> guides/google-ads-not-working.txt
Why Aren't My
Google Ads Working?
You're paying for clicks and the phone isn't ringing. Or Google Ads says it's going brilliantly and your bank balance disagrees. These are ten things I check first, roughly in order, with what you can look at yourself.
> quick_answer.txt
Quick Answer
Most Google Ads accounts that aren't working have a measurement problem, a waste problem, or both. Either Google can't see which clicks turn into customers, so it optimises towards the wrong thing, or money is going on searches, places and hours that were never going to pay. Check your conversion tracking first, then your search terms, then your location settings. Those three explain a lot.
> symptoms.txt
Sound Familiar?
You're probably looking at one of these.
- Plenty of clicks, hardly any calls or forms.
- Google Ads reports conversions you can't match to real enquiries.
- Calls from people miles outside your area, or asking for things you don't do.
- Cost per click has crept up month after month.
> cause_01.txt
1. Conversion Tracking Is Broken, or Counting the Wrong Thing
This is the big one. If tracking is wrong, every number in the account is wrong, and automated bidding steers your budget using those numbers. The usual faults: no tracking at all, a tag that died when the website changed, the same enquiry counted twice, or something that isn't an enquiry counted as one, like a page view.
How to check: in Google Ads, go to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Look at the status of each action and which ones are Primary. Then compare last month's conversions with the enquiries you actually got. If they're miles apart either way, start here. My tracking guides cover the common failures, including duplicate conversions and conversions that dropped after a cookie banner went in.
> cause_02.txt
2. Broad Match Is Buying Searches You Didn't Want
Broad match lets Google show your ads for searches it thinks are related to your keywords. Sometimes it finds good ones. Often it finds people looking for jobs, DIY instructions, a competitor by name, or a service you don't offer.
How to check: open the search terms report, under Insights and reports, for the last 30 days and sort by cost. Read every line that's spent money. How to fix: add the bad ones as negative keywords. Negatives added straight from that report go in as exact match by default, so for words you never want, like jobs or free, add them yourself as phrase match. Then do it weekly, because the list never quite finishes.
> cause_03.txt
3. Your Ads Are Showing to People Who Aren't Local
In each campaign's location settings there's an option most people never open. The default, Presence or interest, shows your ads to people who are in or regularly in your area, plus people who've shown interest in it. For a holiday park that's useful, because the people planning a North Wales break often live somewhere else. For a plumber in Rhyl it can mean paying for clicks from people who'll never set foot in Rhyl.
How to check: campaign settings, then Locations, then Location options. If you only serve people who are actually here, choose Presence. Then look at the locations report to see where clicks really came from. A generous radius around one town can also take in places you'd never drive to.
> cause_04.txt
4. Too Little Budget Spread Over Too Much
Ten campaigns sharing £15 a day means each one gets a few clicks and none of them learn anything. The same happens with dozens of keywords in one campaign: the budget runs out by mid-morning, and it goes on whichever searches came first, not the best ones.
How to check: look for Limited by budget next to your campaigns, and add the Search lost IS (budget) column, which shows how often your ads missed out because the money ran out. How to fix: fewer campaigns, aimed at the services and areas that make you the most money. Get one thing working, then widen it.
> cause_05.txt
5. The Landing Page Is Letting the Ad Down
The ad's job is to get the click. The page's job is to get the call. Sending every click to your homepage, a slow page, a page with no phone number visible on a mobile, or a contact form that quietly doesn't send are all ways to pay for a visitor and then lose them.
How to check: open the page your ad points to on your phone, away from the Wi-Fi, and try to get in touch. Send yourself a test enquiry and see if it arrives. My free website checker will also tell you whether the SEO basics and your tracking tags are in place. How to fix: a page for each main service that repeats what the ad promised, with your number at the top.
> cause_06.txt
6. Smart Bidding Without the Data to Be Smart
Strategies like Maximise conversions and Target CPA let Google set your bids using your conversion data. They work best with a steady flow of real conversions. On a new account, a quiet one, or one with broken tracking, the system is mostly guessing, and every big change to the strategy sends it back into a learning period.
How to check: campaign settings show the bid strategy. If it's chasing conversions, count how many genuine ones it had last month. A handful isn't much to learn from. How to fix: sort the tracking first. On thin data I'd usually start with tighter control, like Maximise clicks with a bid limit, then move to conversion-based bidding once real conversions come in steadily.
> cause_07.txt
7. Ads Running at the Wrong Times
By default your ads run around the clock. If calls at 11pm go to voicemail, you may be paying for clicks you can't answer. The opposite happens too, like switching ads off at weekends when your customers search on a Sunday night.
