Internet Marketing Driver

  • GSQi Home
  • About Glenn Gabe
  • SEO Services
    • Algorithm Update Recovery
    • Technical SEO Audits
    • Website Redesigns and Site Migrations
    • SEO Training
  • Blog
    • Web Stories
  • Contact GSQi

Ghost Ads – How To Trigger Geotargeted Ads in the Google Ad Preview Tool When Using a Custom Shape

September 28, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Share
Tweet
Share
Email

Triggering ghosted geotargeted ads in the Google Ad Preview Tool

If you are running paid search campaigns via AdWords, then you might be familiar with Google’s Ad Preview Tool. If you’re not familiar with the Ad Preview Tool, it provides an easy way for you to conduct searches using a number of criteria to test your paid search ads. You can do this without impacting your impressions, click-through rate, or Quality Score. Using the Ad Preview Tool, you can enter your desired keywords and then select certain criteria, such as country, language, Google domain, location (such as state or province), etc. Google will then show you which ads are triggered, based on the settings you selected.

Tailoring Your Ad Preview Settings
The Ad Preview Tool is a valuable resource for search marketers, especially because it enables you to work in a safe environment instead of trying to trigger your ads in the wild where you can increase impressions and potentially impact your cost per click (CPC). There are a number of reasons you wouldn’t want to simply visit Google and search for your ads. As explained earlier, you can impact your impressions, click-through rate, and Quality Score (and QS is heavily influenced by click-through rate). If you negatively impact your Quality Score, you could actually end up increasing your cost per click (CPC). So, if you (or your clients) obsessively search Google for your ads every day, you could be increasing your costs. The good news is that you can use the Ad Preview Tool instead. Just make sure everyone involved (including clients) understand that it’s available and how to use it. In addition, personalized search could be impacting which ads show for your searches (being tailored based on your web history and by your previous search behavior). So, using the Ad Preview tool, you can safely and accurately test your paid search ads.

When Problems Arise (Geotargeting Using a Custom Shape)
Based on the title of my post, you might be wondering what they problem is. Well, there is an issue that arises sometimes when you use geotargeting with your campaigns. You can learn more about AdWords Geotargeting via a previous post of mine, but using this feature, you can tell Google where to show your ads. For example, you can tell Google to only show your ads to people in the United States, only in New York, maybe a certain mileage away from a map point, or via a custom targeting option (by using a custom shape). Geotargeting is extremely useful, especially for local businesses.

When you use Geotargeting and you want to test your ads, you need to set the location options in the Ad Preview Tool. For example, if you were targeting New York State, then you would select the United States, and then New York in the dropdown that shows up for State. This works well and you should see your ads trigger for the keywords you are targeting (if they qualify to show up on page 1).

Choosing a location in the Ad Preview Tool:
Setting a Location in the Google Ad Preview Tool

But, there is a problem when you use the custom targeting option (when you draw a custom shape to target a very specific location). For whatever reason, Google’s Ad Preview Tool has a hard time understanding when to show your ads when you utilize custom shapes (when you use the default state and city options in the Ad Preview Tool). Subsequently, search marketers (or clients) might think that their ads simply aren’t showing. But they actually are… It makes sense when you think about it. Let’s say you were targeting a specific area of Manhattan and not the entire island. How would Google understand when to trigger your ads if you simply select New York State, and then New York City? So, you can run into a problem when trying to find your ads via the ad preview tool if you use a custom shape to define your geotargeting. The good news is that there is a solution, and I’m going to cover that next.

Using a custom shape when setting geotargeting options in AdWords:
Using a custom shape for geotargeting in Google AdWords

How to Trigger Geotargeted Ads When Using a Custom Shape
There is a simple solution for making sure you can test your geotargeted ads that use a custom shape. And, I bet there’s a chance you overlooked this option in the Ad Preview Tool (I know I did when I first started using the Tool). There is an option for “Coordinates” under state and location in the Ad Preview Tool. This will let you enter custom latitude and longitude coordinates.

The Coordinates Field enables you to enter a location’s latitude and longitude:
Entering latitude and longitude coordinates in the Google Ad Preview Tool

When you use a custom shape to define your geotargeting, you might notice that Google AdWords provides the lat/long coordinates. That’s what you can use to accurately trigger your ads when using a custom shape.

