Billing and Approval Problems
The first thing to do is to check your Google Ads account. Any major problems such as billing details not working or having no campaigns live will be flagged up in a red bar along the top.
If your ads have been disapproved for some reason, that should show up as a notification. Click the bell icon to find out.
Don’t Check the Search Results
If there aren’t any obvious issues in Google Ads, you’ll probably be tempted to search for things on Google that you think you should be showing for. Don’t. Seriously.
Looking for your own ads increases impressions but as you’re not clicking, this lowers your click through rate. And it won’t necessarily show you if the ads are running or not.
Ad Preview and Diagnosis
There are two good ways to see if your ads are running, both from within Google Ads itself:
See if there is impression data for your campaigns. If you’re getting impressions, the ads are running. If you want to check if ads are showing for a particular keyword, go to the spanner icon at the top, and then ‘Ad Preview and Diagnosis’. This is a special preview version of the search results you can use to check if ads are showing. Limited Budgets
Often, your ads won’t be running continuously throughout the day, which is one reason you might not see them. This isn’t a problem. You’ll be able to tell if this is the case because the campaign will say it’s ‘Limited by Budget’.
Most advertisers don’t have an infinite amount of money to spend, so Google spaces the ads out throughout the day to stick within your budget. If you’re getting some impressions and clicks, that’s fine. You should only increase the daily budget when you’re sure you’re making a good return.
Low Positions
Another reason you might not see your ads is because they’re at the bottom of page one or even on page two of the search results. This isn’t necessarily a problem either – especially if the campaign is limited by budget.
If your budget is £10 a day and you’re paying £1 a click, you can get a maximum of 10 clicks a day. If you bid less, you might appear lower down the page, but you could get more clicks and therefore better results.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to ‘beat’ your competitors by appearing above them in the search results. Let them bid too strongly and waste their money, while you get better ROI from your ads!
Need help managing your Google Ads account? We can help! Find out more here or get in touch.
