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.
On this page
- Before you begin
- 15 common reasons why your ads don't run or get low traffic
- For advertisers with a Google Merchant Center account
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 to serve impressions. There are a few reasons for this:
- Ad review: It takes 24–48 hours for newly created or edited ads to be reviewed to ensure that they meet all policy requirements.
- Learning period: For campaigns that use automated bidding strategies, it's recommended to wait 7–14 days to allow the system to ramp up and start to perform towards your set goal. Avoid frequent, drastic changes to your campaign during this time.
- Settings changes: It may take Google Ads some time to adjust ad delivery 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 limit 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 they create a campaign. They use diagnostic insights to discover that their campaign doesn’t serve because their assets are disapproved, and views a recommendation to fix these disapproved assets.
If your ad still doesn’t receive impressions after 3 working days, check the reasons listed in this article.
15 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 on your account, you won’t be able to run your ads until the problem is resolved. If your account has been suspended, you’ll find this notification on your homepage. You'll also receive an email notification with the reason 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 isn't enabled
To ensure that your campaign is launched and can serve, verify that your campaign and assets are set to 'Enabled' or 'Active' rather than 'Paused' or 'Disapproved'.
Learn more about and fix Campaign isn’t enabled.
4. Google AI evaluates data
Performance Max campaigns use automated bid strategies and AI to optimise your campaign and deliver maximum performance. Avoid making major modifications during the initial ramp-up to allow the system to stabilise and optimise data.
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 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. To refine your targeting and improve performance:
- Review your negative keyword lists to ensure that you aren’t accidentally blocking relevant traffic.
- Consider broadening geographic targets if your reach is too narrow.
Learn more about and fix Targeting that's too narrow.
8. Target 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
Final URL expansion allows your Performance Max campaign to serve for additional searches that have a higher likelihood to convert. This feature dynamically directs traffic to the most appropriate landing pages based on the query and uses landing page content to 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. If your tracking isn’t set up correctly, or if tags are marked as 'Inactive' or 'Unverified', your ad may have limited serving. Verify your implementation (Google tag or Tag Manager) and ensure that primary conversion actions are correctly linked, especially if using a manager account (MCC). Note that notifications for 'Enhanced conversions' are often recommendations and may not indicate a failure in your primary tracking.
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 you have a diverse set of creatives that can be combined into various ad formats that can serve across all surfaces. To improve Ad Strength, add more unique headlines and descriptions. Additionally, add assets like sitelinks to increase ad prominence and click-through rates.
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 or restricted if:
- You’re using certain features.
- Your account doesn't have a good history of policy compliance and positive user engagement.
Check for 'Pending' statuses and ensure that start dates are current. You should also monitor your optimisation score for account-specific recommendations to improve delivery.
Learn more about and fix certain features used in ad campaigns.
15. Monitor and report gaps
To ensure that your campaign stays optimised, regularly verify that conversion tracking is active and accurate, as inactive tracking hinders Smart Bidding. Use the combinations report to identify top-performing assets and the channel performance report to understand budget distribution across networks. You can also review search terms reports to identify potential negative keywords for refinement.
For advertisers with a Google Merchant Center account
Learn more about troubleshooting your Merchant Center account.
