OK, I'm a little confused. The first thing: what do your adwords stats say? Are you getting impressions and clicks? Are the clicks enough to use up your daily budget? If that's the case, then it may be that google aren't showing YOU the ads. They once told a client of mine: "if you repeatedly search for your ads, the system may stop displaying them to you personally, though this is not indicative of what is happening to all the other users on Google" So, use a friend's computer to check some of the keywords to see if your ads are showing. Hope this helps, Steve
Don't use a friend's computer, if your ad is showing you'll just be messing up your ctr - use the ad preview tool - that's what it's there for https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool
One impression per keyword isn't going to make much difference... and everyone else on the page will also get a "wasted impression". The advice for him to check it using a friend's computer is if he doesn't trust google's stats that say the ad is running. And, if that's the case, would he really trust their preview tool? Just my 2p as he seems to be pretty sceptical about what google are doing, Steve