Performance Drop Troubleshooting Checklist

18 Reasons Why Your Google Ads Suddenly Stopped Working

You log into your Google Ads account and something feels off. Fewer impressions. Conversions down. CPA through the roof. You refresh the page, hoping it’s a reporting delay but deep down, you know something’s wrong.

Sound familiar?

Performance drops happen. Whether it’s a sudden stop or a slow decline, every marketer runs into this at some point. And when it hits, it’s easy to panic. But here’s the good news: it’s rarely random. Google Ads doesn’t just stop working for no reason. There’s always a cause, and that means there’s always a fix.

In this guide, we’re not just listing vague possibilities. You’ll get a practical, step-by-step checklist to help you troubleshoot, diagnose, and recover faster. From budget issues to bidding changes, disapproved ads to broken pages, this is the roadmap you’ll wish you had the last time things went south.

So take a deep breath. Let’s figure out what happened, and how to fix it.

30 Second Summary

Google Ads performance drops are usually caused by one of five culprits:

• Budget or bidding limitations
• Tracking errors or data loss
• Changes in competition or auction dynamics
• Keyword or audience targeting issues
• Ad creative or landing page problems

Start by checking the basics -budget, status, policy issues- then work your way down to more nuanced shifts in bidding behavior, query matching or asset performance. Often, the problem isn’t one big thing. It’s a few small changes stacking up over time.

Use this checklist to troubleshoot logically, isolate variables and rebuild performance step by step. Recovery is almost always possible. But it starts with the right diagnosis.

Step 1: Check the Obvious First

It might sound basic, but before you dig into bid strategies, audience segments or auction insights, start with the simplest explanations. A surprising number of Google Ads issues come down to one of the following being accidentally changed, limited or ignored.

Take a moment to run through these quick checks, they’ve saved more accounts than you’d think.

1. Your Budget Ran Out or Hit a Cap

Has your daily budget been reduced recently? Or are you running into portfolio-level or shared budget limits that throttle campaign delivery without obvious warnings?

Check the “budget limited” status on your campaign. Also look at how your daily spend compares to the set max. If you’re hitting caps before the day ends, your ads might not even be showing in prime hours.

💡 Tip: Use the “hour of day” breakdown in the Reports tab to see if you’re pacing too quickly and losing performance later in the day.

2. You’ve Encountered a Billing Issue

Google is not subtle about billing problems, but if alerts go unnoticed or email notifications are missed, it can silently shut everything down.

Head over to the Billing & Payments section. Are there any red warnings? Is your payment method valid and up to date? If your account was suspended even briefly, it might have interrupted learning phases or ad delivery.

3. Your Ad Was Paused, Removed or Never Approved

Check if someone on your team accidentally paused the campaign, ad group or individual ads. It happens more often than you’d think, especially in larger teams or during account cleanups.

And don’t forget to look at approval status. Responsive Search Ads, in particular, can get quietly disapproved if just one asset violates policy.

In your Ads tab, filter for “disapproved” and “limited” to see if anything slipped through.

4. You Violated a Policy and Got Disapproved

Google has tightened ad policies in recent years. Something as minor as a vague claim or unverified domain can lead to full campaign suspension.

If your ads are being flagged repeatedly for misrepresentation, destination mismatch or unacceptable content, delivery can drop dramatically, even if some ads still appear to be running.

Check the Policy Manager inside your account for any warnings or escalations. And don’t wait to appeal. Even minor violations can throttle visibility across your account.

Step 2: Look at Bid Strategy and Auction Behavior

Once you’ve ruled out the obvious technical or status issues, it’s time to dig into the heart of Google Ads: the auction. Even if nothing looks broken, subtle shifts in competition, bid strategy or platform behavior can quietly erode your results.

Here’s what to check.

5. Your Bids Are Too Low to Compete

Especially if you’re using manual bidding or TCPA (Target Cost-Per-Acquisition), even small changes in competitor activity can push your bids below the threshold needed to win auctions.

Check Impression Share Lost (Rank) and your Auction Insights report. Are you showing up less often than before? Have competitors gained ground? If your ads aren’t being shown, low bids might be the culprit.

💡 Tip: Also review any recent bid caps that might be too restrictive.

