how to see adwords from other regions

[karembeu]

I suspected that this was the case, but I now can see that it indeed is. I am in Canada, but have Canada and the US both targetted for my adwords. The problem is that with the region detection that Google employs, I can't SEE where I am in the US.

My ads are of course great looking from where I am, but while in the US I see that pages I thought I was on top for, or at worst on the side of the 1st page, I am nowhere for US surfers.

Is there a simple way to see how I 'look' to US surfers that I am missing (very likely ;)) or does anyone know a tool that can help me see where I stand to US clients. Same will apply when we turn on UK I imagine.

Thanks in advance.

[karembeu]

I can use one of those anonymizer sites to surf through (won't advertise the one I tried) and I can now see the US ads. Don't you think there should be a way in the adwords setup to be able to see where you rank, or again, am I missing something obvious?

Also, if I use the Google Toolbar options ans switch my default search to be co.uk, dor instance, I see the adwords from that region, but .ca and .com both show me the .ca ads? Were we annexed into the US when I wasn;t looking? ;)

[buckworks]

Add the characters &gl=us to the end of the URL and you can view the page as seen in the US.

Add &gl=uk to the end of the URL to view it as seen in the UK.

I saw the US one mentioned in a newsletter somewhere, but don't remember where to give proper credit. I tried it with "uk" and it worked. There may be similar strings for other countries but those are the only two I've tried.

[karembeu]

thanks buck, knew there MUST be a built in way to do it as well. The anonymous thing works, but I'd rather use an 'approved' way :)

hmmm, any idea why the &gl= for european countries seems to produce entirely different natural listings? The anonymous web surfing shows the same natural listings as normal searches I do, but I see the different adwords - so it can't be targetting the proxy of the anonymous server. Any ideas?

[eWhisper]

Don't you think there should be a way in the adwords setup to be able to see where you rank, or again, am I missing something obvious?

In your adwords account, you'll see average position listed for both campaigns and keywords. This is the average position your ad is in. Just change the time frame and you'll see the ads position during that time.

[karembeu]

buck, that gl= is not too effective, unless it is only for US listings. I tried it for NL, while chatting with a buddy in Holland, and he got the same results I did through anonymous server.

thanks whisper, i'll check that out.

[buckworks]

Those snippets work for me to see US and UK Adwords listings from Canada.

Beyond that, I'm in the dark as much as anyone.

[eWhisper]

This just seems a good time to once again bring up a topic - seeing regional ads without being in that region.

Google has the technology, [labs.google.com...] , to do a search per zip code. Can't they break that zip code down into the AdWords regions and show ads on the search results of that page?

This would allow people who live on one coast, but do regional targeting on another cost to quickly be able to scan through the listings of what is going on in that particular region.

Regional advertising is such a good idea, but there aren't enough good tools for advertisers to use to properly optimize it.

[karembeu]

yeah, US and UK seems to work with the &gl=, but NL didn't for sure.

Setting the default search option in the google toolbar DOES work for NL however?

My confusion is being in Canada then. Using google.com I don't get the same results as a person in the US, yet there is a separate listing for google.ca in the toolbar options, which also doesn't give the same results I get at google.com? Am I being targetted or not?

The toolbar seems the simplest way to see international listings, and i'm sure that US webmasters are fine to see everyone else, looks like it may just be us non-US souls that can't use the toolbar reliably for US listings. :(

The plot thins...

[Nikke]

I think the difference between a anonymiser site and the gl operator is that with the anonymiser you will see ads for the IP range where the anonymiser server is at.

So, to see NL ads with the anonymiser (or New York ads from California) you would need an anonymiser sitting in that region. I could be wrong, and if so, please correct me.

As for European searches, the ads you see will also depend greatly on weather you select "All languages" or just the language you are targeting. I keep getting lower ranking from google.se than from google.com for ads targeted for Sweden, with only Swedish competitors above my add.

[anallawalla]

The &gl= trick seems to work for English-language countries where there is a local Google.

If you have web hosts using Linux, look up cgiproxy. It gives you a view from the host's location. That's one less region to worry about.

[pmkpmk]

I had the same problem: moving from regaional ads to international ads.

In order to trick Google into thinking you are based in another region, you need of course a proxy server from that region. There's quite a lot of websites listing free proxy servers. I use the one from [atomintersoft.com ] but this one looks good too [stayinvisible.com ]

So if you want to stage as - say - a Brazilian surfer, you simply pick a proxy server from Brazil and use it.

However, always going in to the browser settings to change the Proxy can be a tiresome task, especially when you want to cover many regions. But again I found some help in the form of ProxySwitcher ([proxyswitcher.com ]), which let's you automatically switch among many proxy servers by a simple click. However, this only works for Internet Explorer. The have a stripped down free version, and a more comfortable version at $29.

Hope that helps.

[karembeu]

Using the default search in the google toolbar seems to be fine in most cases. I did confirm that the search using google.nl was in fact what a buddy in Holland was seeing, and it seems a whole lot easier than the proxy switching.

I personally need to use the proxy solution to see US ads, as Canada and the US seem to be linked somehow.

Using google.ca does not yield the same results as a standard search (using google.com with location targetting I assume). BUT, a proxy in the US yields a 3rd different set of results, which I have confirmed *IS* what US based searchers see. It's almost like there are results for JUST the US, US & Canada campaigns, and then JUST Canada.

"Results" here refers to the ads shown of course.

[BitBiter]

Hi,

I'm in the Netherlands (.nl) and the &gl=us does not work the other way around. I see adwords in dutch atop some english ones. I need to see what the US users see. So I hope this thread continues until AWA or someone else comes up with the definite solution...

[pmkpmk]

Look three messages up (including this one). The solution I described shows you exactly what US users see, as long as you enter a US-proxy.

Step by step:

1) Go to [stayinvisible.com...] (or any other site which lists public proxy servers)
2) Look for a Proxy server located in the US (column "country" in stayinivisble.com)
3) Open your browser settings and chose the networking options(Internet Explorer: Extras -> Internet Settings -> Connection)
4) Type in the name or IP-address of the proxy and its port number (often 8080)
5) Go to google.com Chose a very competitive keyword like DVD player. Make a search. You will get sponsored links from "circuitcity", "walmart" and "sears" (among others)
6) Now remove the proxy entry and make a new search from the Netherlands. You get completely different sponsered links - in my case not a single one for a Dutch department store.

Hope tht helps.

[adfree]

I got my server in the US, live in Europe.
When I want to see my AS ads in the US I log onto my server using Remote Desktop out of XP from home and browse through my sites in an US environment.
Works for me...