Categories
When Google display ads fail to show properly, you miss out on potential clients, leading to losses in your potential revenue. At the same time, all your carefully planned digital marketing strategies are negatively affected.
Instead of struggling to find the answer to your issues in Google support documents or waiting hours to talk to a support agent, a bit of knowledge can help you when your Google display ads are not showing.
With these solutions, you will resolve the issue quickly. Doing so not only increases your potential profits but also helps prevent competitors from displaying ads instead of you and getting loyal customers that could have been yours.
Before getting into why your Google display ads may not be showing properly, a quick refresher on what the ads are and the Google Display Network they use can be helpful.
Google display ads are targeted advertisements that your target audience will see when they are on Google websites, video publishers platform, other websites outside of Google, or even mobile applications.
The Google Display Network is the network connecting the ads, and it lets you customize your settings. You can use the Google Display Network to adjust who receives what ads. You can use features like in-market audiences and similar audiences to target viewers who are most likely to become new customers. You can also use automated targeting, which considers your landing page and current audience to identify the ideal targeting and then optimizes over time. It can even feature automated bidding.
You can view data regarding your ads on Google Ads as part of the Google Display Network.
So, what happens if you go to view your advertising data and realize that your Google display ads are not showing? You will have to discover which of the potential causes is to blame, as each has its own fix.
As you go through the various potential problems and solutions, you will need to know where to find relevant information for your Google Display Ads campaign. One of the most important features will be the “Status review” card found on your “Overview” page.
To view this and other relevant information, click on your campaign’s name on the navigation panel. Then, use the left menu to choose “Overview.” Your performance chart will appear in the center of the screen and take up most of it. The “Status review” is to the right.
If you see any alert cards in this section, you should click on them to view more information. Some may be relevant to why your display ads aren’t showing. Google displays three types of alerts here, the first of which is relevant to ad display issues. That category includes “critical performance issues” that you need to resolve for your ads to keep serving. In other words, if you don’t fix these issues, your ads will not display.
Fist you make sure your ad group should have ad. If you have that ad but if you think your display ads are not showing because you have searched for your keywords or topics and checked it on your own device, you may incorrectly think they are not working. This will happen if you view the ad multiple times and ignore it each time, as Google assumes you are uninterested. It is an automatic feature to reduce wasted ad dollars and the annoyance of irrelevant ads.
The Fix: The best way to tell whether your Google Display Ads are showing is to use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool. As a bonus, this will not affect your statistics, such as impressions, with misleading figures.
Among the simplest fixes is if you accidentally paused your Google Ad. This can include the specific ad or the ad campaign or group it belongs to. Accidentally removing the ad is a related issue, but it is a bit more complicated.
The Fix: You should be able to fix this issue in minutes. Head to your ad information and confirm it is on “Enabled,” not “Paused.”
If you do not see the ad there or this does not work, go to your Change History and filter the changes by “Status.” You should be able to tell the status at a glance, as Enabled campaigns have a green circle next to them and Paused ones have a gray paused symbol.
In cases where the ad was removed, you will have to re-enter all the information to set it back up.
It is also possible that your ad has been disapproved or is flagged and undergoing review. This can happen if your ad features inappropriate content or content that some may consider inappropriate.
The Fix: You will have to start by confirming that your ad is indeed disapproved. To do so, visit the column for “Ad Status.” Look for any “Disapproved Ads” either manually or using the filters.
If your ad was disapproved, then you will need to create a new ad that meets the requirements it broke. If you think your ad was disapproved without reason, you will have to contact Google to explain why it should have been approved.
One of the simplest explanations to resolve is if your payment did not go through. This is important, as most advertisers set up automatic payments. Remember that you will pay for Google’s advertising services either when the billing period is over or you meet a payment threshold that you preset. If Google cannot successfully charge you at either of these points, it will not display your ads. After all, Google is a business and does not provide its service for free.
The Fix: All you have to do to fix this issue is to go back and confirm your payment details are accurate. Confirm the information is up-to-date and consider making a manual payment if necessary. Your ads should return when Google processes your payment.
Google occasionally takes the time to review accounts. This is for security and lets Google confirm your billing information. Unfortunately, your ads will not show during the review. This process will take less than three business days, at which point your ad will reappear.
The Fix: Because account reviews are part of the security process at Google, there is not much you can do about this except wait. Remember that the ad will be down for less than three business days, as that is the maximum time that Google will review your account. If you have issues with this, you will have to contact Google.
Another money-related problem that can result in your display ads not showing is if you make bids that are inappropriate, either too low or too high. When creating your bids, do not forget that you are bidding in an auction and need to have a higher bid than your competitors to win.
If your bids are too low for a given keyword, they will not be competitive enough and competitors are willing to pay more. In this case, you will not see any display ads because you have not won any. Keep in mind that low bids may still appear on later pages of search results, even if they do not appear on the first one.
When your bids are too high, this is not in comparison to your competition but in comparison to the budget you set. Remember that you set up a maximum cost per click you were willing to spend on each campaign. If your bid goes past this, Google will automatically ignore your bid, resulting in no display ads showing. Additionally, Google tries to spread out your advertising budget throughout the day, so you cannot expect it to appear with every search. If you check the status of your keyword or campaign and see “limited by budget,” then this is the case.
The Fix: In the case of bids that are too low, consider using bid simulators to figure out your ideal bid, and increase your bid accordingly. There is a Bid Simulator built right into Google Ads, so this is among the easiest options. It is particularly useful because you can test the effect of increasing your bids by varying amounts.
