Ad Preview in Google Ads

After the Google Ads campaign setup, you might want to check your ads to ensure it is running and looks good. I had several clients who searched for their ads every day. However tempting this may be, I encourage you not to do so.

The bad part is that you trigger an ad impression but do not click (you don’t want to be charged for your own clicks, right?). Hence, that will decrease your CTR. To be honest, there is nothing crucial about it — additional 30-50 clicks won’t be that big of a deal.

What is really bad about such a way to check your own ads is that you don’t get a real picture because Google always shows personalized results. Since you aren’t to click on an ad, Google will show you fewer and fewer ads with time. Eventually, you might end up with no ads on the search results page.

What you should do

In your Google Ads account, select Tools & Settings and click on Ad Preview and Diagnosis. Here you can specify the search term, location, language, and device to test your targeting options and see what your ads look like. Besides the ad preview, you’ll get some additional information on what keyword triggered the ad or why the ad was not shown.

Google Ads Preview Tool always shows the accurate picture, ignoring your browser cache, search history, and other personalized information. And it is the only option for previewing ads if you are outside your targeted location (except for VPN, of course).