6. Your Bids Are Too High and Smart Bidding Reset

Ironically, raising bids too quickly can sometimes backfire. If you’re using Smart Bidding (like Max Conversions or tROAS), drastic changes to CPA targets or budget can trigger a learning phase, which may temporarily reduce performance.

Did you make major adjustments recently? Are your campaigns showing a “learning” status? If so, give the system time to recalibrate but also make sure you’re not feeding it noisy or incomplete conversion data.

7. Your Impression Share Dropped Due to Competition

Your ads may still be live, but showing less frequently. This can happen even without major changes on your end.

Look at the Search Impression Share trend over the past 14 to 30 days. A sudden drop could mean your ads are being outpaced either by new competitors, aggressive seasonal bids, or shifting auction dynamics.

Pair this with Auction Insights to see who’s gaining ground. It’s not always about your ad being worse, it might just be that someone else showed up with deeper pockets or sharper targeting.

8. You’ve Hit Another Budget Allocation Limit

Beyond daily budgets, accounts using shared budgets or portfolio bid strategies can quietly cap themselves. One campaign can unknowingly steal from another, especially if they’re in the same shared pool.

Double-check whether your top-performing campaigns are lumped into shared limits with others. You might be spending your best budget on lower-priority traffic without realizing it.

Step 3: Diagnose Search Intent and Keyword Targeting

Even if your ads are running and your bids are competitive, performance can fall apart if you’re no longer connecting with the right queries. Google’s algorithm is dynamic. Match types evolve. And sometimes, your keywords aren’t doing what you think they are.

Here’s where to dig deeper.

9. Your Keyword Search Volume Dropped

Not all drops are internal. Sometimes, people just stop searching.

Check Google Trends or your Search Terms report over time. Is there a seasonal lull? Has a product gone out of style? Are people using different language now?

For example, if you’re still bidding on “remote jobs,” but everyone has shifted to “hybrid roles,” your ads might be missing the mark.

Even evergreen keywords can shift in popularity. Don’t assume intent is static.

10. Your Search Terms Don’t Match Like They Used To

Broad match is powerful, but dangerous if unmanaged. Google might start matching your keywords to loosely related queries, especially if there’s low volume.

Review the Search Terms report. Are you showing up for irrelevant or low-converting queries? Did match behavior change after a campaign edit?

Negative keyword tuning is essential here. Even one poor query match can eat spend without results.

11. You Forgot to Add Negative Keywords

Without negatives, your ads can appear for searches that look right on the surface, but don’t convert.

Let’s say you sell custom desks. Without negatives, Google might show your ad for “free DIY desk plans.” That click won’t help you.

Audit your negatives regularly, especially after launching new ad groups or using broad match terms. A few smart exclusions can boost both CTR and conversion rate overnight.

12. You Added Negative Keywords That Overlap

The opposite problem? Being too aggressive with negatives.

If you’ve blocked terms like “cheap,” “best,” or even “comparison,” you might be accidentally cutting out high-intent traffic.

Use the Keyword Diagnosis tool to see if eligible keywords are being blocked by negatives or match types. This kind of conflict can be sneaky especially across campaigns.

13. You Have Low CTR or Resource Hog Keywords

Every account has them: those one or two keywords that eat a ton of budget but barely convert. They skew your reports and distract from better-performing terms.

Sort by cost in your Keywords view and look for the outliers. Are there any with high spend and low conversion volume? Are they stealing budget from better-performing terms?

Sometimes, pausing just one keyword can stabilize the entire ad group.

14. Your Quality Score Dropped and You Didn’t Notice

A drop in Quality Score can hit your ads hard with lower visibility, higher CPCs, and slower scaling. And the tricky part? Google doesn’t always make it obvious.

Review the Quality Score column and break it down by relevance, expected CTR and landing page experience. Even if your ads are still running, a lower score can quietly push you out of key auctions.

If you spot a dip, don’t panic. Start by refreshing ad copy to better reflect keyword intent, improving landing page speed or clarity, and removing underperforming variations.

Step 4: Audit Ad Copy, Assets and Scheduling

Even if your targeting is sharp and your bidding is on point, your ads still need to connect. If creative performance drops -or if something gets removed or disapproved without warning- your campaign can grind to a halt without showing clear errors.

Here’s what to check when the issue might be hiding in plain sight.

15. You Rotated in Weak Creatives or Lost Assets

Have you recently tested new ad copy or images? Sometimes, swapping out a top-performing creative for an untested variation can immediately tank performance.

