Why Aren't My Google Ads Showing?

You set up your Google Ads campaign. Everything looks good in your account. The status says "Eligible." But when you check, your ads aren't appearing. No impressions. No clicks. Nothing.

You tried adjusting your bids. You checked your keywords. You even restarted the campaign. Still nothing. Your Google Ads not showing problem persists, and you have no idea why.

This happens more often than you'd think. The good news? There's usually a specific reason, and once you identify it, the fix is straightforward. Here's everything you need to know to diagnose why your ads aren't running and how to get them back online.

Budget Depleted

The problem: Your daily budget ran out, so Google stopped showing your ads for the rest of the day.

Why it happens: Google distributes your budget throughout the day, but if you're in a competitive space with high cost-per-clicks, your budget can disappear in a few hours. Once it's gone, your ads stop appearing until the next day when your budget resets.

You'll see "Limited by budget" in your campaign status when this is the issue.

The solution: You have two options. First, increase your daily budget so your ads can run all day. If you can't increase budget, shift your ad schedule to show ads only during your highest-converting hours. This means your ads appear when they're most likely to generate actual business, not just burn through budget early in the morning when your audience isn't active.

From our experience, businesses often set budgets based on what they're comfortable spending rather than what's needed to compete. If your budget cap is preventing visibility, you're essentially invisible to prospects during peak search times.

Read also: Is $500 Enough for Google Ads?

Payment Issues

The problem: Your payment method failed, so Google paused all your campaigns.

Why it happens: Expired credit cards, insufficient funds, billing address mismatches, or bank declines stop payments from processing. Google won't run ads if they can't charge your account.

The solution: Go to Tools & Settings > Billing > Payment methods. Update your card information, verify your billing address matches what your bank has on file, and ensure there are no holds or limits on your card. Once payment processes successfully, your ads will resume within a few hours.

We've seen accounts go dark for weeks because a card expired and nobody noticed. Set up backup payment methods and enable billing alerts so you know immediately if something fails.

Campaign or Ad Group Paused

The problem: Something in your account hierarchy is paused, preventing ads from running.

Why it happens: Campaigns, ad groups, or individual ads can be paused accidentally while you're making changes or testing. Sometimes you pause something temporarily and forget to turn it back on.

The solution: Check every level of your account. Your campaign might be enabled, but if the ad group inside it is paused, nothing runs. Same if the campaign and ad group are enabled but individual ads are paused.

Go through Campaign > Ad Group > Ads and verify each has a green dot next to it, indicating it's enabled. If you see a pause symbol, click it to enable.

Policy Disapproval

The problem: Google rejected your ad for violating advertising policies.

Why it happens: Your ad copy, landing page, or offer breaks Google's rules. Common violations include prohibited content (certain healthcare claims, counterfeit goods, dangerous products), misleading claims, destination mismatches (your ad promises something your landing page doesn't deliver), or restricted content that requires certification you don't have.

You'll see "Disapproved" in your ad status with a reason explaining the violation.

The solution: Click the "Disapproved" status to see exactly what Google flagged. Read the policy it references. Fix the issue in your ad copy or landing page. Then resubmit for review.

If you believe the disapproval was a mistake, you can appeal through your account. But in most cases we've worked on, there's a legitimate policy issue that needs fixing. Google's policies exist to protect users, so they're fairly strict about enforcement.

Common fixes include removing exaggerated claims ("Lose 20 pounds in 2 days"), adding proper disclosures for financial or health products, or fixing landing pages that don't match ad promises

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Ad Scheduled for Wrong Time

The problem: Your ad schedule is set to run during times when you're not checking, or it's set for dates in the past or future.

Why it happens: Ad scheduling lets you control exactly when ads appear. If you set it to only run weekdays 9 AM to 5 PM, but you're checking on Saturday night, you won't see your ads. Or you set an end date for a promotion and forgot to extend it.

