Google Ads results, answered.

The most common culprits are: billing issues (expired card or paused account), policy disapprovals (landing page or ad copy), a depleted daily budget, overly restrictive targeting (locations, audiences, or keywords with zero search volume), or a low Quality Score pushing your ad below the first-page bid threshold. Start by checking the Status column in your Ads dashboard, then review the Policy Manager and Keyword Planner. If everything looks green but impressions are still zero, your bid strategy may be too conservative for the auction. We diagnose this in our free paid-media audit — usually the fix is a combination of keyword expansion, bid calibration, and landing-page compliance tweaks.

You can see traffic within hours of launching, but stable, optimisable performance typically takes 2–4 weeks. The first 1–2 weeks are the 'learning phase' where Google's algorithm tests audiences, creatives, and placements. Weeks 3–4 are when you have enough data (minimum 100–200 conversions per campaign) to make statistically significant changes to bids, audiences, and ad copy. We run a structured 30-day pilot for every client: Week 1 is setup and compliance, Weeks 2–3 are data collection, and Week 4 is the first optimisation sprint. By Day 30 you should know your true CPA, conversion rate, and whether the channel is scalable.

For Search, a CTR of 3–5% is solid; above 7% is excellent. For Display, 0.5–1% is typical. Conversion rates vary wildly by industry: B2B SaaS often lands at 2–5%, e-commerce at 1–3%, and local services at 5–10%. The real benchmark isn't an industry average — it's your own unit economics. A 10% CTR with a 0.1% conversion rate is worse than a 3% CTR with a 4% conversion rate if the latter delivers positive ROAS. We set custom benchmarks for every client based on LTV, margin, and payback period, not generic stats. Book a call and we'll model the exact CTR and CVR you need to hit your revenue targets.

High CPC usually means one of three things: you're competing in an expensive auction (finance, legal, insurance, or high-intent B2B keywords), your Quality Score is low (forcing you to pay more for the same position), or your targeting is too broad (wasting budget on low-intent clicks). The fix is rarely 'bid less' — it's usually 'bid smarter.' That means restructuring ad groups around tighter keyword themes, writing more relevant ad copy that lifts expected CTR, improving landing-page experience scores, and using audience layering to prioritise high-value segments. We've cut CPCs by 30–50% for clients without reducing volume — just by fixing Quality Score and negative-keyword hygiene.

Quality Score is a 1–10 rating based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing-page experience. To improve it: (1) Group keywords into tight, themed ad groups — never stuff unrelated terms into the same group. (2) Write ad copy that includes the target keyword in the headline and description. (3) Send traffic to a dedicated landing page that matches the ad's promise, loads fast, and has a clear CTA above the fold. (4) Use ad extensions (sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets) to increase expected CTR. A Quality Score improvement from 5 to 7 can reduce your CPC by 20–30% and lift your ad position without increasing bids. We bake this into every campaign build.

This is the most expensive problem in paid search. The disconnect is usually in one of four places: (1) the keyword intent is too top-of-funnel ('what is CRM software' vs 'buy CRM software'), (2) the landing page doesn't match the ad promise or loads too slowly, (3) the conversion action is too high-friction (a 12-field form for a $29 product), or (4) your tracking is broken (the conversion pixel fires on the wrong event or not at all). We audit the full path from impression to conversion: keyword → ad → landing page → form → thank-you page. The leak is usually obvious within 24 hours of looking at the data. Most clients see a 20–40% conversion-rate lift from landing-page fixes alone.

Accurate ROI tracking requires three things: correct conversion tracking (Google Ads conversion tag + enhanced conversions), offline conversion import (for phone sales and CRM closed-won data), and attribution modelling that accounts for the full customer journey. Don't just track 'form submit' — track qualified leads, sales calls, proposals sent, and revenue. Connect Google Ads to your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive) so you can see which campaigns, keywords, and audiences actually produce revenue, not just leads. We set up this full-funnel tracking for every client so you know exactly which £1 of ad spend returned £4 vs which £1 returned £0.20.

It depends on your goal and funnel stage. Search is for high-intent, bottom-funnel queries — people actively looking for what you sell. Display and YouTube are for awareness and remarketing — reaching people who don't know they need you yet. Performance Max (P-Max) is an AI-driven campaign type that runs across all Google inventory (Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Discover) and is best for e-commerce and lead gen when you have strong conversion data and a large product feed. We don't recommend P-Max for brand-new accounts with no conversion history — the algorithm needs data to optimise. Most of our clients run a Search + Remarketing foundation, then layer in P-Max or YouTube once the core funnel is profitable.

The minimum viable budget is the amount that generates 100–200 conversions per month in your primary campaign. For B2B lead gen at a £100 CPA, that's £10,000–20,000/month. For e-commerce at a £25 CPA, that's £2,500–5,000/month. Below those thresholds, you won't have enough data to make statistically significant optimisation decisions. That said, you can start smaller (£1,500–3,000/month) to test messaging and landing-page performance, then scale once you have a proven offer. We tell every prospect the honest number: if your budget is below the data threshold, we'll recommend fixing your organic funnel first and coming back to paid when the economics support it.

Sudden drops usually fall into one of four categories: account changes (someone edited bids, audiences, or creatives without documenting it), competitive pressure (a new competitor entered the auction and drove up CPCs), seasonality or external events (holidays, news cycles, or industry shifts), or algorithm updates (Google occasionally rolls out changes that affect auction dynamics or attribution). The first thing to check is your Change History. The second is the Auction Insights report to see if competitor activity spiked. The third is your Search Terms report to see if irrelevant queries are eating budget. We monitor these signals weekly for our clients and run diagnostic audits within 48 hours of any significant performance shift.