Why Can’t I See My Ads On Google?
It may surprise you to learn that you won’t see you advert displayed each time you look for it on Google Ads – and for various reasons, from competitors’ ads appearing instead to budgetary considerations.
To confirm that customers can see your advert, even if you can’t, study the relevant ad statistics. If you’re not seeing any spend, impressions or clicks, you may need to take action, but don’t worry. Your advert’s no-show could be due to a number of factors:
- Has a keyword or ad been disapproved?
Google Ads won’t approve keywords relating to drugs, cigarettes, firearms and some alcohol products, but also some less obvious subjects such as fireworks. There’s also a text policy with Google Ads, which you’ll need to follow. Ensure nothing you’ve written could have been disapproved.
- Is your budget limited or depleted?
You’ll have an average daily budget with Google Ads, which varies from day to day. If your budget has already been used up, unfortunately your advert won’t appear.
Equally, your ads won’t show if any of your account billing information isn’t correct, so double check.
- Could search volume be too low?
Check this via the Google Keyword Planner; you may decide to swap your keywords for those with a higher search volume.
- Is your campaign or ad group paused?
It may sound obvious, but ensure the campaign or ad group you want to see is set to active, rather than paused.
- Are negative keywords hindering display?
Negative keywords stop your ad from being displayed to those searching with a particular word or phrase. And while they’re a very helpful tool for blocking unwanted traffic, check you haven’t added any which could cancel out the keywords you do want to use.
- Is your scheduling off?
Your ads will only run on the days and at the times you’ve scheduled. Are you sure your particular audience will be viewing them then? Equally, ads only show to people in the locations chosen. If you’re elsewhere when you look, you won’t be able to see them.
- Too many searches?
If you’re looking repeatedly for your own business but don’t click on your ad, after a while it may stop appearing, simply because Google will stop showing you ads if it thinks you’re not interested. (Although the Ad Preview tool can still show you what it looks like in the search results.)
- Do you have any incorrectly placed bid adjustments?
Bid adjustments let you show ads more or less often according to factors such as time of day, location or smartphone use. Check whether you have set any which could have thrown your campaign off-kilter.
How we can help
At Front Page Advantage, we’ve years of experience creating powerful Google Ads campaigns aimed at giving clients the results they need. Get in touch if you think your ads aren’t performing as you’d like, whether you’re a new or existing customer. We’ll soon have your campaign firmly back on track.