And it’s not always intentional. Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), by default, rotate headlines and descriptions based on machine learning. But if one or two weak assets are introduced -low-relevance headlines, off-brand CTAs, vague value props- the whole ad can underperform.

Head to your Ad Assets report, sort by impressions or conversions, and look for any new underperformers. If CTRs or conversion rates dipped after a creative update, consider reverting or testing new variations.

16. Your Scheduling Changed (on Purpose or by Accident)

Did your campaign schedule get edited recently? Was it narrowed to weekdays or specific hours?

This often happens after A/B tests or team updates. And sometimes, schedule settings are carried over from one campaign to another without realizing they don’t fit the new use case.

Review your Ad Schedule settings to make sure you’re still live during your best-performing times. Also look at hourly and day-of-week data in the Reports tab to identify performance gaps that may have appeared.

17. Your Responsive Search Ads Were Auto-Updated and Lost Relevance

Google regularly suggests changes to RSAs. These suggestions can be helpful, or they can completely dilute your messaging.

If your RSA performance suddenly changed, check the Recommendations tab and Ad Variations history. Did the system auto-apply suggestions? Were any “pinning” settings removed or edited?

Make sure your top-performing assets are still in rotation. If something looks off, you can manually revert changes and restore your best combinations.

Step 5: Check Landing Page and Technical Setup

Sometimes the problem isn’t with your ads, it’s what happens after the click. Even if you’re getting impressions and traffic, a poor landing experience or tracking error can make it look like everything stopped working.

Here’s what to watch out for.

18. Your Site Is Down or Hacked

It sounds dramatic, but it happens. If your site is experiencing downtime, returning 5xx errors, or worse -has been compromised- Google might limit or pause delivery automatically.

Try visiting your landing page directly. Is it loading normally? Check for error messages, redirect loops or unusual behavior. If your site has been flagged by Google for malware or phishing, you’ll also see alerts in Google Ads or Search Console.

This is urgent. If your ads are pointing to a broken or risky page, you’re not just wasting money, you’re damaging your reputation.

19. The Page Is Live but Broken or Extremely Slow

Even if the page loads, it might be unusable on mobile, filled with broken elements, or painfully slow.

Slow-loading pages increase bounce rates and lower conversion rates, especially on mobile. Use tools like PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to test performance. Look at key metrics like LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).

And don’t forget to test the CTA. Is the form working? Are buttons clickable? A form field error can completely break your funnel without you noticing for days.

20. Conversion Tracking or Events Are Misfiring

Your ads might be working, but if your conversions stop recording, it looks like your campaign is failing.

Check the Conversions section in Google Ads. Are conversions still firing? Did you recently change tags, URLs or thank-you pages? Has the event name changed inside GA4 or Tag Manager?

Also check attribution settings. If you switched from last-click to data-driven, short-term conversions might appear lower even if actual performance is stable.

21. Smart Bidding Has No Feedback Loop

If conversion tracking is broken or inaccurate, Smart Bidding is flying blind. And when Smart Bidding doesn’t trust the data, it starts to throttle spend or aim for goals it can’t realistically hit.

Even one or two days of broken conversion data can disrupt learning. Once fixed, give the system time to recalibrate, typically 5 to 7 days of clean data to recover.

Step 6: Dig Into Broader Trends

Not every performance drop is tied to something you changed. In some cases, the world outside your account shifts, and your results change right along with it. From seasonality to shifting user behavior, here are the bigger-picture trends to keep an eye on.

22. You Made Too Many Changes at Once

Let’s be honest, Google Ads punishes impatience.

If you adjust multiple variables at once (budget, bid strategy, creatives, keywords), you confuse the algorithm and lose your baseline. And if Smart Bidding is involved, this usually triggers a learning phase, during which performance can dip hard.

Try to space out changes by a few days, and monitor results after each one. If you’re already in a dip, resist the urge to fix everything at once. Recovery takes structure, not panic.

23. You Lost a Top Audience Segment or Lookalike

First-party audience lists expire. Website visitors drop off. Email uploads lose match rates over time. And when you depend on those lists for targeting, the loss can hit hard.

Check your audience lists:

• Are they shrinking in size?
• Are they still eligible?
• Is match rate holding steady?

Also double-check your customer match lists inside ad platforms. If you’ve updated your CRM or changed formatting, some lists might have stopped syncing properly.

