10 Things I Hate About… Googling Yourself.

If you’re running a Google Ads campaign, you’ve probably Googled yourself. Perhaps your advert hasn’t shown up and you’ve thought “why isn’t my campaign running?!”. You may have then logged straight into your account or called up your PPC Account Manager. Sound familiar? You’re really not alone and, I mean, it certainly makes sense – you’re paying for your ads and you want to check that they’re working! While it all seems in innocence, Googling yourself is actually harmful to your PPC account. Here’s my list of reasons why Googling yourself isn’t all it’s cracked up to be:

1. Ads won’t appear every time.

Keywords aren’t the only reason for an ad showing up. Think about budget, bid strategy and delivery method, to name just a few other determining factors. If you have a search impression share of under 100% (absolutely normal & expected) then your ads won’t be appearing in every search.

2. You won’t get an accurate idea of how it’s running.

If you OR friends and colleagues are searching for yourself then you’re skewing the results. You’re not actually searching for your service, which will create inaccurate data when you come to analyse the campaign.

3. You lose opportunity.

For all the times you’re purposefully searching for yourself, you’re risking losing an opportunity for a genuine customer to click (don’t mess with Google’s algorithm, okay!).

4. You’re becoming irrelevant.

You’re telling Google (by not clicking) that your ad isn’t relevant to the search. This is going to be harmful to your Click Through Rate, which is measured by the amount of times your ad appears (impressions), compared to the amount of times it’s clicked.

5. You’re going to have prices creeping up on you.

If you have a low Click Through Rate then this will lower your Quality Score. If you have a low Quality Score then the higher your cost per click will be. The higher your cost per click then the more you have to pay to get to the top of the page. Make sense?

6. Google will block only you.

If you repeatedly search yourself but don’t click your ad then Google will stop showing it to you, thinking you’re not interested in the service due to having never clicked. You will then stop seeing your ad, but only you!

7. It throws us off the stats.

Statistics and data, as we all know, are super important in the PPC world. Googling yourself throws off identifying statistical trends from a larger sample of data (7 days, 14 days, 30 days) because of false impressions, inaccurate Click Through Rates, and more.

8. Other ads will rise above you like a phoenix from your ashes.

While your ads are becoming less relevant and more expensive, which if you’re budget conscious, means you’re showing less, and slipping down the search page, you’re competitors are gliding on above you.

9. There’s another way.

What if I told you there’s a way you can see whether your ads are showing without Googling yourself? (Google really do think of everything) On your Google Ads account you can use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool to search using related keywords, and Google will show you whether your ad would be showing or not in real time! Splendid.

10. Panic stations are unnecessary.

Don’t panic for no reason, it’s more than likely that your account is still running! You can see this live on your Google Ads account and also see if the adverts are showing by monitoring how many impressions your receiving.

Hopefully this has cleared the air and helped with that niggling feeling. If you would like any more information on how to use Google’s Ad Preview or advice on how to manage your PPC campaign then get in touch with Embryo Digital on 0161 327 2635.