Google’s Ad Preview Tool is a valuable and underused resource for clients who have paid search campaigns running. While I do my best to frequently explain that seeing your own ads on search results is not an effective way to measure paid search performance, it appears to be the preferred way for some clients to wrap their hands around what they are paying for.
Before I get started on the Ad Preview Tool, let me quickly explain why searching for your ads is a bad idea.
Pretend, for a minute, that you have an ice-cream stand. In order to attract more people, you hire a person to put flyers up on bulletin boards. Each board charges you every time someone pulls one of the tabs from your flyer. Each tab brings someone back to your stand.
Anxiously, you run around to all the bulletin boards to see your flyer. You wait in line for your turn to see the flyer and once you do, you just walk away. Now I (the person you hired) try to explain to you that this is a bad idea. You assure me it’s OK because you aren’t pulling the tabs.
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But is it OK? Is it OK that you’ve taken a spot in the line to see the flyer, or that you shifted (ever so slightly) the results that I can provide you?
Google’s auction for ads is far more complex than this, but the basic principal remains the same. Save for satiating our own narcissistic desire to see ourselves, there is no reason for us to intentionally search for our own ads.
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If you’re desperate to see how your ads will appear on Google then use this tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool
The Ad Preview Tool will allow you to customize your search options to show whether or not your ad displays under certain requirements. The tool allows you to search on any domain, in any country, and on the desktop or mobile platform. It’s essentially the exact same thing as searching on Google, except you can’t skew results from it.
The Bottom Line: If you want to see your ads, use the Ad Preview Tool. If you want to measure your ROI, set up some goals with your SEM team or SEM agency and make sure the results align with those goals.