Below, I’ll walk you through the steps for using those coordinates to trigger your ads in the Ad Preview Tool:

1. Enter your keyword, choose your Google domain, and select your language (like you would normally do in the Ad Preview Tool):

Entering keywords, Google domain, and language in the Ad Preview Tool:
Entering keywords, Google domain, and language in the Ad Preview Tool

2. For location, select the radio button for “Coordinates” versus using “Country” and “State”. Note, you will need to copy one of the latitude and longitude coordinates that are provided in AdWords after you use a custom shape. For example, you might see something like this under your campaign settings for locations and languages:

[(40.859525,-73.907776), (40.833554,-73.856277),

You would want to select one of those coordinates to include in the “Coordinates” field in the Ad Preview Tool. For example, you could use 40.859525,-73.907776 from the example above. Once you do, you can conduct your test search.

Entering specific latitude and longitude coordinates in the Ad Preview Tool:
Entering specific latitude and longitude coordinates in the Google Ad Preview Tool

That’s it. You should be good to go.

Don’t Get Frustrated, Just Use Exact Coordinates
I hope this quick tutorial explained how to accurately test your geotargeted ads in the Ad Preview Tool when you use custom shapes to set location. If you end up using custom shapes, I can almost guarantee that you’ll get questions from your clients about ads not showing up when using the ad preview tool. Just make sure everyone involved uses the latitude and longitude coordinates when running test searches and you should be fine. :)

GG

Share
Tweet
Share
Email

Filed Under: adwords, google, local-search, SEM

Comments

  1. Zach says

    September 29, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    Excellent post, I’ve found that changing the ad text based on the geo targeting helps as well. If you can make the user feel like you are truly local (like using some local terminology) then it does wonders for conversions and CTR.

  2. Calculate Marketing says

    October 11, 2010 at 11:13 pm

    Hi Glenn,

    This is a great post, it’s always puzzled me how to view ads when using custom shapes. Cheers for sharing your insight.

    Alan

  3. Glenn Gabe says

    October 12, 2010 at 9:19 am

    Thanks @Alan. I’m glad this post could help you. It can be frustrating when you don’t see your ads in the preview tool, when you know that you should! It’s also important to let clients know about this, so they understand that their ads are indeed showing. :)

    GG

Connect with Glenn Gabe today!

RSS Latest Blog Posts

  • How to compare hourly sessions in Google Analytics 4 to track the impact from major Google algorithm updates (like broad core updates)
  • It’s all in the (site) name: 9 tips for troubleshooting why your site name isn’t showing up properly in the Google search results
  • Google Explore – The sneaky mobile content feed that’s displacing rankings in mobile search and could be eating clicks and impressions
  • Bing Chat in the Edge Sidebar – An AI companion that can summarize articles, provide additional information, and even generate new content as you browse the web
  • The Google “Code Red” That Triggered Thousands of “Code Reds” at Publishers: Bard, Bing Chat, And The Potential Impact of AI in the Search Results
  • Continuous Scroll And The GSC Void: Did The Launch Of Continuous Scroll In Google’s Desktop Search Results Impact Impressions And Clicks? [Study]
  • How to analyze the impact of continuous scroll in Google’s desktop search results using Analytics Edge and the GSC API
  • Percent Human: A list of tools for detecting lower-quality AI content
  • True Destination – Demystifying the confusing, but often accurate, true destination url for redirects in Google Search Console’s coverage reporting
  • Google’s September 2022 Broad Core Product Reviews Update (BCPRU) – The complexity and confusion when major algorithm updates overlap

Web Stories

  • Google's December 2021 Product Reviews Update - Key Findings
  • Google's April 2021 Product Reviews Update - Key Points For Site Owners and Affiliate Marketers
  • Google's New Page Experience Signal
  • Google's Disqus Indexing Bug
  • Learn more about Web Stories developed by Glenn Gabe

Archives

  • July 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • GSQi Home
  • About Glenn Gabe
  • SEO Services
  • Blog
  • Contact GSQi
Copyright © 2023 G-Squared Interactive LLC. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Are you ok with this? You can always opt-out at a later time if you wish. Cookie settings ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. You can read our privacy policy for more information.
Cookie Consent
Save & Accept