The most common Google Ads problems and solutions
The solutions I’ve provided below are based on your website and landing pages being free from errors and issues, such as insufficient hosting resources, broken links, slow page load times and device display problems amongst other obvious problems.
Always check for these first before jumping into Google Ads and making changes when a campaign slides out.
Pro Tip: Many shifts in ad campaign performance that I’ve encountered have been due to issues outside of the Google Ads account & campaigns.
Run tests yourself around the website, check your Google Analytics data and Google Search Console first. Your ad campaign might not be to blame for poor performance.
Lack of, or downshift, in conversion volume (most common solution: new ad content and grouping)
Low or lost return on ad spend (most common solution: Adjust audience targeting)
Lack of, or lost, ad impression share (most common solution: adjust cost-per-acquisition target and budget)
Low, or decline, in ad clicks (most common solution: Adjust keywords and bids, new ad content)
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Problem #1: Fix a lack of, or decline, in Google Ads conversions
There are two scenarios.
The first is a Google Ads campaign that has been running for 3 months or longer, the second is a new campaign that’s just been launched.
The reality is that in most cases people always rush to the Google Ads account first, make changes and then see no uplift, only to discover afterwards that the issue never was in Google Ads.
The worst part is they’ve disrupted what was a perfectly good campaign and will have to spend a lot of time un-doing all their changes and earning back their advertiser ranking with Google, which can take time.
The best approach is to first create a comprehensive list of website visitor test scenarios and check them all yourself on both mobile and desktop, as an issue might only be present in one of these formats.
Also test using mobile data and Wi-Fi as this will help identify any page loading errors. Don’t forget to check your website hosting is ok, not maxing out or experiencing any downtime. Doing these simple tests first will undoubtedly confirm for you where the issue lies and could save you wrecking a perfectly good Google Ads campaign.
If after you run your website and host test scenarios you find no issues, then it’s safe to review the Google Ads campaign itself.
You should check your Google Merchant Centre as a first Google Ads step, make sure it flags no errors or disapprovals. Is it making feed recommendations, if it is then get started on those first, ahead of making changes to the campaign in question itself.
What’s the Google Ads solution?
The reality is that existing campaigns that have run for a while are going to need changes and updates from time-to-time for one reason or another.
For new campaigns, also consider that Google can take a little while to understand your service or product and what you’re trying to achieve through your campaign configuration.
To lower the risk of making changes in either that have little or no effect, you should look for two things: your ad rank scores and your ad grouping.
Ad rank scores
If this is low, then you most certainly need to update your ad content as this is one of the big factors to gaining ranking position.
You can easily add an ad rank score as a column into your Google Ads dashboard, by selecting [Search lost IS rank] from the columns panel. Once applied, this will show you the percentage of impressions you lost due to your advertiser rank, simply put if its low; update your ad content.
Challenge your content in this scenario; is it compelling enough, does it have direct congruence to the page you are sending visitors who click. It needs to be succinct and clear. Seriously don’t underestimate how important this Google Ads fundamental is to your success.
Pro Tip: You should be running split tests for different ad content and messages, it's good practice. This part of Google ads is intuitive to use and easily done from within your Google Ads account
Ad Grouping
You might have one ad variant or product SKU in the pack which is positively out-performing in the campaigns group and stealing all the budget away from the others, which given a chance would all perform well.
If you are running a Google Ads Performance Max (PMAX) campaign, it could be that a particular asset group, product or service has suddenly got some performance traction.
This can often result in the out-performer taking all the budget you’ve given the campaign.
If you find this in your scenario you should transfer the other under-performing assets into a new campaign on their own, leaving just the top performer in the legacy campaign with its own budget.
Pro Tip: Don't move the top performer in the group into a new campaign, as it will have to earn back its performance again and might not.
Google Search campaigns can suffer a similar issue to PMAX. However, it’s usually keyword driven, but can also be ad content.
You’ll need to review and cross-compare your ad performance collectively, looking for any variants that need to be separated from the main pack.
