Breaking Ads – Google Adwords Heisenberg Effect

Setting up a Google Ads campaign is exciting for any business, generally it’s the first time they’ve advertised their website online and the whole prospect seems a little nervy as well as being exciting. Everyone likes to see how the ads are performing and who else they are competing with. But if you do not search and analyse your ads the correct way, you can, and will affect your ads and search results.

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle says:- You cannot measure observe something without changing that which you are measuring/observing.

As an example –  If you have an ad campaign setup for ‘Your Search Term’ and you google your search term to see where your adverts are but do not click your advert then you have inadvertently affected your ads relevancy for ‘Your Search Term’ in a negative way.

It doesn’t stop there either. I have heard many times people ask me “will my competition click my ads?” and “If I click my competitions adverts will it raise their bill and waste their budget?” – Both of these approaches will damage your own google ad campaign and improve your competitions ad campaign.

How? If you search Google for  ‘Your Search Term’ but click on your competitions adverts and not your own, you are inadvertently telling Google your competitions adverts are more relevant than your own. This will improve their ads relevance compared to yours which will make their adverts appear higher than your own, and also lower their cost per click.

Whilst clicking your competitions adverts Google track IP addresses, use cookies and probably track much more information such as MAC addresses and other geeky data that help them to analyse if your ads (and your competitions ads) have received any invalid activity.

What is Invalid Activity?

Invalid activity refers to clicks and impressions that Google suspect aren’t the result of genuine customer interest. Google don’t charge you for invalid activity on your ads and credit those ad click costs back to your account.

For Example – Invalid activity includes clicks and impressions performed by automated tools, as well as accidental clicks – for instance, if someone double clicks your ad.

If you want to track your ads and search results without receiving skewed results due to cookies and ip data then you need to use the Google tools that available in your ad account. The tools Google supply allow us to monitor and track your ads and Google positions the right way 🙂