The solution: Go to your campaign settings and check Ad schedule. Make sure the days and times match when you actually want ads running. If you're testing to see if ads appear, check during your scheduled hours.

Also verify your start and end dates. If your campaign end date passed, ads won't show. Remove the end date or extend it as needed.

We tend to see this with businesses that want to control when leads come in. They schedule ads for business hours only, which makes sense for service businesses that need to answer phones. Just make sure you're aware of the limitation.

Low Ad Rank

The problem: Your ad rank is too low to win auctions and appear in search results.

Why it happens: Ad rank combines your bid, Quality Score, and expected impact of ad extensions. If competitors have higher bids and better quality scores, they win the auction and their ads show instead of yours. Even if your bid is decent, a low Quality Score drags down your ad rank enough that you lose to everyone else.

You might see "Below first page bid" or "Rarely shown due to low ad rank" in your keyword status.

The solution: Address both sides of ad rank. First, increase your bids for high-priority keywords where you need visibility. Use Google's Bid Simulator to see how bid changes affect your estimated impressions.

Second, improve your Quality Score by making your ads more relevant to your keywords. Your ad copy should include the exact keywords you're targeting. Your landing page should match what the ad promises. The more aligned everything is (keyword > ad copy > landing page), the higher your Quality Score goes, which improves ad rank even without raising bids.

Based on our data, Quality Score improvements often have bigger impact than bid increases. A keyword with Quality Score 3/10 might need $5 bids to compete, while the same keyword at 8/10 Quality Score might win auctions at $2 bids.

Read also: 9 Ways to Reduce CPC in Google Ads (Without Losing Leads)

Targeting Too Narrow

The problem: Your targeting settings are so specific that almost nobody qualifies to see your ads.

Why it happens: You layered multiple targeting options. Location targeting for one city, plus age 25-34, plus specific device types, plus certain audiences. Each layer removes more people until you're left with an audience of 50 people, which isn't enough for Google to serve ads effectively.

The solution: Review your targeting settings and remove unnecessary restrictions. Start broader and use performance data to narrow down later.

For location targeting, expand beyond single cities to regions or multiple cities. For demographic targeting, only restrict if you have strong data showing certain groups don't convert. For device targeting, only exclude devices if they genuinely don't work for your business (rare).

Many businesses over-target because they have a specific customer in mind. That's good for strategy but bad for initial campaign setup. You need enough volume to gather data before you can optimize targeting effectively.

Keywords Set to Low Search Volume

The problem: Your keywords don't get searched enough, so Google pauses them.

Why it happens: You're targeting extremely specific, niche keywords that barely anyone searches for. Google won't show ads for keywords with consistently low search volume because auctions can't run if nobody's searching.

You'll see "Low search volume" in your keyword status column.

The solution: Replace low-volume keywords with broader variations that get more searches. If you're targeting "best enterprise CRM for manufacturing companies in Dubai," try "enterprise CRM for manufacturing" instead.

Use Keyword Planner to find related terms with higher search volume. Sometimes a slight variation gets 10x more searches while still reaching your target audience.

Don't delete low-volume keywords entirely. They might pick up volume seasonally or as trends change. Just don't rely on them for your main traffic.

Negative Keywords Blocking Your Ads

The problem: Your negative keyword list is accidentally excluding searches you want.

Why it happens: You added negative keywords too broadly. For example, you sell premium software and added "cheap" as a negative keyword. But now you're also blocking "affordable enterprise software" and "cost-effective solutions," which are terms your ideal customers use.

The solution: Review your negative keyword lists at both campaign and account levels. Look for overly broad negative keywords that might catch unintended searches.

Check your search terms report regularly. If you're not getting impressions for keywords you expected to target, cross-reference them against your negative keywords to see if there's an accidental block.

We have seen this many times with businesses that get aggressive about excluding "tire kickers." They add so many negative keywords that they accidentally block qualified prospects using slightly different language.

Ad Group Not Enabled

The problem: Your campaigns are running, but specific ad groups inside them are paused.

