Questions to Pinpoint the Problem:
Who set up your Google Ads account?
Was it done by a professional? Or someone with less experience? Or worse yet, someone with no experience at all? A poorly setup account can make or break your success with Google Ads. If you or someone who is not a professional set it up, you will want to consult with a professional for a full audit of the account.
One thing that you DO NOT want to do, is to have a professional start a whole new account for you. This is for several reasons.
- Depending on if you have been already running ads or not, there could be valuable historical data that could be important for any professional to have access to.
- Google could see this as circumventing the system, and suspend both of your accounts due to a policy violation.
My recommendation, is to leave Google ads and campaign management to the professionals and let them do what they do best. However, if you decided to go it yourself, and your campaigns are not performing, seek out a professional to do a full audit of your account and campaigns. Google can eat up your entire budget in a matter of a couple days, and this can be detrimental to your marketing efforts. A professional will know what to look for and how to avoid common pitfalls.
Targeting: Are you reaching the right audience with proper intent?
Using broad match keywords? Try tighter match types or negatives.
Understanding how your ideal user searches for what you offer is important. This is something that you might think you fully understand already. To make sure you are getting it right, navigate to your Google Ads dashboard. Click on “campaigns” then on “insights and reports.” From there, click on “search terms.”
What you will then see is all of the actual phrases or words that users searched for in Google prior to clicking on your ads. Viewing these allows you to understand if you are targeting the right keywords. If you see some that are irrelevant, add them as a negative. If you see some you never thought of before, then add those as a target.
Consider the cost associated with each search term when doing this. Sort the list by “cost” to see what keywords are eating up a large amount of your budget with no real return on investment.
Also consider the complexity of the English language. For example, I worked with a client who owned his own carpet cleaning business. When going through search terms, I had to many times stop and think about the context in which users would be searching for his services to avoid spending money on clicks that were irrelevant. People searching for “best carpet cleaner” are not necessarily looking for the best company to come clean their carpets, but instead for a carpet cleaner that they can buy to use at home themselves. Yet Google constantly recommended this keyword as a relevant, closely related keyword. Which is why you also need to know when to push back with Google recommendations, and a seasoned professional will know when and how hard to push.
Targeting a cold audience with a conversion-oriented ad?
What’s a “Cold Audience”?
A cold audience is made up of people who:
- Have never interacted with your brand.
- Don’t know your product, service, or value prop.
- Aren’t actively looking for a solution (or don’t know they have a problem).
Why Conversion Ads Often Fail with Cold Audiences:
Problem / Why It Happens / Result
No Trust Yet/ Cold users haven’t built any familiarity / Low click and conversion rates
High Commitment Ask / Offering a “Buy Now” or “Sign Up” too early / Visitors bounce
Misaligned Intent / Cold users aren’t ready to convert / Wasted spend and poor ROAS
Better Approach: Warm Them Up First
Use a full-funnel strategy. Here’s what that looks like:
1. Top of Funnel (TOFU) – Awareness
Ad Types: Informational blog posts, short videos, social proof
Goal: Drive awareness & interest
CTA: “Learn More”, “Watch Now”, “Discover”
2. Middle of Funnel (MOFU) – Consideration
Ad Types: Retargeting ads, email opt-ins, case studies
Goal: Build familiarity and trust
CTA: “Download”, “See How It Works”
3. Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) – Conversion
Ad Types: Product demos, testimonials, strong CTA offers
Goal: Convert engaged users
CTA: “Sign Up”, “Buy Now”, “Start Free Trial”
Ad Copy: Does your ad promise align with your landing page offer?
Any mismatch between your ad and the landing experience can cause bounce. Be sure to include your targeted keywords in your ad copy and your landing page content. Keep the messaging consistent, with cohesive design.
Conversion Tracking: Are you tracking the right goals correctly?
This refers back to a proper account setup from the start. A good initial setup will incorporate GA4 for analytic tracking and Google Tag Manager for conversion setup.
It is also important to track the right conversions. Are you tracking pageviews as a key event (something I have seen more times than I care to admit)?
When spending money on Google Ads, you only want to target your main conversions on your website that influence your bottom line. No vanity metrics, only true conversions that your business cares about.
Using an automated bidding strategy (like Max Conversions) without enough data?
Setting a campaign’s bid strategy to maximize conversions without historical data (or at least a handful of completed conversions already), is much like setting a GPS with no signal. How is it supposed to know what to do? What data is it supposed to reference to maximize conversions?
Google’s algorithm needs 15-30 conversions/week to learn effectively. Without a baseline, it makes poor bid decisions. What if you have bad or poor conversion tracking setup, and then tell Google, yes, give me many more of those conversions. Not ideal to say the least.
Maximize conversions should be your bid strategy only after having a consistent number of conversions for at least two weeks. For your business, this might be 30 conversions a week. For others it might be only 8 or 10. This usually fluctuates from industry to industry.
Alternative Bid Strategies for New Ad Accounts:
Bidding Strategy Best Use Case
Manual CPC When you want max control over costs & targeting
Enhanced CPC A safe middle ground – gives Google some flexibility
Target CPA Only after you hit at least 30-50 conversions, after max conversions
Max Clicks To build traffic & test ad creatives quickly
Is your daily budget too low to gather enough data and conversions?
While spending too much is always a concern, spending too little can also result in throwing your money away. I recommend utilizing Google’s Keyword Planner to get a good idea of what it would cost to see a return on your ad spend.
When in your Google Ads dashboard, click on “tools” and then click on “planning.” From there click on “keyword planner.”
Click on “start with a website” and enter your business website. From there, broaden your search by adding any relevant keywords, products or services that you plan on targeting and when you feel like you have a good set of keywords for a new campaign, select the ones you want to target and click “add keywords to create plan.”
Then at the top of the page, click on “forecast.”
Choose “all saved keywords” and then click “done.”
Now you will see your forecast. Add conversion metrics to get a much more accurate idea of what you can expect from your account with this targeting. Then set a budget accordingly.
Offer Quality: Is the value compelling vs. competitors?
Campaign performance is all in the research. Make sure to go to Google and search for the keywords you plan on targeting. What comes up in search results? Are your competitors offering a free trial? For how long? Are they offering a free resource? What is it and is it valuable?
Utilize SEO tools such as SEMRush to research your target keywords to view the ads of your competitors. Then make sure your offer doesn’t fall flat in comparison.
Common Problems/Symptoms/Fixes
Problem Area / Symptom / Actionable Fix
Audience / High impressions, low CTR / Tighten keywords, add negatives, refine demographics
Ad Copy / High CTR, low conversions / Align headline and CTA with landing value prop
Landing Page / High bounce rate / A/B test layout, speed, CTA placement
Conversion Tracking / Conversions not showing / Test GTM tags, verify setup in Google Ads and GA4
Bid Strategy / Lots of clicks, no sales / Try manual CPC or ROAS if automation lacks data
When Google Ads fail to convert, the underlying issues often stem from poor setup, ineffective targeting, weak ad copy, mismatched landing pages, flawed conversion tracking, or inappropriate bidding strategies. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a professional account setup to avoid costly mistakes and ensure proper campaign structure.
If you’re frustrated and wondering, “Why aren’t my Google Ads performing?”—you’re not alone. Many advertisers struggle with underwhelming results despite putting time and budget into their campaigns. Whether you're seeing high impressions but low clicks, plenty of clicks but no conversions, or just no return on ad spend, the root causes often trace back to a few critical missteps.
Work with the team at Never Settle to avoid throwing your marketing budget down the drain.
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