After weeks of extensive research and hard work, you’ve finally set up your Google ads account, and your first-ever ads campaign is live. You spend the next two days reviewing Google analytics, but unfortunately, there are no impressions, no clicks, and worst of all, your ads aren’t even showing on SERPs.
So what is going on with your ad performance?
Before you panic, ads not showing is a common issue, especially among new advertisers. To help you out, we will discuss six reasons your Google ads are not showing and how to fix the problem.
Reasons Why Your Google Ads May Not Be Showing Up
Your ads won’t show if:
1. Ad Locations are Not Properly Set Up
Google ads allow ad targeting based on multiple factors, including location. Therefore, your ad locations might be the issue if your ads aren’t showing. For example, your ad groups won’t appear in Google search results if you selected specific locations and searched from a non-select location.
Also, if you set your target locations too narrow, there may not be enough searches to generate the minimum number of searches in a month, and this causes your ad not to show. In other instances, you may have set location targeting wide enough, but in irrelevant locations, meaning your ad group still won’t generate enough searches.
2. Your Budget has Run Out or is Too limited
Your bid budget is one of the key factors ads use to determine which ads appear in search results. When your bid budget runs out, your ads will not show up on SERPs.
On the other hand, if your bids are too low compared to your competition, your ad rank will also be lower, meaning your ads might be showing up but not on the first page. In other instances, if your bid for a particular keyword exceeds the daily ad spend, Google will not show your ads.
3. Account Billing Errors
Google charges advertisers when they reach the end date of a set billing period or when all funds from the last campaign bid are used up. Make sure to follow your ad closely to be sure you are not going over your daily budget.
These charges are often automatically deducted from the linked credit card or bank account. If your card declines, expires, or there are other issues with your bank account preventing Google from charging, then your ads won’t show.
4. Your Ad is Under Review
Before any ad campaign goes live, Google must first analyze the content and quality of the ad copy to determine if it complies with Google’s ad policies. This is often done to ensure ads released are safe and appropriate for both the target audience and anyone else who might see it.
The review process typically takes a day but may sometimes take longer. If that is the case, you should contact Google Ads support directly.
If your ad isn’t showing on Google and you recently created it, it might be under review. To confirm, sign in to your Google Ads account, click on Ads & Extensions, and click the status button to check your ads’ status.
5. Your Ad has Been Disapproved
As noted, every ad must undergo a review process before it goes live. If the status of your ad is disapproved, then it won’t show on search results. Google often disapproves of ads because they’re not compliant with its official policies.
For instance, if your ad has copyright content, is too long, or clicking on it leads to an error page, then Google may disapprove of the ad. Note, if your ad or ad group is disapproved too frequently, Google may even suspend the account.
6. Low Search Volume
For ads to appear for search queries, they must generate a particular amount of search traffic monthly. If your ad doesn’t reach the required threshold for a particular campaign, Google might temporarily deactivate it until the search volume increases.
Google notices these little things! So be sure to not use low search volume keywords. Active keywords will help improve your ads performance.
How to Fix the Problem if Your Google Ads Campaign Aren’t Showing Up
Now that you know the common reasons why your ads are not showing, here is how you can fix the problem:
1. Review Your Billing Information
If you think there’s a billing error, review your billing summary to confirm. Also, check your credit card and bank account details to ensure the information is accurate and up to date. If your ads aren’t showing up, they should start as soon as your payment is processed.
And to prevent similar issues, set up auto-charge or alerts to receive notifications when your preset daily budget peters out or when your billing period is almost up. This will allow you to make any necessary bid adjustments.
2. Check Email to See Why Your Ad was Disapproved
As noted, there are many reasons why a Google ad or certain ad groups might be disapproved. Google will usually send an email explaining the reasons for disapproved ads.
If your ad status is disapproved, don’t go into panic mode. Instead, check your email to see why it was disapproved, edit to fix the issue, and then resubmit.
3. Find out Why Your Ads or Ad Group was paused
If your ads aren’t showing up, it may be because you may have accidentally paused it, or the ad automatically paused because your bid budget is too limited or due to billing and compliance issues. Take a look at your ad schedule to be sure! Ideally, you should contact Google ads to find out why your status is paused if you didn’t pause it yourself.
The Power of Google Ads
As one of the most cost-efficient advertising platforms, Google offers your business a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive business world. That is why you should ensure your Google ads are set up correctly. Besides, you spent too much money developing your ads for them not to show up!
As a best practice, regularly review your Google Ads account and campaign performance to catch and fix any issues that might prevent your ad from showing up on SERPs. While at it, perform your own Google searches to confirm that your campaign is showing on SERPS with targeted keywords or closely related keywords. Before your ads go live, use the ad preview tool to make sure everything is up to par on both desktop and mobile devices.
Remember that Google ads can be tricky to navigate for the average person with basic digital knowledge. So, if you’re having a hard time setting up your Google ads or cannot understand why they aren’t showing, let’s chat! We are a trusted Lancaster SEO Company ready to help.
