Google Ads not converting

Google Ads counts only the actions you set up as conversions, such as a purchase, a sign-up or a phone call. An account that tracks nothing past the click cannot tell a buyer from a browser, so every bid is a guess. Calls from the ad, calls to the number on your site and forms each need their own conversion action. We set them up before we change a single bid.

Someone who searched for one specific job lands on a page about everything, and has to hunt for the offer or leave. An ad does better with a page written for it: the service in the heading, the price or the quote step near the top, and one clear way to call or book. We build that page with the ads, and it stays on your site.

Broad keywords match searches you never meant to pay for: job seekers, people fixing it themselves, people after something you do not sell. Google's search terms report lists the actual searches that triggered your ads, and negative keywords keep the ads off the wasteful ones. We read that report every week and cut the searches that spend without bringing an inquiry.

When Google, Meta and TikTok each get a fixed slice, money keeps flowing to whichever spends fastest, even when another brings customers for less. The fix is one budget judged by one number on every platform: what each inquiry costs. We shift spend every week toward the platform that brings inquiries for less, report the cost per inquiry for each one monthly, and never mark up the spend.

Usually because the account cannot see its conversions, or the clicks land where buying is hard. Check the conversions column first: if calls and forms read zero while your phone rings, tracking is the gap. If tracking works, read the search terms report for searches you never meant to buy, then open the page each ad sends people to. One of those three is where the money goes.

List what a customer does when they buy from you, then make sure each of those actions is set up as a conversion. A form, a booking and an order each need their own. Calls come in three kinds that Google counts separately: calls straight from the ad, calls to the number on your website, and taps on that number on a phone. An action nobody set up always reads zero.

The simplest way is a page-load conversion: in Google Ads, create a website conversion that fires when someone reaches your thank-you or confirmation page. Google calls this setting it up with a URL, and it needs no code once the Google tag is on your site. Mark the actions you want bids to chase as primary and the rest as secondary. Then complete a form yourself and check the action records it.

A conversion is an action you count as valuable, such as a purchase, a sign-up or a call, after someone interacts with your ad. Google Ads uses those counts to show which keywords, ads and campaigns bring valuable customers, and bidding strategies that aim for conversions rely on them. So the definition matters: count page views as conversions and the account will chase page views.

It is a waste when nobody measures what the clicks bring. Ads stop bringing calls the day the spend stops, so they earn their place only while each inquiry costs less than a customer is worth to you. Without that number, nobody can say whether the money worked. That is why we report the cost per inquiry, per platform, every month.

Often the campaign is set to win clicks or views, or Meta never sees the sales, so it cannot find more buyers like them. A campaign told to find clicks finds people who click. Set the goal to the action you want, a purchase, a lead or a booking, and make sure the pixel or the conversions connection reports it. Then check the page the ad opens on a phone.

Start with the basics: a paused or removed campaign, a budget far below the cost of a click, or missing billing details. Then check the keywords. Keywords marked low search volume do not run, and a low Ad Rank, from weak bids, a poor landing page or tight targeting, keeps ads off the page. Google's ad preview and diagnosis tool shows why an ad did not appear.

Often because the ads reach people outside your area: by default, Google targets people in your locations and people interested in them. A plumber's ad can reach someone reading about the city from three states away. Switch the location option to people in or regularly in your area, then compare conversions by location and lower the bids where they never come.