Are you spending money on Paid Media Ads and not seeing them when you do live searches?
This is an all too common occurrence and there are many reasons why this could be happening to you.
V Digital Services prides itself on being transparent, so here are some tips and tricks for you to consider while looking for your live ads.
Official Ad Preview Tool
Bookmark this link and get in the habit of using this tool instead of a live Google search: http://google.com/adpreview
Why Not Do Live Searches?
Geography & Exclusions
You might be located outside of the targeted area of your ads. The Ad Preview Tool will allow you to pick the specific geographic area from which to preview your ads. We suggest picking your store’s zip code for the most accurate representation of your local ads.
In order to generate more new business for you, your Paid Media Team will sometimes stop users from seeing your ads if they have already engaged with your business by phone, form, purchase, or significant website usage. If this is the case, you could be an excluded user. Your Paid Media Team will be able to answer this question for you.
You are not your ad’s target audience.
The delivery of your ads is a finely tuned machine and if you’re not a potential consumer, chances are good that you’ll see your ads much less frequently than they actually deliver to other targeted users who are more inclined to buy.
How do you know which search is a potential customer?
In addition to extensive keyword management, there are many tools available to a Paid Media Specialist to control the delivery of ads, including what is sometimes called “Enhanced Bidding.” Tools like this allow your Paid Media Specialist to use historical conversion performance to modify the delivery of your ads. This method is more finely tuned and more effective as more conversions are achieved.
Because you’re unlikely to call or buy from your own business after clicking a paid ad, you are often filtered out of your own ad delivery, even though you might be using the same search terms as other users.
Does it hurt the campaign when I search?
Yes. When you search, one of two things happens:
- You see your ad and it accrues impressions with no clicks, decreasing its click-through-rate.
- You don’t see the ad and your search activity dings your campaign’s impression share report, making it a little harder for your specialist to manage the bids and budget allocation.
Key Performance Indicators
V Digital Services has outstanding metric reporting and attribution, so the success of your campaign should be measured by your actual Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and not by the preview of your own ad.
What are your KPIs? Are they phone calls? Form fills? Online sales? Your V Digital Services Team is always able to provide you updates on these important metrics.
Official Troubleshooting Tool
For more details on the above information, you can use Google’s official troubleshooting form, here:
http://support.google.com/adwords/troubleshooter/1711301?hl=en
If you’re still concerned about ad delivery, your V Digital Services Account Manager is more than willing to provide a thorough diagnosis and report the results back to you. All you have to do is ask!