After you've created your ads, it's important to make sure that they're actually appearing to customers. You can use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool or check your account statistics to figure out whether your ads are up and running.
This article goes over the different ways that you can check whether your ads are running.
Instructions
How to preview your ads with the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool
Use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool to see exactly what your text ads look like in Google search results.
- In the top right-hand corner of your Google Ads account, click the tools icon
.
- Under the 'Planning' section, click Ad Preview and Diagnosis.
- Change the settings along the top of the page, and enter a keyword. You’ll see a preview of which ads are being triggered by the keyword based on the settings you’ve selected.
We recommend using the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool instead of searching for your ad on Google.com. By performing searches on Google.com that trigger your ad, you'll accumulate impressions without clicks, which can lower your click-through rate and prevent your ad from appearing as often as it should. Also, if you repeatedly look for your own ad using Google search but never click on it, you might stop seeing it entirely. That's because Google's system stops showing you ads that it thinks you aren't interested in.
If you can’t determine why your ads aren’t showing from the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool, see the following list of possible reasons:
Check that your ads are enabled and eligibleSign in to your Google Ads account and click Ads & assets in the left page menu. An ad that is enabled will have a green dot next to its name, while a paused ad will have a pause icon. To enable a paused ad, click the pause icon, then click Enable.
Ads are reviewed to see if they comply with our advertising policies. Some ads may run on Google Search Network pages before being reviewed, while others may not run at all until they've been reviewed. If your ad is eligible, it will begin to run and you'll see impressions in your account statistics. To see the review status of an ad, check the 'Status' column on the 'Ads & assets' page.
Sign in to your Google Ads account and click Ads & assets in the left page menu. From the Ads page, you can see statistics about your ads, such as clicks, impressions, click-through rates and much more. Use the date range selector in the upper right corner of the page to filter the statistics by date. You can also click Campaigns or Ad groups in the left page menu to see your ad statistics by campaign or ad group.
Customise the table columns to choose which types of information you can see for your ads. Remember, though, that Google Ads reporting isn’t real-time. This means that you may not see clicks and impressions you've received in the last three hours.
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- In the left page menu, click Ad groups, then click on the ad group with keywords you’d like to check.
- Click Keywords in the left page menu.
- Depending on the keyword you want to check, click Search Keywords or Display/Video Keywords.
- To check if a keyword is triggering your ad to show, find the 'Status' column, then place your cursor over the keyword status. The status information that appears gives possible reasons why your ads don’t show in the search results.
There are many things that determine when and where your ad appears. Here are some of the main ones:
- Targeting. Your ad will typically show only to people you've targeted, generally meaning people who are searching for your keywords in the language and location you've selected. If you're trying to find your ad, you may not see it if your settings are different from the ones that you're targeting. For example, if you're searching from a computer in Edinburgh but your ad targets London, your ad won't appear in your search. To successfully preview your ad using any location targeting settings, use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool.
- Ad position. If your ad rank isn't high enough, your ad might not appear on the first page of Google search results. Your ad rank is determined by the quality of your ad (your 'Quality Score') and the maximum cost-per-click bid you've set. Google doesn't show the same ads on each page, so your ad may appear on the second, third or subsequent page. Learn more about how ad position is determined.
To find other reasons why you might not be able to see your ad, use our troubleshooter.
