We get it. Seeing your business name across Google for the first few times is like having your own name in the rolling credits of a movie — it’s exciting! But, by searching for your own ads on Google, you’re actually undoing their potential success.
Still tempted to search? We thought so, and we have the answer. In this guide, we’ll show you the top reasons why you shouldn’t search for your own ads on Google, as well as how you can do so without impacting your results. It’s a win-win all round.
Be sure to share this article with everyone in your business, as well as your family and friends, so they don’t impact your Google Ads results.
Photo by Lucian Novosel on Unsplash.
Top 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Search for Your Own Ads on Google
1. Your audience collection data won’t be as accurate.
Google knows a lot about you. Through your own Google account and what you do online, the search engine can normally tell your age, sex, location and what you do and don’t like. They then use this data to help provide you with the most relevant search results to you, including the ads you see.
When you create a campaign in Google Ads and it goes out online, Google will track exactly who is seeing and interacting with your ad. Then, they start to only show your ad to people who are more likely to interact — all thanks to that user data collection.
If you go and search for your ad and see it, your data is going to be collected. This skews the data and will influence Google to show your ad to people like you, who may not necessarily be the same as your ideal customer.
Bonus tip: If the thought of search engines tracking everything you do freaks you out, use an incognito window to browse, and clear your cookies regularly. You should still not go searching for your ads if you’re using an incognito browsing window.
2. The reduced click through rates impacts your results.
Click through rate (CTR) is the percentage or number of people who are seeing your ad and then clicking on it. Chances are, you’re running a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, so you’re not going to click on your ad as you know it’s going to cost you money. However, this is hurting your ads even further.
Your Google Ads Specialist uses your CTR as part of how they optimise your ad. A less than desired CTR will result in your specialist changing your ad to hopefully help influence people who see your ad to click.
The problem with this is, because you searched for your ads, impacting your audience data, and you affected the CTR, the analytics are not pure or authentic. Even if your specialist is aware of you searching for your ads and clicking or not, it’s going to take your ads longer to actually do what they’re made for — getting you leads.
3. How much you pay for each click on your ad may increase.
Your campaigns receive something called a quality score. Many factors impact your quality score, but the one relevant to you searching for your ads is it being reduced by making your ad less relevant.
When Google sees your ad is not receiving adequate clicks, they consider it not being as relevant, which decreases your score. As a result, your lower quality score is going to push up your cost per click, and you’re most likely going to have to pay more to get a decent position in the ad results.
A good Search Engine Marketing Specialist will be able to reverse this over time, but it could all be prevented if you just avoid searching for your ads on Google.
4. You may lose control of your ad that’s shown.
Another thing that can happen if your ads are counted as not as relevant is that Google may create their own variation of your ad. This is something they do with the intention of ‘helping’ DIY Google Ads managers who may not really know what they’re doing. However, when you do know what you’re doing and it’s something as simple as someone looking for the ads who shouldn’t be, it’s very frustrating.
Essentially, if Google sees your ad is not performing over time, they may go in and change it to try and encourage people to click on your ad. At the end of the day, they want you to do well so you keep investing with them. But this means you lose control of your branding and messaging, which no business owner wants.
5. It may not be possible for you to see your ads.
The reality is, you may not even be able to actually find your ad. This isn’t because it’s not out there and working, it simply means you’re missing the targeting window.
As part of your campaign targeting and setup, your specialist may set specific timeframes or audience themselves. If you’re not looking at that specific time or aren’t of that audience, you’re not going to see your ad, but as you can see from the other 4 reasons above, this is a good thing!
How to See Your Google Ads Without Affecting Your Results
Utilise your Google Ads Specialist’s preview tool.
Not every search engine marketing agency is going to have a preview tool for you to see your ads. However, we do at Localsearch, and we want to ensure you know it’s available.
As part of our testing process, we utilise a Google Ads preview tool, which shows us exactly what your campaign will look like on search results, without it actually being there. For you, this means you can see a simulator of your ads online, without impacting your results.
It also means if you want any changes made before your ads go live, you have the opportunity to do so.