Jeremy May
VP of Client Services
417.782.3694
It’s not uncommon for your boss, or clients in our case, to ask why they don’t see their ads when searching applicable keywords. After all, they pay good money each month to get those ads placed in search engines. Below, you’ll find some of the most common reasons one might not see their ads on Google, Bing, or other search engines.
Budget Constraints
If the ad campaign's budget has been exhausted for the day or the specified time period, the ads may not show up until the budget is replenished. Or perhaps the account isn’t funded at all.
Ad Approval Status
If an ad violates Google's advertising policies or is pending approval, it may not be shown until reviewed and approved.
Ad Scheduling
Advertisers may schedule their ads to be shown only during specific times of the day or days of the week. If the search occurs outside the specified schedule, the ads may not display. There are pros and cons to this approach. For example, you may find immediate lead contact extremely valuable in your conversion funnel, but only have call center operation Monday-Friday 8am-5pm, so you see no reason to buy ads outside that time frame. This strategy can be valuable, but if your competitors all do this, ad costs will likely be higher during these times, potentially offsetting those conversion benefits.
Bid Too Low
If the bid for the ad is too low compared to the competition, it may not be shown in the top ad positions. Advertisers need to bid competitively to increase the chances of their ads being displayed.
Geographic Targeting
If the ads are targeted to a specific geographic location, they may not show up for users outside that targeted region.
Low Ad Quality
If the ad's quality score is low, it may not meet the platform's quality standards. Ads with irrelevant keywords, low click-through rates, or poor landing page experiences can cause this to happen.
Ad-Targeting Restrictions
If an ad is targeting specific demographics or interests and the user does not fall into those targeting criteria, the ad may not be shown to that user.
Search Terms
A user search term can prevent an ad from showing based on targeted keywords that are being managed. In this case, if an ad is specifically targeting the keyword "OTR driving jobs" but the user searches for "local driving jobs
