Occasionally, you may find that your Performance Max campaigns are not serving as many impressions as you would expect, or are not spending much of your set daily budget. In this article, we’ll outline common reasons why your ads may not be serving and how you can troubleshoot using the tools in Google Ads.
Before you begin
What to expect when a campaign is enabled
If you recently enabled your Performance Max campaign, it can take some time for your campaign to start serving impressions. There are a few reasons for this:
- It takes 24–48 hours for newly created or edited ads to be reviewed to ensure that they meet all policy requirements.
- For campaigns using automated bidding strategies, it is recommended to wait 1–2 weeks to allow systems to ramp up and start performing towards your set goal.
- It may take Google Ads some time to adjust serving if you make changes to your campaign settings.
Use diagnostic insights to identify why your campaign isn't serving
Diagnostic insights highlight issues that may be limiting your campaign’s ability to serve. Diagnostic insights also provide recommendations on how to resolve these issues. Learn more About diagnostic insights.
Example: An advertiser hasn’t gained any conversions or traffic after creating a campaign. They use diagnostic insights to discover that their campaign isn’t serving because their assets are disapproved, and view a recommendation to fix these disapproved assets.
If your ad still isn’t receiving impressions after three working days, check the reasons listed in this article.
14 common reasons why your ads are not running or are getting low traffic
1. Account issues
If your account is suspended, or if you have a billing issue on your account, you won’t be able to run your ads until the problem is resolved. If your account has been suspended, you will see this notification on your homepage. You'll also have received an email notification with the reason why your account has been suspended.
Learn more about and fix Account issues.
2. Date ranges and campaign start and end dates
Google Ads shows you performance data for the date range that you select.
Learn more about and fix Date ranges and campaign start and end dates.
3. Campaign is not enabled
To ensure that your campaign is launched and can serve, check that your campaign is enabled.
Learn more about and fix Campaign isn’t enabled.
4. Google AI is evaluating data
Performance Max campaigns use automated bid strategies and AI to optimise your campaign and deliver maximum performance.
Learn more about and fix Google AI is evaluating data.
5. Low budget
When you have a low budget, your ads may not serve as often while Google Ads ensures that your campaign doesn't spend more than your spending limit.
Learn more about and fix Low budget.
6. Low bid targets and optimisation goals
While it may be possible to serve ads with a very low bid, your campaign may not enter or win as many auctions and your ads may not have any impressions.
Learn more about and fix Low bid targets and optimisation goals.
7. Targeting is too narrow
While targeting settings help you find the right set of users that are most interested in your business, each time you add targeting or if you have issues with your remarketing lists, you narrow the potential reach of your ads.
Learn more about and fix Targeting that's too narrow.
8. Targeting overlaps with other campaigns or ad groups
You may have multiple campaigns or ad groups in your account that are eligible to enter overlapping auctions due to similar keywords or other targeting.
Learn more about and fix Targeting overlaps.
9. Final URL expansion turned off
Turning on Final URL expansion allows your Performance Max campaign to serve for additional searches that have a higher likelihood of leading to conversions, drives traffic to the most appropriate landing pages dynamically based on the query and uses landing page content to dynamically customise headlines for your ads.
Learn more about and fix Final URL expansion turned off.
10. Conversion tracking issues
Performance Max campaigns use Automated bidding to optimise towards conversions, but if your campaign is not getting sufficient conversion data or your conversion tracking is not set up correctly, your ad may have limited serving.
Learn more about and fix Conversion tracking issues.
11. Ad policy review status
Before your ads can be served, they will undergo a policy review to ensure they’re aligned with Google Ads’ policies. Performance Max campaigns comply with all Google Ads policies.
Learn more about and fix Ad policy review status.
12. Low creative asset coverage and diversity (ad strength)
For your Performance Max campaign, it’s important that you have a diverse set of creatives that can be combined into various ad formats that can serve across all surfaces.
Learn more about and fix Low creative asset coverage.
13. Auction dynamics
Other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions as you can affect your campaign’s ability to serve.
Learn more about and fix Auction dynamics.
14. Certain features used in campaigns
Your campaign may be paused if:
- You’re using certain features
- Your account does not have a good history of policy compliance and positive user engagement.
Learn more about and fix Certain features used in ad campaigns.
For advertisers with a Google Merchant Center account
Advertisers with a Google Merchant Center linked to their Performance Max campaign should check several other signals when troubleshooting why ads aren’t running.
Learn more about Troubleshooting your Merchant Center account.
