One common thing that I have heard time and time again over the years is the call of a panicked client who is new to the realm of PPC advertising. Usually they are worried that their ad is not showing on a particular keyword that they feel they should be coming up for. This is usually the result of them, or someone in their office, sitting at a computer and typing a query into Google over and over again to see if and when their ad shows up in the results.
Of course there are many factors that impact whether your PPC ad is shown at any given time. From campaign budgets to keyword matching and cost per click, there are many pieces to the equation that people who answer the phones in an organization might not fully understand. Additionally having a client that has many people searching on a keyword over and over again each day may never realize that they might be harming the quality score of a particular keyword.
Luckily, Google has a little known tool that you can use on your clients behalf: Google Adwords Preview Tool. This tool will allow you, or your clients, to show the current ads on a particular keyphrase, without harming the CTR (click through rate) or the quality score of a particular phrase. I would advise that you pass this URL along to a client who is known to sit and search and possibly harm their own efforts in the paid search arena.
Additionally, if you place ads in specific geo-targeted regions, you might want to know that your ads are showing properly. Depending on your location, however, this is may or may not be possible. Google does offer the ability to preview your ads in any region through a more robust tool: Google Adwords Geo-Targeting Preview Tool.
Through these 2 tools you should be able to show your clients how to search for their ads without harming their quality score and also view your ads in geo-targeted regions to make sure they are displaying properly. Please let us know if there are any other tips or tricks you have in previewing your ads online.
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your spot on there I have so many adwords customers who I need to pass onto the adword preview tool as they are constantly checking there ads.