Why You Shouldn’t Google Your Own Ads — and How to Check If Your Search Ads Are Showing

Why do clients of marketing agencies Google their own ads? To make sure they’re working? To check the contractor’s diligence? To simply enjoy seeing the campaign live and feel that customers will start rolling in soon? Everyone has their own thoughts and beliefs, so the reason someone wants to Google their own ads isn’t what matters.


What matters much more is that you shouldn’t Google your own ads. It harms campaign performance and, consequently, your flow of customers. Let’s dig into why it’s a bad idea to check in Google whether your ads are working, and why they might not appear in the results at all.

First of all, it’s important to clearly understand how ads appear in Google search results. Google Ads operates on an auction-based model. Here’s how it works:

• A user types a query into the search bar, and the system determines whether it contains the keywords targeted by ads.

• Advertisers then enter an auction, which decides which ads will be shown and in which positions.

• The ranking of ads depends on the advertiser’s bid, the ad’s quality, and its relevance to the keyword. Google also considers the Quality Score, which evaluates the relevance and overall quality of the ad.

• The advertiser with the best combination of bid and Quality Score wins the auction and gets their ad placed in top positions on the search results page.

• Advertisers pay either per click (CPC) when someone clicks the ad, or per thousand impressions (CPM) if the ad is simply shown, depending on campaign settings.

When advertisers bid on keywords, Google doesn’t just pick the winner based on the highest bid. Instead, it uses a metric called Ad Rank, which determines where your ad will appear in the search results.

• Search context – when determining Ad Rank, Google takes into account multiple factors: the user’s search query content, location, device, time of search, competing ads on the results page, and many more.

• Expected impact of ad extensions and formats – when creating an ad, additional elements can be added, such as a phone number or links to specific pages of the website. These are called ad assets (extensions). Google evaluates how these assets may affect the ad’s overall performance.

If the advertiser offering the highest bid were to win every auction, there would be a higher risk of Google showing low-quality ads. And low-quality ads may be irrelevant to the user’s query, which would ultimately reduce the overall value of Google’s product.

This Ad Rank is calculated based on:

• Bid amount – the maximum you are willing to pay for clicks on your ad.

• Ad quality at the time of the auction – Google evaluates how relevant the ad is to the search query and also assesses the quality of the landing page.

• Minimum Ad Rank threshold – your ad must exceed a certain minimum score to be eligible to appear.

• Auction competitiveness – for example, if two ads have identical Ad Ranks, they have equal chances of appearing in top positions. The higher your Ad Rank, the greater the likelihood that your ad will win. However, this higher probability comes at the cost of paying more per click.

There are special VPN services and browser extensions that change your IP address (the address of a computer connected to the internet). They’re often used for anonymous browsing or bypassing website restrictions. Extensions like AdBlock, on the other hand, are designed to block annoying ads.

If you use these services and try Googling your own ads, you might not see them. For example, your campaign may be targeting users in a specific country, but the VPN assigns you an IP address from another country that isn’t included in the targeting list. As a result, your IP becomes non-targeted for the campaign. Similarly, ad blockers like AdBlock can simply prevent your ads from appearing.

After launching a campaign, it usually takes 1–2 days for ads to be reviewed. During this time, Google’s algorithms check and moderate them. That’s why it’s important to confirm with your contractor whether the campaign has already passed moderation and ensure that all ads are approved for display. You shouldn’t try Googling your ads immediately after launch — they won’t be visible yet because the moderation process isn’t complete.

Let’s say someone decides to check their running ad campaign by typing in the keywords their company is targeting. Suddenly, they notice that their ad isn’t showing in the search results. The first thought might be to blame the marketer’s negligence. But in reality, there are many possible reasons why ads may not appear. Let’s go through the 9 most common ones.

It’s natural for every advertiser to want their ads to appear at the top of Google’s search results. However, many companies work with limited budgets, or their ads may have a low ranking (more on that below), incorrect settings, and so on. As a result, their ads might not show in top positions.


Another issue with a small budget is that the money runs out quickly—especially in highly competitive niches. If the daily budget set in the campaign settings has already been spent, it’s only logical that the ads will stop showing until the next day.

If the daily budget (the maximum amount that can be spent in one day, set in the campaign settings) isn’t enough to cover search traffic, Google adjusts how often your ads appear.


In practice, this means ad delivery may pause temporarily while Google stabilizes spending. So, if you try Googling your ads at that exact moment, you might not see them because they’re in a “stabilization” phase.

