Started your Google Ads but dismayed that you are not seeing any reach or impressions? Here are some 5 factors you can check to troubleshoot your ads.

Campaign set up

As simple as it may sound, your campaign or ad groups might just be paused. Or that you have set an end date to your campaign and it has been completed.

Ensure that your campaigns or ad groups are enabled so that your ads can continue running.

Other reasons can include billing errors. Do check that your payment is valid and has not been declined or expired. 

Keyword search volume

If the keywords that you have selected have low search volume, your ads will naturally not be shown to users. Try changing the keyword match types to either broad or phrase match to expand search volume. 

Google Ads Keyword Planner is a great tool to help look for more keyword ideas or to get a gauge if your keyword will potentially have too little search volume. 

Keyword Bidding & Budget

While manual bidding can give you the greatest control over your account and keywords, there might be a small risk of underbidding for a keyword. The implications of a low bid will mean that your ad will not be shown for the keyword, resulting in little or no impressions. 

In addition, if your max Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bid is similar to your daily budget, it will limit the number of clicks that you get on a daily basis. For example, if your max CPC is $4 and your daily budget is $8, it means that your ad group will run out of budget in approximately 2 clicks.

Leverage Google Ads Keyword Planner to determine a suitable max CPC bid. The highlighted columns will tell you an estimate of the lowest and highest bid for that particular keyword.

If manual bidding is too much of a hassle, consider letting the system adjust your bids by changing your bid strategy to an automated one such as Maximise Conversions or Maximise Clicks. 

Ad location and scheduling

Ad location is basically the location of where you want your ads to run. If the geo-targeted location selected is too specific or irrelevant to the audience, it will affect the number of searches. 

Competition and Quality Score

Whether or not an ad show is determined by a Google Ads auction. It will take into account a variety of factors such as bid amount, quality score, landing page relevance and search relevance. If there are other businesses that score higher in these aspects, they will win the auction over your ad, causing it not to be visible. 

Ad schedule determines the time and day your ads will be active. If there are searches for your keyword outside of your scheduled timing, your ads will not show. Ensure that your ad schedule is set up according to your business needs.