Why You Shouldn't be Searching for Your Own Ads

If you're doing a PPC ad campaign, you might be thinking of checking out your ad to see how it's performing. However, searching for your own ad isn't a very good move and can hurt your overall campaign. Here's why:

You'll be wasting your budget

One of the main reasons you don't want to search for your own ads is because most paid search campaigns are pay-per-click, which means that you will be charged for any clicks to your ads, including your own clicks. Every time your ad is clicked on, your AdWords account will be billed.

If you click on your ad and then immediately leave, Google will record it as a bounce. This will ultimately decrease the quality score of your ad because Google thinks that your ad is not relevant. The lower your quality score, the more it will cost to show your ad or your ad will be shown less often. This, in turn, can lead to fewer click-throughs and less relevant traffic, therefore less leads.

Searching may skew your data

Even searching for a keyword but not actually clicking on your ad can negatively affect your campaign. When you do this, you are artificially inflating the impressions which can skew the overall data. This is another way your quality score can be negatively impacted since Google believes that the ad was seen but wasn't interesting enough to entice someone to click on it. Google will then view your ad as less relevant compared to the others that they rotate in that have higher click-through rates.

Your ad will not show every time

Even if you have a perfectly crafted PPC ad campaign, many different factors go into whether or not your ad will show, so don't expect it to show up every time. Factors include what day it is, the time, the device being used, and the type of ad, among others. Because even the best ad campaigns will miss impressions due to these factors, you cannot assume something is wrong with the campaign if your ad doesn't show up in every search.

Your IP address might be blocked

To determine which ads to show you, Google will use your computer's IP address. If Google sees you repeatedly clicking on an ad, it may block you because the action may seem like a malicious attack. On the other hand, if Google notices you continually searching for your own ads and not clicking on them, it may stop showing them to you since this action indicates to Google that the ad isn't relevant to you.

The right way to preview your ad

So now that you know why it's not a good idea to search your ad on Google, what can you do to see how your ad stacks up against your competition? The correct way to view your ad is through the AdWords Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool. This allows you to preview your ad and can help determine the factors that may cause your ad not to show up.

To get to the preview tool, click on 'Tools,' then click on 'Ad Preview and Diagnosis.' Once you're on this screen, you can fill in the location, language, and type of device you would like to preview your ad on. Then enter your keyword you'd like to check and click 'Preview.' Your ad will appear in the search results if it's eligible to show. If your keyword doesn't trigger anything, a message will show up explaining why your ad is not there.

While it can be tempting just to do a couple of searches in Google when your new ads launch, you're only hurting your performance and spending your ad budget on yourself. Using the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool is the best way to search for your own ads without negatively affecting your campaign.

Conclusion

When searching for your own ad, you're only hurting your campaign. Searching for your own ad will eat into your budget and cost you money, it'll skew your overall data, decrease your quality score, and due to certain criteria, your ad may not show up every time. Also, search for your ads too much, and your IP address may be blocked, whether you're continually clicking on the ad or not. This will lead to you not seeing the ad at all and could lead to unnecessary confusion and concern that your ad isn't showing up for anyone. So, stick with the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool to check up on your ads.

Feel free to reach out to us if you're interested in getting some help with your ad campaign or if you have any questions about searching for your own ads.