As we’ve already discussed, Google Ads operate on an auction model where your competitors can win higher positions. Ad placement is heavily influenced by Ad Rank. If your rank is low, your ads may appear lower on the page (for example, at the bottom of the first search results page).


Ad Rank can even drop because you keep Googling your own ads (more on this later). To fix the situation, you’ll need to either raise your bids or improve your ad quality score — both of which can be quite challenging.

When an ad schedule is set, your ads will only appear during specific hours or days. If you happen to Google your ads outside of that timeframe, you won’t see them. It’s also important to make sure the time zone matches the country you’re targeting. Otherwise, fewer potential customers will see the ads, and overall traffic will be reduced.

Negative keyword lists are used to prevent ads from showing on irrelevant searches. This ensures your ads only appear for queries that are truly relevant. For example, if you only sell black shoes, your negative keywords might include “white,” “brown,” and so on.

So, if you try Googling your ad with a query that contains one of those negative keywords, it’s only logical that the ad won’t appear.

From time to time, Google reviews the payment information associated with advertising accounts. During this verification process, ads are temporarily not shown.

This one is straightforward — for example, your ads might be set to show only on mobile devices, but you’re searching from a desktop. In that case, the ads simply won’t appear.

You shouldn’t be wondering why your ads aren’t showing. Instead, you should understand why it’s better not to Google them at all — and how to properly measure their effectiveness. Constantly checking your ads through search risks wasting a significant amount of money, while also lowering your Ad Rank and Quality Score — the very factors that directly determine how your ads appear in search results.

Simple math — let’s say you’re running ads in a niche where a click costs $3. Just 10 of your own “test” clicks will cost you $30. But if you’re competing in a high-cost niche where a click is $80, those same 10 tests will already cost you $800. On top of that, you’ll hurt your campaign’s performance and give competitors the chance to outrank you.

And if it’s not just you checking the ads, but, say, another 10 employees at your company as well, those “tests” could end up costing anywhere from $300 to $8,000 (based on the calculations above) every time.

Why? Here’s a simple example:

• You find the ad but don’t click it. The more often this happens, the less trust Google has in your ad.
• You find the ad, click it, land on the page — but don’t buy anything. From Google’s perspective, you’ve just become another dissatisfied potential customer.

These actions lower your ad’s Quality Score and ranking, increase the cost per click, and hurt CTR — all of which reduce your position in the auction.

And while this may not seem critical if you’re selling something inexpensive, like balloons, where CPC might be just $1–2, it’s a completely different story if you’re offering services like international legal support or working in another high-cost niche, where each click can cost hundreds of dollars.

If your reports display clicks, impressions, CTR, and other campaign metrics, it means your ads are running according to the targeting settings.
To diagnose a specific ad in your Google Ads account, go to Tools → Ad Preview and Diagnosis.

This tool allows you to check your ads with specific parameters, such as:

• selecting different languages
• entering different queries
• changing geolocation
• adjusting other settings

This is exactly where you should track campaign performance. And if an issue arises, you’ll see it directly on the Ad Preview and Diagnosis page.

By the way, on this same page you’ll see a big green message saying “Ad is showing” — which should immediately reassure you and take away the urge to Google your own ads.

Statuses indicate the stages and results of ad review. Right after launch, the status will show as “Under review” (meaning the ad is in moderation). Once ads are approved and start running, they may receive other statuses:

• Approved — The ad successfully passed Google’s policy checks and is eligible to run.

• Approved (limited) — The ad is eligible to run, but only under certain conditions. This often applies to ads related to trademarks, gambling, and similar restricted categories.

• Approved (limited in all locations) — The ad is restricted from showing in certain targeted locations due to system policies or targeting settings.

• Eligible / Showing — Everything is fine, the ad is being displayed to users.

All these statuses are tied to the ad review process. Specialists continuously monitor campaigns to identify ads that aren’t showing and resolve issues to restore delivery.

Google Ads operates on an auction model. The top positions in search results are won not only by the highest bids but also by ads with the strongest Ad Rank. To avoid damaging this rank, you shouldn’t Google your own ads. And even if you do search for your ads and don’t see them, there are at least nine possible reasons why. In other words, an ad not showing doesn’t mean your contractor is being negligent.


Moreover, if you’ve hired professionals, they know exactly how to set up a campaign, monitor its performance, adapt to changes, minimize costs, and improve conversion rates. So don’t worry — just track your campaigns directly through your Google Ads account, where you can always clearly see which ads are showing, which aren’t, and why.

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