PPC advertising can be an effective way of getting your website noticed, offering a consistent stream of highly targeted traffic if it is done well. PPC is a great addition to a social media marketing strategy. However, if a paid search campaign is configured poorly it can be expensive, or you may find that your ads are not shown as much as you would like them to be. Experts at Yoma can help manage your PPC but here is a quick look at some of the most common reasons why your advertisements might not be getting seen.
1. Too Low a PPC Budget
If your keyword cost is high and your daily budget is low, Google will not show your ad. Make sure that your daily budget is high enough for the type of campaign that you are running. If you are in a competitive niche, you may need a fairly high bid to beat other advertisers.
2. Incorrect Billing Information
If you have had your AdWords account a while, your credit or debit card may have expired. If there are any issues with your billing, your ads won’t run. Double-check your payment details!
3. The Ad Group Is Paused
Make sure that the ad group and the PPC campaign group advertisement is in is set to active. This may seem simple, but it is easy to overlook - especially if you have a lot of advertisements.
4. Your Chosen Keywords Are Too Low
Your advertisements will only be shown if someone searches for the keywords in question. Low-volume keywords will, naturally, not generate a lot of impressions. Use the Google Keywords checker to find more popular searches.
5. Your Ads Contain Disapproved Keywords
If your text is in violation of Google’s ad text policy, then your advertisements will not be approved. You will be sent an email if this is the case. Check Google’s AdWords Guidelines to find a list of keywords which are not permitted. Google will not allow ads for firearms, drugs, alcohol or fireworks, for example.
6. Your Ads Contain Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are keywords that you block. For example, if you sell stuffed Jaguars, you might block keywords to do with cars to prevent searches for the Jaguar vehicle from showing up. Make sure that your negative keyword settings aren’t so strict that they are blocking legitimate searches.
7. Your Quality Score Is Low
Your quality score is a combination of many factors - your keywords, bidding, CTR, etc. If it is lower than the score your competitors have, you will end up paying more per impression, and likely seeing fewer impressions too.
8. Your Location Targeting Is Too Narrow
For local searches, Google uses a combination of searcher IP and intent to show ads. Check that you are targeting the right location. If you are only targeting a handful of cities, that might explain why few people are seeing your ad.
9. Your Ads Are Showing, But You Can’t See Them
For the most part, you will not want to see your own ads. You may have blocked your own IP address in the AdWords control panel and then forgotten you have done so. Check the IP address exclusion page in your AdWords control panel to find out if this is the case.
10. You Have Keyword Matching Issues
If you have several ads targeting similar keywords, you may find that the wrong advert shows for the keyword that you are searching for. You may need to use negative keywords to ensure that the right ad shows for each search. This will take some experimentation to get right on a large account.
As you can see, there are a number of reasons why your ads might not be showing up. Take a close look at your AdWords account and work through your ads step by step until you find the problem. If you still can’t see what the issue is, contact your Google Rep for assistance. It is worth working on your paid search strategy - once your campaigns are running well, they can produce a very good ROI.
