There’s something legitimizing about seeing your company’s commercial on TV, hearing your endorsement on the radio, or looking up at your billboard.
If you’re using these advertising platforms you likely know exactly where, and when, your ads are being served.
One of the questions we get from our partners is “Why don’t I see my ads online?”.
Don’t worry.
It’s likely your agency didn’t screw up and they aren’t fudging your reports.
When it comes to digital media there are several reasons why you don’t see your ads online.
We’re going to break them down, right now.
1. You're Not The Target Audience
One of the questions we get from our partners is “Why don’t I see my ads on Google, Facebook, ESPN, etc.?”.
There’s a really simple answer to that – you’re not your target customer.
What does that mean?
One of the advantages of digital advertising is the ability to separate a wide range of anonymous customer data into distinct audiences (for example, Women, ages 45-54 in the top 11-20% of household income that like baseball).
Then you can serve your digital ads to audiences most likely to spend with your business.
You can also exclude audiences who most likely won’t engage with your business from your digital ad campaigns.
As a business owner, you’re likely not your target customer.
Since you don’t need your business’s goods or services, you likely won’t get placed into a target customer audience.
Ideally, someone who isn’t a potential customer won’t get served your ads.
That’s a good thing.
Especially for small businesses on a tight budget, it's crucial to avoid wasting money on people who aren't potential customers.
Depending on the type of digital ad campaigns you're running, seeing your ads online could cost you money, and clicking on your ads absolutely will.
Many agencies will deploy an exclusion list, blocking internal IP addresses so no impressions are wasted on people who work for your business.
You don't want to waste impressions on people who aren’t potential new customers.
2. You're On A Tight Ad Budget (frequency capping)
Maybe your online activity has placed you into one of your target audiences.
You see your ad a few times, but suddenly it’s gone.
What happened?
Some digital campaigns have a frequency cap.
This prevents your ad from being shown too many times to the same person in a short time span.
3. You're Not On The Same Platforms As Your Ads
"I'm on my phone all the time, how do I not see my ads?" is another frequent question we hear.
The beauty of a digital ads campaign is just how granular you can get.
For example, if you’re running a Google Ads Display campaign targeting desktop users, your ads won’t be displayed on a mobile device.
Likewise, if you’re running a Search campaign, you won’t see your ads in the margins of your favorite media site because that requires a display campaign.
Again, you won’t see your products on Facebook if you aren’t running a Meta Shopping campaign.
Even if you’re running every type of campaign on all platforms, you shouldn't see your ads if you’re not the target customer.
4. Your Agency Has Blocked Your IP Address.
Some advertising platforms such as Facebook and Google allow you to block specific IP addresses from being served your ads.
If you’re seeing your ads online and engaging with them, you’re sending buying signals to the advertising algorithm, when in reality, you’re not a target customer.
Engaging with your ads costs you money that should be for acquiring new customers.
How To Tell If Your Digital Ads Are Working
“If I can’t see my ads, how do I know they’re working?”
Checking your Search and Social Media feeds is not the best way to tell if your ads are working.
To see how your ads are performing you’ll want access to the advertising platform’s reporting.
You can view each platform’s reporting individually, or use a third-party reporting tool to consolidate your advertising reports for a comprehensive view of your overall performance.
At Mean Joe Advertising, we grow relationships by being open, honest, and vulnerable with our clients, making transparency our top priority.
That’s why we use custom reporting that integrates with the latest CRMs, search engines, and social platforms to showcase your campaigns’ performance.
Chat with a Mean Joe teammate today to learn exactly how your digital campaigns are performing.