24. Search Demand Shifted (Seasonality or External Factors)

Sometimes it’s not you. It’s just… the season.

Look at the search volume trend for your top keywords over the past year. Are you in a post-holiday lull? Has a competitor launched a major campaign that’s drawing attention away?

Also think beyond the platform. Are there macroeconomic or cultural trends affecting how people search and buy? If you’re selling travel gear and airline strikes dominate the news, demand might temporarily drop no matter what you do.

When this happens, it’s not about fixing your campaign, it’s about adapting your strategy until conditions shift again.

Step 7: Use Time Comparison to Spot What Changed

Sometimes the best troubleshooting tool isn’t a fancy report or a third-party tool, it’s simply comparing time periods. By zooming out and comparing performance before and after the drop, you can uncover patterns that help isolate the cause.

25. Performance Dropped on Certain Days or Hours

Use the Reports > Hour of Day and Day of Week breakdowns to spot unusual dips. Did traffic dry up on weekends? Did conversions crash after 6 PM?

It’s possible your ad schedule, budget pacing or competitor activity varies based on time. These micro-patterns often go unnoticed, but they can reveal a lot.

Look at both click volume and conversion rate. You might be getting the same traffic, just at the wrong times.

26. A Specific Device, Geo or Segment Is Driving the Decline

Try breaking down performance by:

• Device (mobile vs. desktop)
• Location
• Audience segment
• Network (Search vs. Display vs. YouTube)

For example, if mobile performance tanks while desktop holds steady, your site may be suffering from mobile load issues. Or if one region suddenly stops converting, local regulations or delivery issues might be to blame.

It only takes one segment to skew your averages and make it look like the whole campaign is broken.

27. You’re Comparing a High-Conversion Period to a Naturally Slower One

This one’s sneaky.

If you’re comparing your current results to a period that included a product launch, seasonal spike or big promotion, the drop might be misleading. You didn’t fall off a cliff, you just came down from a high.

Always add context to your comparisons. If February looks worse than January, but January included a major sale, you’re not necessarily in trouble. You’re just back to normal.

Try comparing the same dates year over year, or comparing your post-drop period to a “normal” stretch before your peak. This helps you judge whether the drop is real or just relative.

How to Fix the Drop Based on What You Find

By now, you’ve gone through every angle, from budget pacing to query intent, from landing page issues to audience loss. That alone puts you ahead of most marketers.

So what now?

Take a breath, and take action. But before you jump into edits, here’s one principle worth repeating:

Fix one thing at a time.

It’s tempting to hit every switch at once, especially when pressure is high. But if you change everything, you lose visibility into what actually caused the drop, and what worked to reverse it.

Below is a quick reference table to guide your recovery plan based on what you uncovered during troubleshooting.

What to Fix	What to Do
Budget, Bids or Delivery	Review daily budget vs. CPA. Reallocate to top performers. Adjust bids gradually.
Tracking or Learning Phase	Fix broken tags. Test events manually. Let bidding relearn over 5-7 days.
Audience or Intent Drift	Rebuild audience lists. Update negatives. Refine match types and creative tone.
Landing Page or UX Issues	Test speed and mobile layout. Fix CTAs and forms. Match message to ad promise.
Seasonal or External Shifts	Identify demand changes. Focus on high-intent queries. Use warm audience layers.

No need to panic if you’re still in the dip. Performance recovery often takes a few days, but the key is to move with intention, not desperation.

If one change helps, great. If not, move to the next with the same curiosity and clarity you used to diagnose the issue in the first place.

Because now you’re not just guessing. You’re troubleshooting like a pro.

Google Ads Performance Drops Happen

If your campaigns suddenly stop working, it’s easy to feel frustrated, or even panicked. But the truth is, every performance dip has a reason. And once you find it, recovery isn’t just possible. It’s likely.

The key is to stay calm, methodical and curious. Resist the urge to throw everything at the wall. Instead, use this checklist to identify one variable at a time. Ask: What changed? Where did the drop start? Which part of the funnel broke down first?

Remember, even the most experienced marketers run into these moments. What sets the pros apart isn’t avoiding performance drops. It’s how they respond.

So the next time your numbers slip and your brain screams “What happened?”, come back to this guide. Walk through the steps. Take action with confidence.

Because now you don’t just have a problem, you have a process.