AdWords Adviser

Archive for May, 2009

Are you getting frustrated with Google because your new AdWords ads not showing on any of the search engine results pages for the keywords you’ve selected. And no matter what you do and how hard you try to fix the problem, you just can’t seem to find a solution.

In desperation, you try sending an e-mail to Google Support, but all you get in reply is an automated message that doesn’t really answer your question.

You’re now probably fed up of trying to work out the reason why your campaign isn’t working and ready to give up!

STOP and ask yourself this key question: could there be a really simple answer to your problem?

Everyone experiences problems with AdWords from time to time.

This probably comes as no surprise, but AdWords ads’ not showing on the search engine results page is the biggest problem new users struggle with.

If you’re like many searching for an answer to this issue, then you can’t afford to wait days for Google to solve your dilemma. You need a solution now!

Would you like to get your Google AdWords advertising campaign working again?

Your about to uncover in this article, 4 very common reasons why your AdWords ads not showing on Google.

1. Position
Most people know that AdWords ads appear to the right of the search results page and on occasions, at the top. The exact position of your ad on the page is in part, dependent on your bid relative to other bidders for that same keyword.

Now let me ask you this, could it be that your AdWords ads not showing on the search engine results page because you’re not biding enough for a first page listing?

Solution:

• Log into your AdWords account
• Click on the “Reports” tab.
• Select the “Placement / Keyword Performance” report.
• Don’t change any of the default settings.
• Run the report.

As you sit and read the report that you’ve just created, look carefully at the amounts in the ‘Est. First Page Bid’ column. To get your ad displayed on the first page of search engine results for a particular keyword, you must be bidding at least the amount shown in this column.

You can see what your current bid is for any keyword in the ‘Current Maximum CPC’ column. If you’re not currently bidding enough for any keyword to get your ad on the first results page, then you’ll need to raise your bid to at least the minimum.

2. Quality Score
In recent years, Google has introduced quality score to AdWords. This is like a grade out of ten that reflects how relevant your ad and website are to the keyword you’ve chosen to bid against.

Just suppose you had a keyword with a poor quality score. It is quite obvious that Google would consider the ad that that keyword triggers to be less relevant. They will therefore show it less often.

Solution:
To check if this is the problem with any of your keywords, run the “Placement / Keyword Performance” report described in the previous point.

Look carefully at the ‘Quality Score’ column of your report and highlight any keywords with a score of less than five. You’ll need to improve the quality score for these keywords before they’ll show regularly in the search results.

You’re probably now wondering how you can improve your keywords quality score?

When you add a keyword to AdWords, Google uses three main factors to determine your quality score:

•   The quality of your ad.
• The amount of success other advertisers have had using the same keyword.
• The calibre of your website.

Once your ad has been running for a while, your keywords quality score is influenced mainly by how many people click on your ad. The more clicks an ad gets, the better the quality score for that keyword will be.

The right thing to do to improve a keywords quality score is to:

• write a better ad,
• make the landing page of your website more relevant to the keyword you’re bidding on, and,
• find keywords that are more relevant to your niche.

To find more relevant keywords for your niche, you should purchase a good keyword selection tool.

3. Daily Budget
If your like me, you will be keeping a tight control over your AdWords spending. Every campaign that you run will have a strict daily budget allocated to it.

But imagine what would happen if the budget for your campaign was set much lower than your daily spend. In just a short while, your entire allocation could be used up. Google doesn’t want this to happen. They want to give you the maximum opportunity to get your ads seen by as wide an audience as possible.

There is only one solution to this, to keep your campaign in budget, Google must show your ad less frequently. Instead of seeing your ad every time a search is run, they might show it every second time, or third or even fourth.

Set a budget limit that is much too low and you could end up with your ads not being shown at all.

Solution:
There are three ways to approach this problem:

• Increase your campaign daily budget limit,
• Divide your campaign into smaller campaigns and allocate a budget to each. If you keep your most profitable keywords in one campaign, you can allocate the biggest proportion of your budget to it. Get the balance between your campaigns right and your most profitable keywords will keep running the longest, maximising your profit potential.
• Use AdWords ad scheduling feature to control the times that your ads appear on the search engine results pages to those periods when your website stats indicate that you’re most likely to make a sale.

4. Disapproved Ad
Now finally, remember that Google has strict guidelines for all its ads. If your ad has not kept within these guidelines then it will be disapproved. To see if disapproved ads is the reason why your AdWords ads not showing on Google, use the Google “disapproved ads” tool.

Solution:

•   log into your account.
• Click on the “Tools” tab.
• Select the ‘disapproved ads’ tool.

Any ads that have been disapproved will appear here along with the reason. Correct the problem and resubmit your ad. It will automatically be re-evaluated and if all is in order will run.

