Why aren't my Google Ads performing, and how do I improve them?

When Google Ads underperform, the problem sits at one of five points: the ads are not showing, they show for the wrong searches, people click but do not enquire, the enquiries are not real buyers, or tracking teaches bidding the wrong thing. Match your symptom below, confirm the cause in your account, then fix one thing at a time.

Which symptom matches your campaign?

Start from what your account shows, not from a guess. The table links each symptom to its usual causes and the place in Google Ads to check.

Why are my ads not showing at all?

Something is blocking the campaign: the account's status, ad review, disapprovals or keywords Google has made inactive. Check them in that order.

• Account holds. A suspension, a security review or a billing issue stops your ads until it is resolved. A security review can mean zero impressions or a temporary daily spending limit, and it cannot be sped up.¹ For policy problems, see our guides to Google Ads suspension reasons for property ads and what to do when an account is suspended.
• Review. Most ads are reviewed within 24 to 48 hours; new accounts, and image or video formats, can take up to 5 business days.¹
• Disapprovals. If all ads in a campaign are disapproved, nothing runs.¹ Broken or mismatched landing pages are one cause; our new launch landing page checklist covers Google's destination rules.
• Low search volume. A keyword with very little search history stays inactive until searches increase, and editing the bid or ad will not change that.³ Google notes this matters when you advertise a new name or product, which can include a project buyers have not started searching for yet.³
• Very low bids. A campaign with a very low bid "isn't likely to enter or win as many auctions" and may get no impressions.¹

Do not keep searching Google to find your own ad. The Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool shows whether your ad is running without adding impressions, which would lower your clickthrough rate.² If your campaign targets an area you are not in, you will not see the ad in a normal search anyway.¹⁰

Why do my ads show so rarely?

Your impression share columns tell you whether budget or Ad Rank is the limit, and each needs a different fix.

• Lost to budget. With a low budget, ads may not serve as often, because Google keeps the campaign within its spending limit.¹ Raise the budget, or spend it on fewer projects so each campaign is fully funded.
• Lost to rank. Google's fixes are higher bids, better Ad Strength and a landing page that gives a good experience.¹ Our guide to Google Ads cost per lead for new launches explains the factors behind Ad Rank and click prices.
• Targeting too narrow. Restrictive location or audience settings can sharply limit reach, and "each time you add targeting layers, you narrow the potential reach of your ads". For new Search campaigns, Google suggests setting audiences to Observation rather than Targeting.¹
• Negatives blocking good searches. Google recommends auditing negative keyword lists so they do not block relevant traffic.¹
• Campaigns overlapping. When several of your keywords match the same search, only one can trigger an ad.¹⁸ Google advises structuring ad groups by theme;¹⁸ for launches, one ad group per project keeps each search matched to the right ads and page.

Why do people see my ads but not click?

Because the ad does not look like the answer to their search. Quality Score's components show which part is weak.

Quality Score is a 1 to 10 diagnostic for each keyword, built from expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, each compared with other advertisers on the same search over the last 90 days.⁵ Google says it "is not an input in the ad auction" and should not be treated as a KPI.⁵ Use it to find the weak component.

• Ad relevance. Google's advice is to make your ad copy "directly related to your target keywords".¹ A buyer who searched for a project's floor plans should see the project name and "floor plans" in the headline, not your agency's slogan.
• Enough ad variety. Google recommends at least 2 responsive search ads with "Good" or "Excellent" Ad Strength in each ad group.⁶ Ad Strength is feedback on your assets: Google says it is not used to calculate Ad Rank, Quality Score or auction wins.⁶
• Accurate offers. Keep every price, discount and benefit in your ads in step with the developer's current information. Our suspension reasons guide explains the Google and CEA rules on stale offers.

Why am I paying for searches that never become buyers?

Your keywords are matching searches you did not intend. The search terms report shows the searches that triggered your ads, and negative keywords stop the ones you do not want.⁷

• Broad match reaches further than you think. It is the default match type, and it can show ads on related searches that "don't contain the direct meaning of your keywords". Google says it is critical to pair broad match with Smart Bidding.⁹ Exact match gives you the most control but reaches fewer searches.⁹
• Check the report weekly. Add irrelevant terms as negative keywords.⁷ Low-volume searches are hidden from the report for privacy,⁷ so you will not see every search, but you will see the costly patterns.
• Write negatives carefully. Negative keywords do not match close variants, so add synonyms and singular and plural forms yourself. Too many negatives can cut your reach.⁸
• Examples to look for. In a new launch campaign, look for rental searches, job and career searches, and other projects you do not market. Check your own report before you exclude anything.
• Location option. "Presence or interest" also reaches people who have shown interest in your target locations without being there, and Google recommends it as a best practice on Search.¹⁰ If leads arrive from outside your target area, Google suggests switching to "Presence".¹¹
• Other campaign types. Performance Max search themes behave like phrase or broad match keywords, and a budget-limited Search campaign can lose searches to Performance Max.¹⁸⁹ If you run both, check each campaign's search terms.

Why do people click but not enquire?

