(updated January 2016)
If you are running Google Adwords, there's a good chance that you haven't been able to resist searching with your target keywords to see if your ad shows up, where and how it looks.
You have probably come across a situation where your ad doesn't show up – either it doesn't show up no matter what you search for, or it shows up for some phrases and not others, or perhaps you are getting anedotal comments that you're 'not there'.
And so naturally, you become concerned that something is wrong. But don't worry - there are legitimate reasons why this happens. Here are the most common....
Keyword mismatch
It is possible that you (or other people) are searching for a phrase that your Adword campaign doesn't target.
You have used up your daily budget
If your daily budget is small, you can reach this limit quite quickly. Google will try and space out and schedule the delivery of your ads to get the best results – from that you can assume that there will be quite long periods of time that your ads won't show no matter what you search for.
This is more likely to be the case for high volume search terms and low budgets. You can choose accelerated delivery if you don't mind your budget being used up within a short space of time but we don't recommend it unless there is a very particular reason.
Your ads are limited to a certain time of day and/or day of the week.
If your target audience is unlikely to be looking for your products and services on a weekend, showing your ads in that time may well lead to low-quality clicks on your ads.
So to get more 'bang for buck' it makes sense to limit when it is show. Which means if you search for your ad outside those times – you won't see it.
Low volume search terms.
If a search term historically has had very low numbers of searches, Google's system can decide not to show the ads. These keyword phrases may (or may not) have a message next to them saying 'rarely shown due to low search volume'.
Google's response to this is to wait until the term starts to get higher traffic volumes which isn't particularly helpful – it might be that the search term gets low volume, but they could still be very profitable phrases for you.
Having said that, based on my experience the number would have to be VERY low for Google to elect not to show them. We also often exclude very low volume phrases if their click through rate (CTR) is also low because this can affect the overall performance of the campaign in terms of bidding cost.
Repeatedly searching for your own ads.
If you repeatedly search for your own ad on Google Search but never click on it, you may stop seeing it. This is because Google's system recognises your computer and stops showing you ads it thinks you not interested in.
Some advertiser's campaigns are based on impression numbers – i.e they pay when the ad is shown, not clicked on. So this would be bad for them in particular.
Location restrictions
If you are targeting a specific location and you aren't in it – you won't see the ad. Because of the way New Zealand's IP numbers were allocated historically, location targeting can be unreliable, so in fact you may still see ads even if you are outside the target location.
Low quality score
If your ad quality score is low it means Google doesn't think it is a good match for a particular search phrase and can limit how often it is shown (or not show it at all). Google wants people to have a good experience – not see ads (and organic results for that matter) that are unrelated to what they are looking for.
Policy violations or restrictions
A particular ad may not be showing for violating any one of a long list of Google's ad policies.
Restricted products that can't be advertised include weapons, cigarettes, pyrotechnic devices, sexual services or products made from endangered species. There are also limits to how and where you can advertise alcohol, financial and legal services. Use of brand names and trademarks (e.g iPhone) are also limited depending on the brand owner.
Your ad may have something technically wrong with it like conflicting display and destination URLs or there's something up with your landing page.
If your ad has been declined for a policy violation you probably know about it anyway.
Other hard-to-spot and minor infractions that can trip you up
- If you set your daily budget to $5, and the average cost-per-click on your account is $7.00 clearly it's not going to get off the ground
- If you are using Google's Autobid feature, make sure the default CPC is not too low - we've seen campaigns stalled because Adwords has based the CPC on historic data that just doesn't gel with more recent CPC prices.
- Negative keywords that conflict - if you have a negative keyword that is set to broad match, it might conflict with the keywords meant to trigger your ads, effectively blocking them. Adwords will normally alert you to a conflict, so watch for notification.
- Don't forget the 'bottom' listings - Adwords ads show at the bottom or the organic listings as well as the top so you may be down there if you scroll right to the bottom of the page.
If all else fails, ask for help
Your campaign dashboard gives you a lot of imformation about where and when your Ads are showing - if you can't decipher them you may want to get an expert involved.
We've found the Google Support folk very helpful, so if you get really stuck and don't want to pay someone to take over - ask them to check your campaign. You will generally get a response and some kind of resolution within 48 hours.
