Launching your new account is an exciting time. Maybe you’re running ads for the first time, eager to drive business to your sleek new website, or maybe you’re an experienced advertiser, trying out a bold strategy with a new agency. Whoever you are, once those campaigns are launched many of us are driven by the same driving impulse — to Google our own ads. Are our ads showing for this keyword? Are we above or below our competitors? Metrics and data are great, but they can pale in comparison to the feeling of seeing your ad on the page, proudly nestled in the top bar, opening the doors to the new business you so richly deserve.
The Problem With Googling Your Ads
The reality is that there are a number of problems with Googling your own ads. Whether or not you see your ads when you search for them can actually tell you surprisingly little about the health of your campaign, and can actually harm your campaigns in the long run.
The first issue is that if your ads are targeted towards specific locations or demographics, you may simply not be one of those targeted few. If your ads are targeted towards desktop users in Oregon, your search from your iPhone in Chicago is very unlikely to trigger your ad.
Google may have also simply chosen not to show your ad for that particular search. If Google estimates that historically you only have enough budget to compete for 70% of the searches on that particular keyword that day, it may only show your keyword 70% of the time. If you happen to be in the segment of searches that don’t see it then it will appear to you that the ad isn’t running, even though everything is fine.
Frequently Googling your own ads may also mean that Google just stops showing them to you. The ad experience is tailored to each user Google doesn’t necessarily know the ads are yours. If they think that you personally aren’t interested in the ads for your company, Google will stop showing them to you entirely.
Googling your own ad may also be costing you money, even if you don’t click on it directly. To understand this, we’ll review the basics of the ad auction process in my next article, Keeping Tabs On Your Ads & Auction Basics.
If you’re a Logical Position client and you’re concerned about the health of your account or are confused about anything you’ve read, we encourage you to contact your account manager. We’ll work with you to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible with the ongoing health and performance of your account.
If your agency isn’t keeping you up to date with how your account is performing and you’re Googling your ads to make sure your ads are even running, we encourage you to call us at 1-800-875-2129 or email us today and let us get you back on track. Good luck!