Why it happens: You paused an ad group while testing something and forgot to turn it back on. Or you created a new ad group that defaults to paused status.

The solution: Go through each campaign and check that every ad group you want running shows an enabled status. It's easy to miss because the campaign level shows green, but inside, individual ad groups might be paused.

This is different from checking campaign status because you need to drill down into each campaign to see ad group status. It's tedious but necessary if you're troubleshooting why certain keywords or ads aren't getting any action.

Audience Too Small for Remarketing

The problem: Your remarketing list doesn't have enough users for Google to serve ads.

Why it happens: Google requires minimum audience sizes: 100 active users for Display Network, 1,000 for Search remarketing. If your website doesn't get enough traffic, your remarketing lists sit below these thresholds and ads won't show.

The solution: Wait for your list to grow organically as traffic comes in, or broaden your audience criteria to capture more visitors faster. Instead of "people who visited pricing page in last 7 days," try "people who visited any page in last 30 days."

For new businesses or low-traffic sites, remarketing might not be viable yet. Focus on building traffic through regular Search campaigns first, then layer in remarketing once you hit the minimum thresholds.

Billing Account Under Review

The problem: Google flagged unusual activity and put your account under review.

Why it happens: Rapid spending increases, billing from high-risk countries, suspicious payment patterns, or multiple policy violations trigger reviews. During the review, all campaigns pause automatically.

The solution: Unfortunately, you can't speed this up. Wait for Google to complete their review, which typically takes 1-3 business days. Your campaigns will automatically resume once approved.

To avoid future reviews, make changes gradually. Don't jump from $50/day to $5,000/day overnight. Use payment methods that match your business name and address. Keep your account in good standing by following policies.

Read also: Google Ads Cost in UAE: A Complete Guide

Your Bids Are Too Low

The problem: Your maximum CPC bids aren't high enough to compete in auctions.

Why it happens: Competitive keywords require certain bid levels to show on the first page. If everyone else is bidding $8 and you're bidding $2, you won't win auctions. Google shows you "below first page bid estimate" warnings when this is the issue.

The solution: Check first page bid estimates for your keywords. Increase bids to at least the low end of that range for keywords where you need visibility.

If recommended bids are too expensive for your budget, switch to less competitive keywords, try long-tail variations, or focus on specific geographic targeting where competition is lower.

Some keywords are simply too expensive for certain budgets. That's okay. Find keywords you can actually afford to compete on rather than throwing money at auctions you'll consistently lose.

How to Check If Your Ads Are Actually Running

Don't search for your own ads on Google. Every time you search without clicking, you hurt your Quality Score and skew your impression data.

Instead, use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool:

1. Go to Tools & Settings > Ad Preview and Diagnosis
2. Enter your keyword, location, language, and device settings
3. See if your ad appears and, if not, why

This tool shows you exactly what searchers see without affecting your campaign stats. It also explains specifically why an ad isn't showing (budget depleted, targeting mismatch, low ad rank, etc.).

We recommend checking this tool weekly for your most important keywords to catch issues early before they cost you days of missed traffic.

What to Do When You've Checked Everything

You've worked through this list. You've verified budgets, checked targeting, confirmed payment is working. Your ads still aren't showing.

At this point, contact Google Ads support directly through your account. Explain what you've already checked and ask them to review your account for issues you might not be able to see.

Sometimes there are account-level holds, billing flags, or backend issues that only Google support can identify and resolve.

If you're still stuck or would rather have someone handle this for you, we can help. At Lead Ember, we troubleshoot Google Ads issues for B2B service businesses daily. Based in Dubai, we work with clients globally to diagnose delivery problems, fix campaign issues, and get ads running properly.

Most of these issues take 15-30 minutes to identify and fix when you know where to look. The challenge is knowing where to look. If your Google Ads not showing problem is costing you leads and you'd rather have an expert handle it, contact us. We'll figure out what's wrong and get your campaigns back online.