8 reasons you don’t see your Google Ads when searching for them

8 reasons you don’t see your Google Ads when searching for them

1. Ad locations are not set up correctly.

Ads appear for customers located in the areas you have specified for your ad. This means that you won’t be able to find your ad if you search for it while outside your selected area.

How to fix this:
- If you are in expert mode, use the Ad preview and diagnosis tool to preview your ad showing the locations that you have selected for targeting.
- If you’re in Smart mode, follow the steps in this smart campaign article.
- Learn more about ad locations.

2. Your ad is paused.

Pausing an ad means that it will not accumulate new costs or show in searches until resumed.

How to fix this:

- Enable your ad.

1. Go to Ads & extensions in your Google Ads account

2. Click the green dot next to the ad you’d like to enable.

3. From the menu, select Enable to set your ad to active ('Eligible' or 'Eligible (limited)' status).

3. Too many searches without clicks.

If you repeatedly search for your own business on Google without clicking your ad, Google's system recognises your computer and stops showing ads that it believes you are not interested in.

How to fix this:

- If you are in expert mode, use the Ad preview and diagnosis tool to preview your ad showing the locations that you have selected for targeting.

- If you’re in Smart mode, follow the steps in this smart campaign article.

4. Your account has billing errors.

Billing errors (declined or expired payment cards, for example) on your account can stop your ads from running.

How to fix this:

- Check your billing summary in your Google Ads account Billing (Tools or Tools and Settings).

5. Your budget is limited or depleted.

Google Ads will work out your maximum monthly budget based on multiplying the daily budget you have set by the number of days in the month. As your actual spend may vary, there may be days where less budget is allocated. If the budget for your ad has already been met for either the day or the entire month, your ad won't run.

How to fix this:

- If you want to increase how often your ads show, try increasing your budget. 

6. Bidding may be too limited.

Your bid strategy status is the state of your automated bid strategy at any given point in time. When checking your campaign performance, it’s helpful to review the status of your automated bid strategies to make sure that they’re running as expected and help resolve any issues, as needed. If your bidding is too limited, your ads may not show.

How to fix this:

• If you would like to use a bidding strategy that automatically sets bids with the goal of showing your ad on the absolute top of the page, on the top of the page or anywhere on the page of Google search results, we recommend using Target impression share.

• If your goal is to get more clicks or conversions, we recommend using target cost-per-action (CPA).

7. Ad is under review.

While your ad is being reviewed, its status will show as 'Under review'. Google reserves the right to prioritise ad reviews or re-reviews to ensure the overall stability of system operations, or temporarily restrict ad serving to ensure policy compliance.

How to fix this:

• Wait one working day for your ads to be reviewed. We review most ads within one working day, though some more complex review processes may take longer.

• If your ad is under review for more than two full working days, contact us for further information.

• Learn more about the ad review process.

8. Your ad has been disapproved.

Disapproved ads will not run. If your ad has been disapproved, check your email (If you can’t see an email, check your spam folder) for disapproval messages, which may have information about how to resolve issues with your ad.

Next steps:

• If your ad doesn't comply with the policy, you'll want to edit and resubmit your ad.

• If you believe we’ve made an error or have fixed your destination, you can appeal the policy decision directly from your Google Ads account.