Remember to move the lower performers not the top performers, to avoid the risk of losing any established success the top performers have earned.
Keywords are easy to review in Google Ads, and you can quickly see which ones are getting the most conversions, best return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) and the best click through. The running theme in this solution remains, any positive out-performers need separating from the rest of the pack.
With all the above said, it’s inevitable that you will need to pay attention to Google’s recommendations, which they serve up in your main account and review them all carefully, as they can also help you understand what to adjust to get things working.
Pro Tip: Check that Google Ads recommendations aren't being auto applied, as some are out of the box.
You should change recommendations to nothing auto applied, you don’t want the auto apply feature making your situation any worse. These recommendations are based on your current performance and what Google thinks you want, which could be wrong.
Problem: Lack of, or downshift in conversion volume
Solution: Improved ad content and grouping
Problem #2: Low, or decline, in return-on-ad-spend (ROAS)
I have some good news and bad news about ROAS decline if your campaign has previously performed well.
The bad news:
You need to update your audience targeting, which will need you to invest some serious time.
The good news:
You’re having to change audience targeting as you’ve been smashing it doing a great job, so great you’ve exhausted your audience and need to reach out to an updated one.
Pro Tip: Remember check for things outside your Google Ads campaign first, as this could be caused by something on your website.
Have you changed your offer or price. Is your website running at its full potential with no errors or issues?
If you’re launching a new campaign and it’s just not getting acceptable ROAS, consider your offer, service and price. If you are confident that these are okay, and your website performance is good, then you need to re-visit your audience targeting and start making some adjustments to who’s seeing your ads.
Audience targeting is one of the most important factors to succeeding in online advertising. Get it wrong or underestimate it at your own peril.
You can have the best offer, price, service and website, but if your ad impressions are shown to people who aren’t in the market for what you’ve got, they won’t click, if they do click, they most likely won’t have the intent you want when they arrive.
Take your time on this part when you set up a new campaign, it’s one of the areas I’ve always invested the most time in when setting up a campaign or updating an existing campaign.
Use Google’s own in-market targeting combined with your own data, like people who have purchased from you previously and especially your own Google Analytics (GA4) data.
What causes low or declining ROAS
What can you do to prevent it?
What causes low or declining ROAS in Google Ads campaigns?
Declining or low ROAS in Google Ads campaigns are both, in most scenarios, a result of incorrect audience targeting, causing your ads to be shown to an audience who are no longer in the market for what you’ve got to offer, or not interested. The targeting misalignment could be a result of audience burnout or improper configuration in the first place.
I’ve seen many good-looking ad campaigns that were simply built with poor audience targeting and couldn’t get in front of the right audiences. They were unable to get the ROAS needed; had to be re-worked and in some cases binned off.
I’ve also seen campaigns that were built by advertisers with excellent audience targeting and subsequently got great ROAS, but they weren’t managed properly in their audience targeting and ended up losing it all.
Critically, set up is where the most common human error leads to unacceptable ROAS.
Sometimes audience targeting can become too restricting, like demographic and affinity / in market audience applied into the same campaign (good where precise targeting is needed) exert too many boundaries to where Google can show your ads. This occurs occasionally, but the most common cause of low or declining ROAS in a campaign comes from not reviewing and consistently updating the audiences you are targeting.
Many times, advertisers are forced into adjusting audience targeting in a campaign that has lost performance, despite their best efforts to modify other configurations the campaign is built on. They add new audiences to the campaign until they see a positive shift in ROAS. This deploys a lot of changes in the campaign that sometimes results in further slips in ROAS.
It’s also true that some advertisers simply don’t build good campaigns. This can lead to extreme efforts needed to make a poor campaign good, more often than not resulting in starting again.
Another cause of poor ROAS can stem from the lack of qualified research and analysis completed prior to any work being started in Google Ads itself.
What is the solution?
Find someone that takes time to do qualified research and analysis, while considering all the touchpoints where you have data already which can be leveraged into your campaigns.
