Google Ads Troubleshooting Guide

1 · Data

Campaign optimisation is dangerous when conversion tracking is inaccurate. A campaign that appears unprofitable may have incomplete tracking — and one that appears profitable may be optimising toward low-quality conversion actions.

Do this: Confirm conversion actions, tags, GA4 events, call tracking and CRM reconciliation before changing anything — start with the conversion tracking diagnostic.

2 · Traffic

After verifying tracking, inspect the traffic entering the account: search terms, match types, negative keywords, locations, devices and networks.

Do this: Traffic quality problems should be corrected before increasing campaign budgets — the wasted-spend diagnostic works through them in order.

3 · Landing pages

A campaign can have excellent targeting and still fail because of the landing page — message match, speed, mobile usability, forms, trust and offer strength all sit after the click.

Do this: If clicks are relevant but conversion rates remain poor, the landing page becomes the primary optimisation priority — see the clicks-but-no-conversions diagnostic.

4 · Economics

Rising costs come from two different problems: a traffic cost problem (CPC increasing) or a conversion efficiency problem (CPC stable, fewer visitors converting).

Do this: Identify which one you have before changing campaigns — the high-CPC and high-cost-per-lead diagnostics separate the two.

5 · Structure

Not every campaign should be continuously patched. Years of uncontrolled changes, mixed branded and non-branded traffic, or fundamentally incorrect tracking can justify a rebuild.

Do this: Base the fix-or-rebuild decision on account diagnosis rather than preference for a particular campaign structure.