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Have you been checking your advert positions on Google recently only to discover that your ads are ranking much lower than you expect?

If this sounds familiar it may be an attempt by Google to offer you personalised adverts.

They have now introduced an algorithm that lowers the positions of adverts you don’t click on. The idea being that if you are shown an advert that you personally have ignored previously, the odds are you won’t click on the advert now.

Unfortunately this mirrors the practice of many an advertiser checking their advert positions. Advertisers know not to click on their own adverts but tend to click on their competitors adverts.

Google “reads” this as the advertiser not being interested in her advert, and suddenly the advertiser, used to seeing her advert at the top, finds her advert much lower down the page.

Of course the advert is only showing lower to her, and not her prospects, but she probably does not realise it.

So how do you find your true position? Luckily Google has created an Ad Preview Tool, which allows you test your ads without the “personalisation” described above having any impact.

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