Also find a reputable advertiser who will configure audience targeting properly and implement it with care.
Pro Tip: To determine the ROAS delivery of an advertisers Google Ads campaigns, contact some of their clients and ask them directly "how good is your ROAS?"
It’s a good idea to contact the recent customers they are serving, as well as some they’ve worked with for a while, to give you a good picture of what they will hold up over time.
Be careful when reading case studies, no one usually tells you about things that went wrong along the way to a good part.
Problem: Low, or decline, in Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)
Solution: Invest time in configuring audience targeting and review it regularly
Problem #3: Low or lost ad impression share
Anyone who has worked for a decent amount of time on Google Ads would have experienced low or lost impression share at some point. It’s not unusual and can happen to some of the best advertisers I’ve worked with.
Imagine, you’ve had a campaign running for a few weeks, it’s been achieving a great return on investment and consistently, then suddenly it starts to fall away for no obvious reason, worse still it was one of your top performers.
Equally, imagine your website is in great shape, you’ve spent hours researching, analysing and creating the perfect campaign from scratch. You’ve taken your time, considered everything very carefully and even got second opinions for everything you’ve put together before you launched it, only to see no ad impressions for your hard work.
In these situations, especially where your website is in good performance, this can happen due to the common practice of bidding and budget configurations.
When your ad enters the auction bidding for position, it is competing with many other ads from equally determined advertisers, all wanting a piece of the action, which is fine – unless they are willing to pay more for a conversion than you.
Don’t be fooled, if you just try to outplay everyone you’re competing with, by setting up your CPA or CPC to be the highest bidder you’ll not likely win either as the auction process relies on more than this in its ranking decisions, go too high and it can sometimes get you penalized to prevent this from happening. You’ve got to strike the balance just right in this part, especially in competitive FMCG or in-demand service markets.
But don’t worry! Google Ad campaigns are still a great option, even in competitive market conditions. The key is to make sure your campaign’s bidding configuration is set up to weather changing conditions through bid modifiers for the best returning device type, which will most likely be mobile. Bid modifiers are extenders where you say to Google, go for it, have an extra 10% or 20%, for example, if the conversion is on such and such device, and the user is likely to lead to a conversion.
Sometimes it’s good to trust the automation features on offer from Google Ads with bidding, where you hand control to them. Be careful here, it’s not always the best move. If you’re considering this you should run a split test, like I mentioned earlier in the article.
Literally, thousands of Google Ads campaigns have automation features in place without incident, but when the right, or wrong, circumstances align, it can leave you stranded or just as bad paying too much.
Questions: What happens to a campaign when it starts losing impressions? it loses ranking FAST!
Structured Google Ads account with themed campaigns split by performance levels can help manage lost impressions. Separate super-hot sellers into their own campaign. Use portfolio budget to stabilize losses in affected campaigns while catching up.
With all of this considered does it mean it’s too time-consuming to manage bidding in a Google Ads campaign? Quite the opposite; I would say it’s one of the best investments in your time, as it means your product or service is in demand, and you need to be winning bids.
Pro Tip: You need to be sure of two main things:
That your bid strategy has flexibility to stretch a little when it counts.
That you pay attention to it right from the get-go, and right through its life,
Is there a difference between different bid strategy types? Yes 100%, and they all serve brilliantly in the right circumstances. Just because you’ve been trading on one and it’s been great, doesn’t mean it will be forever.
Be prepared to explore other bid strategy options, and they all make sense when you look at what they’re called, the clue is in their name, they do what they say on the tin.
Pro Tip: Bidding is only one aspect of winning in Google Ads, remember to win an auction a get a good position on the search results for your ad campaigns you are measured on many factors, but this is an important one.
Nonetheless, the following three bidding features will reduce the chances of your campaign losing impressions in the first place:
Portfolio budgets:
Many advertisers overlook the power of using this feature, which means nothing can pick up the slack when the campaign starts struggling.
Bid modifiers:
The correct monitoring and configuration of these modifiers for different devices will produce a stronger ROAS.
