Taking risks is what this business is all about. Not knowing who is going to look at your ads, how many people will see them, or how often they will show is always a risk willing to take.However, Google AdWords provides easy-to-use tools in order to determine if your ad is showing up in a certain geographical location, domain, and device. I have used the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool for both international and domestic clients. This tool is especially beneficial if you do not know the area, such as an international location where the geo-targeting is different than domestic geo-targeting options. This tool also allows you to preview an ad for a product or service that is located in Florida when you are currently searching on your computer in California.
The Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool is located under the Reporting and Tools section on the tabs area and it allows you to search for your ad via Google search query without accruing any impressions or affecting the click through rate or quality score. You will gain a sense of the ad positioning through the preview of the keywords via Google search queries. Another feature of the Ad Preview tool is the ability to choose the device (ie: Android, Blackberry, etc) and cell phone carrier for the device category of advertising. You can check to see if certain ads are showing up on specific cell phone carriers and how far away the consumer is from your particular business if localized.
If your ad is not showing up with these search queries, you may want change your geo-targeting to a more broad or narrow spectrum or refine your keywords to better accommodate a search result with an accompanied ad.
The Ad Preview tool will present you with opportunities or diagnoses to increase the chances of your ad showing such as the budget needs to be increased or the need to adjust keyword bids (see the above image). The Ad Preview tool also allows provides you with the campaign and ad group that the triggered keyword is from. Utilizing this tool allows you to check out your ad performance without actually using the Google Search Network and accruing unwanted costs.