Some Google Ads advertisers are seeing a bug that causes the option to add notes to disappear from the account change popup, making it harder to document optimizations and performance shifts.

The issue was flagged by paid search consultant Odi Caspi, who says the problem has appeared intermittently over the past couple of weeks.

What advertisers should be seeing:

Screenshot 2026 01 23 At 19.45.19Screenshot 2026 01 23 At 19.45.19

Caspi shares his view below:

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Why we care. Account notes are a key workflow tool for agencies and in-house teams tracking changes over time. Losing easy access to notes makes troubleshooting performance swings harder and weakens institutional memory across teams.

What users are seeing. In affected accounts, the “Add note” option no longer appears in the standard popup where advertisers typically annotate changes. The issue appears to be sporadic, working normally at times and disappearing at others.

Workarounds, for now. Caspi says one workaround is clicking on an existing note, which then reveals the option to add a new one. The downside: this only works if a note exists in the current date range.

Another option, shared by Paid Media Specialist, Dids Reeve, is to open the Notes panel from the “More” (burger) menu, where the add-note function may still be accessible.

What’s next. Google has not publicly acknowledged the bug or shared a timeline for a fix. Until then, advertisers relying on notes may need to use alternative entry points — and double-check that important changes are being properly documented.

First seen. This error was first spotted by Caspi who shared his view of camapign reports on LinkedIn


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Anu AdegbolaAnu Adegbola

Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.

In 2008, Anu started her career delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side. Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event – PPC Live and host of weekly podcast PPC Live The Podcast.

She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US, UK, Munich, Berlin), Friends of Search (Amsterdam, NL), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna, IT) and more.