Bid adjustments:
This feature supports products and services that sell in changing markets, maybe its seasonality, maybe it’s a sudden PR article, whatever the reason having these in place and set correctly could save your bacon just when you need it.
What’s the bidding and budget solution?
On the bidding side, the one thing you certainly can control is what you are prepared to pay for a click or conversion, and from my experience, using a flexible approach so your bids and budgets can stretch when they need to is the only insurance against sudden changes in your market conditions where everything else is in good shape.
Creating portfolio budgets for specific product or service categories is crucial. Utilize bid modifiers for popular devices based on Google Analytics data for optimal results. Adjust bids for top performing campaigns to maximize success.
While perfecting bidding strategies may take time, the benefits outweigh the effort. Investing in bidding optimization offers peace of mind and significant advantages that are well worth the cost.
Problem: Low, or decline, in Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)
Solution: Invest time in configuring audience targeting and review it regularly
The best way to avoid these issues is to work with an experienced Google Ads advertiser, or insist your team completes the Google training modules to become certified. However, don’t be fooled by the fact someone is certified, nothing counts more than real physical experience of working in Google Ads for a decent period of time.
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Problem #4: Low, or decline, in ad clicks
Why would the clicks be low? Good question…
This most certainly can be linked to losing impression shares, but many times this happens you’ll check your impressions, and they won’t be showing a decline, in some cases where click volume has dropped, they’ll be showing an increase.
In either of these scenarios, of an impression decline or increase, it’s a sure-fire way of suggesting that you have a quality issue in your ad impressions.
Clicks don’t just decline; mostly the keywords and ad content around the campaign are either not right, off trend or exhausted. We’re back to the keyword and content discussions again. This is good because these areas need focus.
Many times, despite an advertiser’s best efforts to set up keywords, ad content and web page content so it’s all relevant and has good congruence, the configuration auction placements are too competitive, and their campaign needs to be better established before positioning itself around higher volume more competitive auctions.
A good strategy here is to align around a combination of highest volume vs. lowest competition variants first, get ranking and then diligently migrate into the higher competition options. The adage of don’t run before you can walk is most prevalent in this scenario.
Let’s say you were running on high competition keyword variants for targeting, ad and page content, you were winning and getting a great ROAS, and then your performance starts falling away.
This is usually where your ad content needs attention as it’s been round the target audiences too many times, or a competitor has released a better variant than you.
Remember the landscape your ad runs in is forever changing, so you need to move with the changing times.
Equally, your ad content might be fine, and it could be your keywords that need attention. Is there seasonality at play? Has a new competitor entered the market? Have you got the right bid strategy? All of these situations can drastically affect keyword demand and push up cost per click.
As you can see, the landscape can change, so make sure you change with it.
What’s the solution?
On the bidding side, the one thing you certainly can control is what you are prepared to pay for a click or conversion, and from my experience, using a flexible approach so your bids and budgets can stretch when they need to is the only insurance against sudden changes in your market conditions where everything else is in good shape.
Creating portfolio budgets for specific product or service categories is crucial. Utilize bid modifiers for popular devices based on Google Analytics data for optimal results. Adjust bids for top performing campaigns to maximize success.
While perfecting bidding strategies may take time, the benefits outweigh the effort. Investing in bidding optimization offers peace of mind and significant advantages that are well worth the cost.
Problem: Low, or decline, in ad clicks
Solution: Ad content and keyword analysis and optimisation
In Conclusion…
It’s no surprise that there are legitimate solutions to the top 4 problems associated with Google Ads. I’ve scrutinized many ads, campaigns and advertisers in my time working in Google Ads to eliminate any potential problems and make life easier for everyone.
You want to maximise the opportunity Google Ads can bring, and we want to help you achieve just that.
For more guidance and help, we recommend completing the Google Ads Skillshop training modules.
You can also book a 30-minute free no obligation consultation with us by clicking the calendar link below and selecting a day and time that is convenient for you.