Ads not showing when logged into Google

[Conor Treacy]

I experienced something odd today.

While logged into my Google account, doing a search in Google produces *NO ADS* on the SERPs. Not a single one!

If I'm not logged in (incognito etc), the ads pop up in the usual spots.

I've managed to duplicate this both on my login, and the login for 2 other employees here at the office using different computers.

Anyone else seeing this, or is it just a fluke?

 

[James Watt]

That's expected behavior, it's very normal to see that. Google uses more than just your location and your keyword search to determine which ads to serve, they also use your search history, and other things they may or may not know about you. I have no idea how deep the well goes, but I'd be welling to bet even your email content could feed into it if you use gmail, who knows?

Chances are, Google has shown you the ad in numerous queries in the past while you've done your searching, and since you've never clicked on it (or any other ad) Google's decided it's a waste to show you any ads at all for those keywords, so they don't. Log out, and suddenly Google doesn't know so much about you and your preferences, so they start showing the ad again.

Want to see it in action? Do a search for a new unrelated keyword that has ads showing. Now start refreshing the page. You'll see the ads up top move down to the bottom (only organic up top) after a few refreshes, and then the number of ads will eventually shrink to zero as you keep refreshing the page.

Rather than looking for your ads manually, you'll have much better luck using the Adwords Ad Preview Tool and checking how things look that way.

 

[Conor Treacy]

Yeah, Google does learn and spy on everything (gmail included), but what's odd is that no matter what I type in, I don't get any ads.

I can search for "blue shoes" and nothing shows, but if I'm incognito, the ads show.
"miami flights", "white t-shirt", "mexican food", "best mexican food in omaha" - it doesn't matter what I type, I don't get any ads at the top or bottom. Even going to page 2 or 3 or 7, no ads ever come up.

It's not that I'm checking to see if an ad shows, the tool is always better for that, but rather nothing shows.

Thought it was odd. Thought maybe it was a test? But that seems like a ridiculous test. Maybe Google has learned that nobody in our office ever clicks an ad?

 

[James Watt]

Maybe? I'll be interested what some of the more adwords savvy people here have to say about that.

 

[JoyHawkins]

This is what I see. 1 ad or 0 ads depending on what keyword. I'm searching from PA at the moment. I think Google might be preparing to launch a paid 3-pack ad.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I've had ads be severely reduced or completely go missing when I do a bunch of Google queries in a short amount of time. Eventually it seems like they pick up on the fact that you're just searching for search sake and they stop showing ads. Maybe because they knew you don't have any commercial interest and a click from you would be a waste. Who knows.