Stop Searching For Your Google Ads!

MoreVisibility - August 7, 2007

I am often told by clients that they search for their Google Cost Per Click ads on a regular (almost daily) basis. In fact, a client recently told me she searches multiple times a day, just to make sure she is seeing her ads! I advised that although it is very enticing, as well as reasonable to want to see where her ads are appearing, it is definitely not recommended. Here is why…

Searching for your Google ads can lead to a low click through rate (CTR). Click Through Rate is defined in Wikipedia as “a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions).” An impression is when your ad is displayed on a search results page. In laymen’s terms, if your number of impressions continues to increase, however, your clicks do not increase, your click through rate will be poor. This is exactly what occurs when you search for your ads on a regular basis. You are pretty much telling Google that your ad is not enticing enough to warrant a click, and your positions on the page will be lowered as a result. In actuality, not only does it lower your positions, it can also lead to higher click costs, because Google can actually state that a particular keyword is not performing well, forcing a higher mininum bid to even keep your ads running.

Since we strongly recommend against monitoring / searching for your paid ads in Google, I have been providing many of my clients with a link to help them monitor their paid ads quickly, accurately, and without negatively impacting the performance. Please see this link, which you can access to view your ads without being penalized: https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool.

It makes perfect sense to want to see how your ads are performing. Feel free to search for your Google ads to your heart’s content, but only with Ad Preview!!