How to check: the When and where ads showed report has a day and hour view, with clicks and conversions for each. How to fix: set an ad schedule that matches when you can actually pick up, or keep ads running out of hours and point them at a form. One catch since June 2026: if you switch a campaign off on whole days, Google paces towards your full monthly budget across the days that are left, so check your daily budget.
> cause_08.txt
8. Someone Else Wants Those Clicks More
Sometimes nothing's wrong with your account and it's the auction. A new competitor, a national firm moving into your area, or lead-generation sites bidding on your trade can push prices up and push you down the page.
How to check: the Auction insights report shows who else is showing for your searches, and how often they're above you. The Search lost IS (rank) column shows how often you missed out because your Ad Rank was too low. How to fix: don't just raise bids. Better quality, cause 10 below, lowers what you need to pay. And pick your fights: the services and towns where you're strongest.
> cause_09.txt
9. Performance Max Is Taking Credit for Your Brand
Performance Max runs across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display and more from one campaign. Left to it, it will happily show ads to people searching for your business by name, who'd have found you anyway, and count those sales as its own. The report looks great. Not much of it is new business.
How to check: in the campaign's Insights, look at the search term categories and see how much of it is your own name. How to fix: add brand exclusions to Performance Max. If you want to show for your own name at all, do it in a separate Search campaign with exact match brand keywords, which Google prefers over Performance Max when the search matches exactly. Then judge Performance Max on what's left.
> cause_10.txt
10. Low Quality Score
Quality Score is Google's 1 to 10 rating for each keyword, built from three parts: expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google calls it a diagnostic tool. The score itself isn't used in the auction, but the quality it reflects is, so poor quality means paying more for worse positions.
How to check: in your keywords view, add the Quality Score column and the three component columns, each rated Above average, Average or Below average. How to fix: whichever part is Below average. Poor ad relevance usually means ad groups that are too broad, so split them until the ad matches the search. Landing page experience means the page. Low expected click-through rate means the ad isn't standing out.
> check_order.txt
Check It in This Order
Fix the measurement before the money, and the money before the fine-tuning.
Tracking
Real enquiries against what Google Ads reports. Nothing else in the account is trustworthy until these roughly match.
Search Terms
Last 30 days, sorted by cost. Negatives for everything irrelevant.
Locations
Presence or Presence or interest, and where your clicks really came from.
Budget and Structure
Limited by budget? Too many campaigns? Narrow it down to what pays.
Landing Page
Phone in hand, try to get in touch with yourself.
The Fine-Tuning
Bidding, schedule, competitors, brand traffic and Quality Score, once the basics are right.
> get_help.txt
When to Get Help
If you've been through all that and it still doesn't add up, or you'd rather someone else did the digging, I can help three ways. My free 15-minute review gets you the top three fixes in writing, and I do five a month. My Google Ads audit is £500, fixed, with a written fix list in order of what's costing you most. And if you want someone to run it, management is from £250 a month, month to month.
Sometimes the honest answer is that Google Ads isn't right for your business at the moment. If that's what I find, that's what I'll tell you.
> cat faq.txt
Questions People Ask
Why am I getting clicks but no calls?
Usually the wrong searches (check your search terms), the wrong people (check your location options) or a landing page that loses them. Now and then the calls are coming and tracking isn't counting them, so check your phone and inbox against the clicks before changing anything.
How long should I give Google Ads before deciding it doesn't work?
Long enough to get clean data: tracking fixed, obvious waste cut, then a few weeks of steady running after the last big change. Judging it after a week, or after changing the bid strategy three times, tells you very little.
Should I turn off broad match?
Not necessarily. Broad match with good conversion data and someone reading the search terms every week can find useful searches. Broad match with broken tracking and nobody watching is how budgets disappear. If you can't check it weekly, phrase and exact match are safer.
Is Performance Max a bad idea for a small business?
Not always, but it gives you less control and less visibility, and it needs good conversion data to do well. For most local service businesses I'd start with Search and only add Performance Max later, with brand exclusions on.
Can I check my tracking without logging in to Google Ads?
Partly. My free website checker shows whether Google Ads, GA4, the Meta pixel and a consent banner are on your site. It can't tell you whether conversions are set up properly inside the account. That needs a look at the account itself.
> ls ../guides
Related Pages
Most of these causes have a page of their own.
> new_message.txt
Paying for Clicks That Go Nowhere?
Tell me what you spend, what you sell and roughly how many enquiries you get. I'll tell you where I'd look first. If it's one setting, I'll just tell you.
"Matt was really responsive throughout the whole process - no questions went unanswered and Matt was really engaged in the whole process."
Lizzie Hill · Abergele Golf Club