This is a guide for any issues that may come up via Channel Connect and ways to diagnose, and hopefully fix, the issue.
Troubleshooting
Symptom
I keep seeing the error message, "Missing ID columns in file: Campaign ID, Group ID, Keyword ID".
Solution
- Navigate to the settings page for the account you are trying to upload cost data for. Check the Cost file has IDs? setting. If this is set to Yes, the platform expects that the upload will contain Campaign ID, Group ID, and Keyword ID columns. Please add these to your upload file, if available, and re-upload.
- If the account setting for Cost file has IDs? is incorrect (or needs to be changed), you need to unlink this account and create a new account with the correct settings. Please note that all historical cost and revenue data will be lost when you unlink the account.
Symptom
My cost file keeps failing saying I am missing a column when it is in the file I am uploading.
Solution
- Verify that your cost file is in a tab delimited text format.
- Verify that the column names are in the exact case as that specified in the Universal Channels cost file specifications and there are no extraneous spaces.
- Re-upload the cost file.
Symptom
The revenue file shows errors "Keyword not found in group" or "Warning: attributed to the group" after the cost file is uploaded.
Solution
- Check the uploaded cost file and ensure that the object names have not changed (if the file has object IDs) mid-way in the file for the same ID. This is an unlikely scenario however, if this is the case, the app will create the object with the name that is in the latest date.
For example, if on the first row the Keyword text is 'red shoes', but on the next day this Keyword with the same Keyword ID shows up as 'red shoe', the platform will create a keyword 'red shoe'. As a result, the first row will fail in the revenue upload as red shoes' does not exist in the platform.
Symptom
I am seeing an “Invalid clicks” error for some rows in the file being uploaded.
Explanation
The platform does not expect to see clicks exceeding impressions. If it sees this, it errors out the row. First, verify that this data is accurate. If it is and intended, you will need to update the Impressions count in the file to equal the Clicks and re-upload the file for the row to process.
Symptom
I am seeing an error that says “Campaign (or Group, Keyword) with this name already exists”.
Explanation
You will typically only see this error if the cost file you are uploading includes IDs for all the objects (campaigns, groups, keywords). This error comes if there is already an existing object with the same name but a different ID in the system. The platform expects unique names for all campaigns in a given account (and likewise unique names for all groups in a campaign and keywords in a group). To fix this error, you will need to either rename or delete one of the duplicate objects in the platform.
Symptom
The cost metrics in the platform are incorrect when I compare them to those in the publisher’s interface.
Explanation
To get to the root cause of this:
- Find a specific keyword, and date where there is a discrepancy.
- Next, search for the cost file for that date in your Activity Log (look for a job that says Updating campaigns for [account name].
- Click on the file and look for that keyword and date.
- Check to make sure there aren’t any errors in the file and that the data in that file matches what you see in the publisher interface.
If there are errors in the file, check other areas of this troubleshooting guide to understand what the root causes of the errors are.
If the file itself is inaccurate, inquire with your publisher rep as to why there is a discrepancy. You can also ask them to resubmit the cost data for a certain time period.
Symptom
I drop my cost file in the correct FTP location, but I do not see the data populate in the platform.
Solution
This is most likely caused by a user access issue. The username for the FTP needs to have Write access in the platform. To change user access in the platform, simply follow these steps:
- Click the Admin link in the upper-right.
- Select the Users sub-tab.
- Click on the name of the FTP user.
- Find the relevant platform Client under CLIENTS & ACCESS PRIVILEGES and make sure Write is checked off for each Client.
