I've noticed this happening quite a bit now. I'm using statcounter to track the search phrases being typed in for people to find my site via Google Adwords. When I enter in the search phrase they entered, not only does my advert not show up but no other adverts do either! So how come I'm getting charged for a click when my advert was never displayed??? Thanks guys
Google have never said that your ad will show every time someone types in your keywords - that depends on your budget, your choice of delivery option etc. And just because you didn't see it when you searched doesn't mean nobody else ever did. Google adwords clicks show up in statcounter with a google tag attached to them - something like this gclid=CN3uotrrjpgCFRpnQgodvG2fDg If you can see that in statcounter - then your google ads are being clicked on.
I've experienced this too. I would do a search and I would see my ad. If I did another search I would see 2 ads. Then I did another search and I saw no ads. Every time you do a search to get a somewhat true picture of what is going on you'll have to clear your history, cache, and cookies. Then do a simiar search on different browsers too. Then do some searches in the library and other locations.
Don't do this. You're just fecking up the adwords stats for yourself and the other advertisers. Use the Google Adwords Preview Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool That's what it's there for.
Ok thanks guys for the input. I'm going to try again over the next few days and see if my advert (or any advert!) turns up. Cheers
Trouble with the Preview Tool is it gives nonsensical results most of the time, e.g. Is ad A showing for "little green widgets"? Answer - Yes. View it in Preview Tool and you see your ad for "big red whatsits"! And, what is more, it will often do that even though "big red whatsits" is a negative keyword for the original query! It is completely unreliable. To some extent perhaps but it is the same for all advertisers so the playing field will remain level. It also, of course, depends on the number of impressions you are getting, e.g. if you only get 10 per day and you do a couple of searches it will have a big impact, if you are getting 10 000 then the effect will be negligible. But, if you do try researching in the "open" search ( as opposed to the tool) you must follow Sgooey's advice "Every time you do a search to get a somewhat true picture of what is going on you'll have to clear your history, cache, and cookies." (Use Firefox and you can set that as a default setting anyway.)
Basically I do not beleive in Google Adwords, The way it calculates the CPC has always bounced back my head ! I still cannot judge the logic ! We cannot prove it anyways ! Only what we see over google websites is true (is assumed) Reality may be different.