Check two things first: whether the page delivers what the ad promised, and whether the form asks too much. Then look at the landing page experience component in Quality Score, which rates how relevant and useful your page is to people who click.⁵

We cover the fixes in detail elsewhere: what makes a custom launch page convert (message match, phone speed, one clear next step) and the landing page checklist (CEA particulars and PDPA consent). Test changes with a Google Ads custom experiment, which shares your campaign's traffic and budget. Avoid editing either version while it runs, which Google says makes results harder to read.¹⁷

Why do I get enquiries but no real buyers?

Because bidding is told that every form fill is a success, so a fake or casual enquiry counts the same as a real buyer.

• Bid to a deeper goal. Google recommends lead goals such as "qualified lead" or "converted lead", which also trigger invalid traffic protections built for lead generation.¹⁵
• Feed outcomes back. If you import offline conversions, upload them regularly, ideally daily, and choose an action that usually happens within 7 days of the click.¹⁵
• Verify at the form. Google suggests reCAPTCHA, double opt-in or server-side validation.¹⁵ Our guide to protecting yourself from spam leads covers phone verification and screening.
• Reply fast. A real buyer can still go cold. See why timely follow-ups convert property enquiries.

Is your conversion tracking teaching Google the wrong thing?

Check three things: that the tag fires, that the right action is primary, and that you bid to one stage of the funnel. Google puts the risk plainly:

"Misconfiguring these settings can prevent Smart Bidding from optimizing effectively" (Google Ads Help, About primary and secondary conversion actions)¹³

• Tag status. "Unverified" means the tag has not fired yet; if it stays that way after you have waited long enough, the setup is wrong. "Tag inactive" or "No recent conversions" means no conversions from ad clicks were recorded for that action in the last 7 to 14 days.¹²
• Test properly. Click your ad and complete the form. Test conversions from Tag Manager preview mode, or from opening the thank-you page directly, may not show in Google Ads.¹²
• Primary or secondary. Primary actions appear in the Conversions column and drive bidding; secondary actions are for observation and appear only in All conversions.¹³ If form submissions, WhatsApp clicks and calls are all primary, decide whether each one is a real enquiry before letting bidding chase it.
• One stage of the funnel. If several goals track stages of the same funnel, Google recommends making only one of them the account-default goal.¹⁴
• Enough volume. Google's lead guidance asks for at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days for the action you bid to.¹⁵

How do you improve Google Ads performance, step by step?

Work in this order, because each step depends on the one before it.

1. Clear blocks. Resolve account, billing, review and policy issues first.¹
2. Fix tracking. One primary action that counts real enquiries, tested through a real ad click.¹²¹³
3. Structure by project. One ad group per project, with exact match keywords for the searches you most want and broader keywords to find more.¹⁸⁹
4. Clean the searches. Review the search terms report weekly and add negatives.⁷⁸
5. Write ads for each project. At least two responsive search ads per ad group that name the project and what buyers searched for.⁶¹
6. Fix the landing page. Match the page to the ad, then test one change at a time.⁵¹⁷
7. Set budget by the evidence. Add budget only when impression share is lost to budget, not to rank.⁴
8. Bid to quality. Move bidding to qualified leads once you can import them, with enough volume.¹⁵
9. Wait, then judge. A "Learning" status lasts up to 7 days and your ads keep serving; budget, target and creative changes do not trigger it. Evaluate over two conversion cycles or two weeks, whichever is longer, and avoid several target changes in one conversion cycle.¹⁶

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Google Ads Help, How to fix Google Ads Search campaign not running or low traffic, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
2. Google Ads Help, Find out why you may not see your ad, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
3. Google Ads Help, Low search volume: Definition, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
4. Google Ads Help, Get impression share data, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
5. Google Ads Help, About Quality Score for Search campaigns, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
6. Google Ads Help, About Ad Strength for responsive search ads, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
7. Google Ads Help, About the search terms report, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
8. Google Ads Help, About negative keywords, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
9. Google Ads Help, About keyword matching options, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
10. Google Ads Help, Target ads to geographic locations, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
11. Google Ads Help, Performance Max best practices for lead generation, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
12. Google Ads Help, The Unverified status has been showing for more than 24 hours, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
13. Google Ads Help, About primary and secondary conversion actions, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
14. Google Ads Help, About conversion goals, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
15. Google Ads Help, Best practices for generating high-quality leads, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
16. Google Ads Help, About Smart Bidding learning, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
17. Google Ads Help, Set up a custom experiment, accessed 12 Nov 2026.
18. Google Ads Help, About ad group and asset group prioritization within a Google Ads account, accessed 12 Nov 2026.

Written by ProjectSG Editorial TeamGTReviewed by Grace Tan

The ProjectSG team writes about Google Ads, lead generation and new launch marketing for Singapore property agents, drawing on campaigns we run every day.

Researched and drafted with AI assistance, then fact-checked and approved by a named ProjectSG reviewer before publishing. Last updated 12 Nov 2026. Read our editorial policy. Spotted an error? Email info@project.sg.