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 Google Ads Course Philippines.
Related reading:
Google Ads Quality Score Guide
Google Ads Conversion Tracking
Why Your Facebook Ads Stopped Working
