Why your Google Ads aren't converting: 9 things to check

If your Google Ads are getting clicks but not producing leads or sales, the problem is rarely one big thing. It is usually a few small leaks in the same place: tracking, search terms, the offer, or the page people land on.

Work through these checks in order. The early ones are the most common causes and the quickest to fix.

1. Check that conversions are actually being recorded

Before you change a single bid, make sure Google Ads knows when a conversion happens. Test it yourself: submit your own form, make a test purchase, or call the tracked number, then check whether it shows up.

Common faults include a conversion tag that only fires on some pages, a thank you page that was renamed, a form that now submits without loading a new page, and duplicate tags that count one sale twice. If the data is wrong, Google's automated bidding is optimising towards the wrong thing.

2. Make sure you are counting the right conversion

Plenty of accounts count page views, button clicks or newsletter sign-ups as their main conversion. Google then gets very good at producing those, and you wonder why sales haven't moved.

Set your primary conversion to the action that makes you money: a purchase, a booked appointment, a qualified enquiry. Keep the softer actions as secondary so they are visible but don't steer the bidding.

3. Read the search terms report

This shows the actual searches that triggered your ads. In accounts that haven't been looked after, it is often full of searches from people who were never going to buy: job seekers, students, people looking for free versions, or people searching for a competitor's brand or a different service.

Add irrelevant searches as negative keywords and review the report every week until it settles down.

4. Check your match types and broad match settings

Broad match can work well when conversion tracking is solid and there is enough data. When tracking is weak, it gives Google too much freedom and spend drifts into loosely related searches. If you have recently switched to broad match and results dropped, this is one of the first places to look.

5. Look at location and schedule settings

Check that your ads show only where you can actually serve customers. A common setting shows ads to people "interested in" your location rather than people who are in it, which can waste money on searchers elsewhere.

Look at the results by hour and day as well. If enquiries only convert during opening hours, there may be little point running at full budget at 2am.

6. Compare the ad with the landing page

The searcher clicked because the ad promised something. If the page they land on doesn't continue that promise in the first screen, many of them leave.

Someone searching for "emergency boiler repair Glasgow" should land on a page about emergency boiler repair in Glasgow, with a phone number they can tap, not on your homepage.

7. Test the page on a phone

On many accounts, most clicks now come from mobile. Open your landing page on your own phone, on mobile data, and try to complete the action. Look for slow loading, forms that are hard to fill in, buttons that are hard to tap and pop-ups that cover the page.

8. Look at the offer, not just the ads

Sometimes the campaigns are fine and the offer isn't strong enough. If your price, delivery time or booking process is weaker than the competitors appearing next to you, better ads won't fix it. Search for your own keywords and see what people compare you with.

9. Give changes time and data

Smart bidding needs conversion data to learn. Changing bidding strategies, budgets and campaign structure every few days resets that learning and makes results look worse. Make one meaningful change, give it a fair period, then judge it on conversions and cost per conversion.

Where to start

If you only do three things this week, do these:

• Test that your main conversion is recording correctly.
• Add negatives from the search terms report.
• Check your landing page on a phone.

Those three fix a lot of the accounts we review. If you've done them and the numbers still don't add up, ask us for a free account review. We'll go through your account and tell you where the spend is leaking and what we would change first.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good conversion rate for Google Ads?

It varies widely by industry, offer and how a conversion is defined, so a general benchmark is of limited use. Compare your conversion rate with your own history and, more importantly, check whether your cost per lead or sale is inside the target your margins allow.

Why am I getting clicks but no calls?

Check that call tracking is set up, that your number is easy to tap on mobile, and that ads only run when someone can answer. Also check the search terms report for searches that were never likely to lead to a call.

Should I pause Google Ads if they are not converting?

Pausing stops the spend but also stops the learning. It is usually better to fix tracking, cut wasted search terms and reduce the budget while you diagnose the problem, unless the account is clearly broken.