AdWords ads not showing 1

[Foamcow]

I have a client running a small AdWords campaign.

Until recently it was all working as expected.

However, last week his ads stopped showing - this seemed to coincide with turning on the position filter (to keep his ad at position 3).

The filter has been turned off but still the ads don't show.

He has contacted Google who said the ad was showing.

If I check Google.com then his ad does indeed show, however if I check Google.co.uk his ad doesn't show.

The Regional filtering is set up to display only to UK users.


Any ideas as to why the ad shows on Google.com but not on Google.co.uk?

I've passed this info on to my client to pass on to Google but it does seem like something is wrong here.



<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[1DMF]

lol - and you were defending the country split google on my post.

Karma , pure Karma

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!

 

[Foamcow]

I still do defend the country split. It makes sense.

If anything we don't want the ads to show on the .com site since the product is UK focussed. So the country split is actually a good thing.

If AdWords was behaving as it should then the ads would appear on all Google sites for users with UK IPs, obviously most of those would be using the .co.uk site anyway.

<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[1DMF]

lol - i know, iknow , we use google in the same way.

You know us brits love irony.

I just wish I had a helpful fix/answer , it would be nice to be able to help you for once , instead of the other way round.

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!

 

[Foamcow]

I have a hunch...

Looking at the stats for the site, the amount of traffic coming from the CPC ads hasn't tailed off significantly.
This would imply that the ads are being displayed.

I wonder if Google is not showing them to me and my client because we are constantly hitting the same terms to test it?

Would someone else in the UK please try searching Google.co.uk for 'folders' and 'ring binders' and post a screenshot of the results page for me?

<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[Grenage]

Carlsberg don't run I.T. departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[Foamcow]

Excellent, thank you.

It's as I thought then.

<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[Grenage]

No problem, I'll remove the images and spare the masses, now that you're done.

Carlsberg don't run I.T. departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[1DMF]

why would google not show an advert to you because you are the adword account owner?

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!

 

[Foamcow]

It's not because you are the account owner, it's because, as a user, you've seen that ad umpteen times already.

Both I, and my client, have been testing and checking those keywords heavily.
Consequently Google have now 'shaken up the box' of ads for us and is showing some of the less valuable ones. Why do they do this? Well it could be an anti-fraud measure or it could be just to show a heavier circulation of ads.

This is actually backed up by an email I have from Google in which they suggest using their ad testing tool to check positions etc as this is not effected by how often you've seen the ad.

<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[1DMF]

cool, i'll remember that when I finally get my Google account back up and running!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!

 

[Foamcow]

From Google AdWords support

[...]

Please note that this change has indeed occurred in the last couple of weeks.

[...]

As I mentioned in the last mail, as part of our ongoing effort to provide an optimal user and advertiser experience, our system may sometimes show your ads in a lower or higher position for different users searching on Google.co.uk. For this reason, what you see may sometimes not be representative of what most other users are seeing.

As you would probably not click on your ad, our system sees this as you not being interested in your ad and therefore its position is lowered when you search on it from your computer - this would be the same for any colleagues of yours who may have traditionally searched on your ad and not clicked on it. In the long term, this can increase your CTR has you will not accrue so many unwanted impressions to users who have not shown an interest in your ad in the past, and this in turn can help increase your ad's Quality Score.

[...]

This indeed must mean that they are keeping substantial data on what individuals are clicking on in order to refine the AdWords results.

Could this mean a decrease in the reliance on keyword 'auction' model? If they monitor a users clicking habits they can show ads based on user preference and interest rather than the buying power of the advertiser.

I find that Quite Interesting.

<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[1DMF]

Very, You know of the Google announced , targeted advert engine they developed, that could listen in via the PC microphone to your T.V. and work out what programmes you watched and then advertise products relative to your T.V. preference.

This all seems very much like this type of targeted personal advertising.

However, it's very borderline big brother is watching you and data protection / invasion of privacy.

Google have no right collecting data on my advert clicking habits and then showing adverts relative to them, that data should not be held for this purpose.

if this becomes mainsteam i'm the sort of person that would go arround randomly clicking on adverts i'm not interested in just to screw with Google's DB or start investigating IP spoofing technologies.

Not sure what anyone elses take on all this is.

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!

 

[Foamcow]

Google have no right collecting data on my advert clicking habits and then showing adverts relative to them, that data should not be held for this purpose.

Why don't they have a right if you are using their search engine?
They are only collecting info from their own site, in fact they have to monitor clicks to charge CPCs and combat click fraud.

Do your sites use Google Analytics or another stats package to track user paths and pageviews etc?
Any website that keeps stats is logging IP addresses and clicks and that's all Google may be doing if they are indeed serving ads based on user click history.

<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[1DMF]

I know and it's in their terms also, doesn't mean I have to like it or agree with it

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!