On a related note, if your low bids are a problem, make sure you did not set your negative bid adjustments to be too big. If you did, you might accidentally lower your bid past competitiveness.
In the case of bids that are too high and would put you past budget, either adjust the bid or the budget.
When you set up your display ads and campaign, you chose a schedule. If your Google display ads are not showing, it may be that you set up too narrow of a window in this schedule.
A related issue might be if you have your ad set to display for a range of times, but those are off-peak hours. If your target market does not search during the hours you set your ad to display, then you will not get results.
The Fix: This is as simple as going to your Ad Schedule on the campaign tabs. Expand the schedule to cover more time or to change the times, and you should see an improvement. Ideally, you should research to confirm when your target audience will be online and adjust your ad schedule to include those hours.
On a similar note, you may have set your targeting to be too narrow. One example would be if you have a geographic target, but that region does not have a high enough search volume. This can be true of any other targeting factors, such as age range or gender.
The Fix: As with your ad schedule, you will want to make adjustments to widen your targeting.
If it does not make sense for your business to target a wider range of people, you can also use the Observation setting. This setting lets you view the performance of ads during the campaign, specifically for the audiences, topics, or placements you choose. Using this setting also lets you check the performance of additional criteria, assuming that criteria is already part of your targeting.
Essentially, the Observation setting lets you gather more data without having to expand your target audience. It lets you monitor the performance of certain criteria within existing ads. Whenever you target the audience make sure it has huge number of members.
When you set up your ad campaign, you will have the choice to target only specific devices or all devices. If you only target specific devices and do not have your ad properly formatted for those devices, then it will not display.
The Fix: Look at your devices and the formats you use for your ads. Confirm that your chosen formats are compatible with the devices. If they are not, consider making your ads available to target all devices or adjusting the format, which will require creating a new ad.
The ideal ad will be available in multiple sizes. If an ad only features a single size, then it will only work on a small handful of websites, leading to Google display ads not showing on most pages.
The Fix: Take the time to adjust the size of your ad, ideally making it available in every single format and size that Google offers.
Yet another example of restricting your ads too much in your settings is including too many negative keywords or the wrong ones. As a reminder, negative keywords help prevent wasted money and an increased bounce rate from displaying for unrelated queries.
The Fix: Take a look at your negative keywords and see if any of them might be too broad. If they are, figure out how to make them more specific, so you do not accidentally remove potential customers. An example of this would be accidentally getting rid of anyone searching for a free trial when you just want to eliminate those in search of free services.
Your Google display ads may also not be showing due to the keywords or topics you have chosen. One of the more common issues with this is if you choose a keyword with too low of a search volume. This comes down to an automatic feature by Google Ads that will temporarily deactivate keywords with an extremely low volume. If the keyword’s volume increases, Google will automatically reactivate your ads for it.
The good news is that Google Ads will tell you if your chosen keyword has too low of a search volume, so you do not have to guess as to whether this is the reason. When you go to the Keyword area of your account and look at the Status column, you will see “low search volume” or a similar phrase.
The Fix: Start by deciding if you want to keep the keyword with low volume in hopes that it will increase. Remember, it will not cost you anything until the volume increases and Google displays ads.
Whether you choose to keep the low-volume keyword, you definitely want to reevaluate your keyword strategy and add at least a few others to your display ads. Use a keyword planning tool to figure out your ideal keywords. Google conveniently offers Keyword Planner with any Google Ads account. You can also use the PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
Placements are locations on the Google Display Network (GDN) where your ad can show.
Your ad may not appear if was targeted to appear only in specific placements on the Display Network, and you’re not observing on those particular sites or pages. If you are not sure which placements you’ve targeted you can find that by going to Networks tab at the ad group level and then find the Display Network table, and click show details next to “Managed placements.”
Even with so many different reasons you may have Google display ads not showing, there are some common features among the various fixes. These are good starting points for the earliest level of troubleshooting. If you do not want to have to check each of the above problems, start with these fixes.
If you suspect that your ad is not showing, then your first step should be to confirm that your hunch is correct. Remember, there are plenty of reasons it may not show up on your device. The best way to confirm this is via the Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool, which is already included with Google Ads.
As already discussed, the other early step is to check that “Status card” on your campaign’s “Overview” page. Remember, many issues that could lead to your ads not being shown could appear here in the form of alerts. Click on the alerts to learn more about them.
Find out why your Google Display Ads not getting impressions? There are dozens of explanations for not showing ads and some of them have easier fixes than others. You should always start by visiting the Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool to see if there is an obvious solution. From there, you will need to check for issues that may affect your ability to win a bid for an ad, those that may prevent the ad from displaying properly, and those that limit the range of your ad to the point that it never appears. Remember that more than one factor may be at play, so you should check each of the above potential issues.
How much did you enjoy this article?
We will help your ad reach the right person, at the right time
Actionable insights discovered for you. Now you can do more in less time.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner will help you align your keywords with the customers’ intent.
Frequent audits will help you optimize your PPC campaign for success.
Visualizations give you the ability to instantly grasp the insights hidden in your numbers.
Experience the new revolution in reporting … click your way to insights, don’t scroll.
Calculate the number of combinations in your PPC campaign. It may surprise you.
Related articles
A landing page is a web page designed to drive specific actions. Learn the essentials of creating high-converting landing pages in our guide.
ROAS calculation can help you evaluate every PPC campaign's performance so that you know which of your campaigns are converting the best.
Discover the marketing lifecycle stages and how they shape customer relationships. You’ll understand their role in driving customer engagement and retention.
