Google Ads account misbehaving? Most issues fit into 20 categories. Here's the troubleshooting flow I run on every account that comes to me with problems.
TL;DR
Top 5 issues:
1. Daily budget cap or limited delivery.
2. Quality Score collapse.
3. Conversion tracking broken.
4. Audience too narrow.
5. Bid strategy mismatch.
The rest cluster around account-level health, payment issues, and creative.
Spending issues
1. Account spending less than budget
Causes:
Daily budget cap on new account.
Bid too low to win auction.
Audience too narrow.
Negative keywords blocking too much.
Schedule limits delivery.
Fix:
Check spending limits (Account Settings).
Verify bid is competitive (compare to "Top of Page Bid").
Audit negatives.
Check ad scheduling.
2. Account spending way over budget
Causes:
Daily budget set to monthly equivalent.
Smart Bidding finding cheap impressions.
Overlapping ad sets bidding against each other.
Fix:
Verify daily budget is daily, not monthly.
Cap CPC if Smart Bidding running aggressively.
Consolidate overlapping ad sets.
3. Budget unlocking erratically
Causes:
Credit card declined and re-authorized.
Auto-payment threshold trigger.
New account warm-up period.
Fix:
Add backup payment method.
Switch from auto-pay to manual prepayment if billing is unstable.
4. ROAS dropped overnight
Causes:
Pixel/conversion tracking broke.
Landing page change (theme update, app installed).
Offer changed (price increase, discount removed).
Competitor entered auction.
Holiday/seasonal shift.
Fix:
Verify conversion tracking with Tag Assistant.
Audit landing page speed and CTA.
Compare to last-year's same period.
5. CPC suddenly higher
Causes:
Quality Score dropped.
Competitor bidding more aggressively.
Ad relevance worsened (creative fatigue).
Fix:
Audit Quality Scores; rewrite low-QS ads.
Refresh creative.
6. CTR plummeting
Causes:
Ad fatigue.
Wrong audience.
Wrong messaging for current traffic.
Disapproved variants degrading rotation.
Fix:
Refresh ads.
Pause underperforming ads.
7. Conversion volume dropped
Causes:
Tracking broke.
Landing page conversion dropped.
Audience saturated.
Cold weather quality (e.g., Smart Bidding learning bad signal).
Fix:
Verify tracking.
Audit landing page.
Check if Smart Bidding has enough data.
8. Quality Score below 5
Causes:
Generic ad copy.
Mismatched ad-keyword relevance.
Slow landing page.
Wrong landing page (homepage instead of relevant page).
Fix:
Tighten ad groups (SKAG/STAG).
Rewrite ad copy with keyword inclusion.
Improve landing page speed.
Account-level issues
9. Account suspended
Causes:
Repeated policy violations.
Suspicious billing activity.
Misleading product claims.
Fix:
Identify root cause.
Submit appeal in Account Quality.
Wait 1–4 weeks for review.
10. Ad disapproved
Causes:
Restricted content (alcohol, supplements, financial claims).
Misleading or click-bait.
Trademark issues.
Fix:
Read disapproval reason.
Edit and resubmit.
For trademark: get permission from trademark owner.
11. Page restricted
Causes:
Policy issues with site content.
Phishing-like behavior.
SSL or security issues.
Fix:
Audit site content.
Check SSL certificate.
Submit appeal.
Targeting issues
12. Ad set with 0 impressions
Causes:
Audience too narrow.
Bid too low.
No keyword overlap with searches.
Ad disapproved (silently).
Fix:
Broaden audience or expand match types.
Increase bid.
Check for disapprovals.
13. Wrong queries triggering
Causes:
Broad match too aggressive.
Insufficient negatives.
Mismatch between keyword themes.
Fix:
Tighten match types.
Add negatives.
Restructure ad groups.
14. Ads showing on irrelevant placements (PMax/Display)
Causes:
No placement exclusions.
Dynamic targeting expanding too far.
Fix:
Add placement exclusions.
Tighten audience signals.
Limit content categories.
Bidding issues
15. Smart Bidding not delivering
Causes:
Target CPA / ROAS too aggressive.
Insufficient conversion data (under 30 conversions).
Bid strategy reset due to changes.
Fix:
Loosen targets.
Wait for learning to complete.
Don't change strategy more than every 14 days.
16. Bidding against own brand
Causes:
Brand keywords in non-brand campaign.
PMax cannibalizing brand search.
Fix:
Add brand as negative in non-brand campaigns.
Use brand-specific Search campaign with clear targeting.
Tracking issues
17. Conversions not reporting
Causes:
Tag not firing.
Cross-domain tracking broken.
Conversion action paused.
Fix:
Verify with Tag Assistant.
Set up cross-domain tracking.
Re-enable conversion action.
18. Conversions reported but Shopify shows different number
Causes:
Different attribution windows.
View-through vs click-through.
Cross-device tracking.
Fix:
Compare same windows.
Triangulate via GA4.
10–20% variance is normal.
19. Enhanced Conversions showing as "Not enabled"
Causes:
Customer data not being passed.
Hashing not configured properly.
Fix:
Verify customer-data parameters in your tag.
Check Shopify channel "Customer Data Sharing" toggle.
Reporting / interface issues
20. Reports show different from Ads Manager
Causes:
Different filters applied.
Different time zones.
Saved column sets differ.
Fix:
Standardize filters and time zones.
Use same column set across reports.
Diagnostic flow
Given any complaint:
1. Check Account-level health first (5 min).
2. Verify conversion tracking firing properly (5 min).
3. Audit performance trends (vs prior period) (5 min).
4. Identify the day things changed.
5. Cross-reference changes you made on that day.
20 minutes, you have your culprit 90% of the time.
When to escalate to Google support
For accounts spending $5K+/month:
Account suspensions.
Severe delivery issues.
Billing problems.
Submit a ticket via "Help" in Ads Manager. Average response: 24–72 hours.
Want a full account audit?
If your Google Ads account is misbehaving, my Google Ads Specialist service includes diagnostic audits. Or learn the system in the free Google Ads videos on YouTube.
Related reading:
Google Ads Quality Score Guide
Google Ads Conversion Tracking
Why Your Facebook Ads Stopped Working