If you’re new to advertising with AdWords, then you maybe familiar with this story:

You’ve spent hours working with a decent keyword selection tool to find the best keywords for your niche and you’re nearly bald from pulling your hair out in frustration; agonising over the right text for all your ads. Now finally, your ready to go – but why are your AdWords ads not showing on Google?

You type your keywords into the Google search engine again and again, but your ads never show. Thinking you must have done something wrong, you start wildly changing things. Keywords, ad text, bids, but nothing works. Finally in frustration, you send an e-mail to Google Support hoping that they will tell you what your doing wrong.

Now it’s three days later and Google haven’t replied or the reply they’ve sent you doesn’t answer your question. Now you’re really frustrated!

“Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.”
Henry Ford

After you have read every word of this article, you will know what the three most common reasons new advertisers have problems with their AdWords ads not showing on Google are and how to resolve them.

1) Your ads in review

Most people know that Google reviews all keywords and ads before allowing them to appear on their search engine. In most instances, this is a quick process taking minutes or, at most, a few hours to complete.

The problem is that sometimes the review process can take considerably longer. If your ad needs to be reviewed by a Google AdWords Specialist, then it may take two or three working days for it to be reviewed.

Here’s the bottom line, if your ad has not been reviewed within these time limits, there’s something very wrong. The problem could be with Google; it could be that they just haven’t got around to reviewing your ad yet. If you think that this maybe the problem with your account then log a polite request with Google Support asking them to look into the problem for you.

http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/request.py?display=usertype

If you’re thinking, you’ve already emailed Google Support for help and got no reply or got a reply that doesn’t answer your question, then be patient. Send another email to Google Support that includes these details:

• Your account number (but not login details).
• The Campaign and AdGroup names for the problem ad.
• Full details of your problem.

When you detail your problem, don’t give Google Support any excuse to ignore or miss-understand your issue. Don’t rant or include information that is not relevant to the problem your experiencing. Come straight to the point and include all relevant details. An example of the text you might use is:)

“The ad in the campaign named “Raincoats” and Adgroup “blue” is not showing on Google after three days. Can you please tell me when my ad will be reviewed?”

Earlier on, I told you that there were three common reasons why you might be having a problem with your AdWords ads not showing on Google. While you wait for a response from Google Support, read every word of the rest of this article and you may find a different solution to your problem.

2) Your account has been suspended.

The fact of the matter is that this is by far the most common problem we encounter with new accounts. Google has suspended your account because it violates one or more of their terms and conditions.

Advertisers often argue that their AdWords account shows some impressions and even sometimes a few click thru’s, but after a few hours or maybe days, the ads have just stopped working.

The reality is that this is just a symptom of how Google works. Typically, they’ll check your keywords and ads very quickly and if they’re alright, let you start advertising. A few hours or maybe days later, Google runs a check on your website. If it’s content doesn’t meet with their terms and conditions, then they’ll suspend your account immediately.

To understand the problem Google is having with your website, log into your account and go to:

my account >>account preferences>>google adwords terms and conditions

This document shows you the terms and conditions that apply to your AdWords account. Read them carefully and look at your keywords, ads and website with a critical eye. The whole website, not just your landing page. If you find anything that even comes close to violating a rule, then change it.

Once you’ve made all necessary changes to make your website comply with Google’s advertising conditions, contact Google Support, tell them the changes to your website that you’ve made and ask them to lift the suspension of your account.

Contact Google support here:
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/request.py?display=usertype

3) Your advertising as an Affiliate

Okay, you’re probably thinking what is an affiliate.

If you’re advertising in Google for a business that rewards you for each visitor or customer you send them, then you are an affiliate of that business.

The reality is that Google has no objection to affiliates advertising on their network, if they don’t break any of the rules.

The most common mistake that affiliate advertisers make is that in their AdWords ads, they point the “Destination URL” to the affiliates website. The problem is that Google will only show one ad on a results page for every website. If you’re one of many affiliates (and you probably are) this can seriously limit the number of times your ad gets shown as you’ll all be competing for the same single slot on Google’s results page.

The correct thing to do is create a website or blog of your own and add content to this about your chosen niche. Within your content, include your affiliate links.

The “destination url” of your ads should now point to the relevant pages within your website or blog. Searchers can now click on your ad and get more information about the product they seek. If your content is good and convincing, they’ll click on your affiliate link and make a purchase.

You now have the three most common solutions to the problem of your AdWords ads not showing in Google. One of these solutions should resolve your problem.

If you’re still having difficulties with your AdWords advertising then you need to take a look at our quick fix consultancy services.

Key Searches: providing you with the AdWords help you need to make your  advertising more profitable.