Are your business’s Google Ads not appearing when you search for them? Don’t panic!
For starters, manually searching your ads is not actually the best way to evaluate their success. In fact, searching your ads can actually present harmful repercussions – particularly in their ability to reach potential customers. Here we will discuss the reasons behind why your Google Ads are not appearing when you search, as well as the potential consequences for searching and not clicking on your ads.
Why Your Ads Aren’t Appearing in Search
First and foremost, it is important to understand that your ads will not appear in every search…and that is okay! Several factors affect and influence the visibility of your ads, and just because they don’t appear for you does not mean they aren’t appearing for potential customers.
The issue of your ads not appearing in your search is most commonly attributed to keywords. While keywords are often not the only, or sometimes even the main reason behind this issue, failure to use appropriate keywords will affect the visibility and success of your ads. For example, using keywords with a low search volume will decrease the likelihood of your ad appearing in potential customers’ searches. In order to reach your target audience, it’s equally important to use relevant keywords as it is to pick keywords with high search volumes. This strategy will increase the likelihood of your ads being displayed in relevant and similar searches.
There are other factors that affect whether your ads appear in searches. Some of these factors include location targeting, budget, scheduling of ads, and bidding strategies. With so many variables contributing to the appearance of your ads in a search, it should come as no surprise that they won’t appear every time. Therefore, searching your ads is not the best method to measure their success and, it can actually be detrimental to your ads in the future.
The Consequences of Searching (and Not Clicking)
Repeated searching of your ads and then not clicking – while this may seem like an obvious and harmful course of action – is actually incredibly detrimental to your ads. While you don’t want to be charged for clicking, not doing so alerts Google’s algorithm that the ad did not satisfy your keyworded search. This directly hurts your click-through rate (CTR), which is determined by the number of clicks on your ad divided by the number of times your ad appears in a search. A low click-through rate tells Google that your ad is not relevant to the search (the associated keywords, especially). As a result, Google will hide your ad in future searches. While your ad may still appear to others, Google will recognize your computer has searched and not clicked, which will hide this ad from your searches.
Alternatives to Evaluate Your Ad’s Success
The bottom line is, don’t rely on searching your ads to measure their success. Repeated searching and not clicking is a harmful technique. Rather, turn to some alternative methods, tools, and services to measure your ads performance. There are a variety of online tools and applications that test and measure ad performance.
Zero Gravity Marketing (ZGM) offers digital marketing services, including SEO, PPC, social media, and more. At Zero Gravity Marketing, our experienced team understands how to develop ads that will reach your unique target audience. Let’s work together! Contact ZGM today.
