You may notice that your campaigns don’t serve as many impressions as you’d like or that they don’t use much of your set daily budget. This article explains why your ads may not serve and how to troubleshoot in Google Ads.
Before you begin
What to expect when a campaign is created
If you recently created your campaign, it can take time for your campaign to serve impressions. This delay may be because:
- Campaigns that use Smart Bidding strategies need time to optimise. You may notice performance fluctuations or frequent changes in spend while Google Ads learns how to optimise for your set goals.
- It takes 1–2 days for newly created or edited ads to be reviewed to ensure that they meet all policy requirements.
- It takes Google Ads some time to adjust serving if you make frequent changes to your campaign settings.
- If your ad doesn't receive any impressions after three working days, review the common reasons listed below.
Recommendations
Recommendations help highlight opportunities to improve performance when your campaign isn't running or gets low traffic. For example, you can search for the following example recommendation types when troubleshooting these issues.
Common recommendation types to fix campaigns not running:
- Campaign hasn’t started or has ended
- Create or unpause an ad group
- Account budget exhausted
- All ads disapproved
Common recommendation types to fix low traffic:
- Adjust your CPA targets
- Adjust your budgets
If your ad doesn't receive any impressions after three working days, review the common reasons listed below.
10 common reasons why your ads don't run or get low traffic
1. Account issues
If your account is suspended, or if you have a billing issue, you won’t be able to run your ads until the problem is resolved. If your account has been suspended, you will find a notification in your Google Ads account. You will also have received an email notification with the reason why your account has been suspended.
2. Date ranges and campaign start and end dates
Google Ads shows you performance data for the date range that you select. Your campaign will show no impressions outside of the date range that your campaign has been active.
3. Ad groups, assets or ads aren't active or have policy issues
Even if your campaign is active, check to make sure you have active ad groups, assets or ads within your campaign. You can view this in the Campaigns 'Status' column.
4. Low creative asset coverage and diversity (ad strength)
If you’re running an asset-based campaign, such as responsive search ads, responsive display ads, App campaigns, Performance Max, it’s important to ensure that you have a unique set of creatives across ad formats.
5. Low bid targets and optimisation goals
While it may be possible to serve ads with a very low bid, your campaign isn't likely to enter or win as many auctions and your ads may not have any impressions.
6. 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.
7. Targeting is too narrow
While targeting settings help you find the right set of users 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.
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.
9. Conversion tracking issues
If your campaign is using Smart Bidding to optimise towards conversions, but is not getting sufficient conversion data or your conversion tracking is not set up correctly, your ad may have limited serving.
10. Auction dynamics
Other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions as you can affect your campaign’s ability to serve.
