not received anything back.

If there is any way the team can pass along my information it would be greatly appreciated.

MCC 304-374-5521

Thanks in advance for your help.

Laura

[pauls]

same issue here, been waiting for what seems like eternity. I'm not even sure how long its been as the 'pending approval' status doesn't show what date we applied.

A few emails, chats etc. but nothing.

Don't understand why the process is so drawn out given we need to comply with Google T&Cs and its a paid service.

Is anyone able to help?

Our CID is 546-419-7187.

Cheers,

Paul

[Paul Harvey]

Anash,

We also started our application several months back.  Could you please add us to the list?

Customer ID: 374-841-8440

Paul Harvey

[Phil Hargreaves]

We've been waiting 6 MONTHS for approval and have only received apologetic emails from Google that it's taking so long and still no end date in sight.

The last email we received was back in March 2012 with the message "Please note that the review may take a few more business days but we are trying our best to expedite the review for you."

I replied to that email but received no response.

If we could be added to the list as well that would be great: CID 517-449-3023

Thanks!

Phil Hargreaves

[Eli Rosenberg]

Hi, I have the same problem, My developer needs badly the developer token approval since my site can't go on without any real data, so far we have been using the sandbox, but we can't go live with fake data. Please take a look at my case.

Customer ID: 496-163-0183

thank you very much.

[Kevin Winter]

Please see this sticky post: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/adwords-api/iAnYkJX1OD8

- Kevin Winter

AdWords API Team