Google Ads not converting? Here’s why [And how to fix it]

Sometimes, working with Google Ads can feel a bit like playing on a slot machine. You feed it cash, pull the lever and hope that conversions simply spill out 🎰

But what if all you’re getting is clicks and radio silence?

⚠️ Spoiler alert: It’s not Google’s fault. And it’s not yours either (probably). You just need to add some oil and tighten a few bolts under the hood.

Here’s a no-fluff breakdown on what’s really killing your conversions, and what you can do to fix it, before your budget taps out.

Catching clicks, but not customers

OK, so you’re getting traffic, but the big question is...

Is it the right traffic?

Google doesn’t hand you ready-to-go buyers, but what it does give you is high-intent searchers. If your setup is too broad, all you’ll get is bounced clicks and disinterested parties that even your retargeting campaigns can’t convert.

Here’s what could be going wrong:

• You’re using broad keyword matches, and all that’s doing is pulling in the wrong crowd 🙅
• Your ads are simply too generic, so you can say goodbye to being able to filter out the low-intent clicks.
• Your ad tells one story, but your landing page? It’s telling a story from an entirely different novel that’s just confusing the whole process 😕

The fixes:

• Leverage phrase and exact match keywords to get laser-focused fast 🎯
• Write ads that essentially ‘pre-qualify’ the user by being as specific and informative as possible.
• Ensure the wording of your landing page mirrors what you’ve used on your ad - you’ll want to make sure both match the exact keyword they searched for initially ✅

🔥 Bonus tip: Use your search term report to spot high-intent phrases and turn them into exact match keywords. Don’t skip out on hidden gems.

Your landing page is killing the vibe

Someone clicked on your ad and now they’re on your page..what happens next? 🤔

Well, if your answer is anything less than the actual action they need to take, you’ve got a problem.

Where most landing pages go wrong:

• If your pages are slow to load (especially on mobile devices), you’ve signed your own death warrant. Optimizing speeds for performance is key to success.
• Weak headlines that just feel…off-brand. Nail down the wording used to ensure that your landing page resonates with your entire brand.
• Can’t find a CTA? If your call-to-action is buried under 10 paragraphs of copy (and let’s face it, viewers will switch off before they reach the tenth), it’s going to be really confusing what action you want your viewers to take 👀
• If your landing page has more distractions than it does direction, you need to rethink your page.

The fixes:

• Ensure that your headline matches the ad - consistency builds trust.
• Keep your CTAs loud and proud and exactly where your viewers would expect to find them 📣
• Kill the fluff - always guide your users towards one clear action, whether that’s a purchase, sign up or form fill.
• Strip out anything bloating your page - we’re talking filler, but keep the killer.

🔥 Bonus tip: Try out session recording tools like Hotjar or Clarity to see exactly where users are dropping off. You might just be able to spot friction in seconds and remove it before it kills off more conversions.

Smart bidding…or smart guessing?

If you’re trained to use it, Google’s Smart Bidding is great!. But handing it the keys to your performance too early and you’ll likely end up watching it drive your budget off a cliff.

It can be a beast (in a good way) but only after you’ve spent time teaching it what success actually looks like for your business.

Where it goes sideways:

• You’re using Maximize conversions, but you’re not actually getting the "conversions" part.
• You’ve set a target CPA (cost-per-acquisition), but Google’s got no clue what success looks like yet.
• You’re busy tracking fluffy goals and events like page views or time on site and calling them conversions (Google might think they are wins, so it’s no wonder Smart bidding gets confused!).

How to get it back on track:

• Start with manual bidding or Enhanced CPC (cost-per-click), that way you can give Google clean signals (and historical data) before handing over the keys to the car.
• Wait until you’ve got at least 25/30 real conversions before you switch to Max Conversions or Target CPA. This way, Google knows what a real win looks like for your business.
• Regularly audit your conversion actions so you can be sure you’re only tracking what actually matters (sales, leads, calls booked etc).

🔥 Bonus tip: Wherever possible, always feed Google the right first-party data. You can also import offline conversions like booked calls or purchases to help Smart bidding optimize further for real outcomes, not fake ones.

You’re paying for trash terms

Even with an exact match, you’ll still probably get some weird clicks 😒

Without a strong negative keyword list, Google will keep showing your ads for all the irrelevant keyword searches you don’t want to waste your budget on.

The pain points:

• Searches for “Free” + your premium product = waste 🗑️
• Your ad for your luxury real estate agency shows up where someone searches for “cheap housing in Chicago”.‍
• Your online course ad for “advanced digital marketing strategies” gets a ton of clicks from searches relating to “how to create a website” or “SEO beginner tips” 👎

What to do:

• Regularly audit your Search terms report and dig deep to find all the weird and not-so-wonderful searches that don’t align with your business goals 🔍
• Use the power of custom audiences to better filter out non-buyers and uninterested parties. For example, someone searching for “cheap trainers”  is probably not going to be interested in your premium, luxury leather trainers.
• Don’t build a list and forget about it. Instead, ensure that you share keywords across your campaigns to make sure that the next new campaign starts with a clean slate 👌

🔥 Bonus tip: Create a “master” keyword list and keep adding to it to uncover junk terms.

You’re tracking the wrong stuff (or nothing at all)

If you’re not tracking real conversions, Google has no idea what success looks like to your business. This means every optimization opportunity will end up as a shot in the dark.

The most common slip ups:

• You’re tracking visits or clicks (events) but not the valuable data like form fills or purchases (conversions).
• You’ve duplicated your goals, which only inflates your performance related numbers.
• Misconfigured GA4 account? That’s only going to bring a headache.

Here’s how to fix them:

• Set up event-based tracking, from button clicks to scrolling and everything in between.
• Leverage marketing analytics tools like Hitprobe, to scrutinise and validate what users do after the click 🕵️
• Regularly audit your conversion actions and remove anything that doesn’t reflect actual value (page views don't = sales)

🔥Bonus tip: Add a confirmation or “thank you” page after key actions (like purchases or sign-ups) and track that as your conversion confirmation. It’s simple, reliable and keeps your data clean and confusion-free.

Vanity metrics are distracting you from the real wins

It’s too easy to obsess over likes or CTRs (click-through-rates), but those metrics don’t pay the bills and they only bring noise.

You’ll want to watch out for:

• High CTRs without genuine leads - you’re probably paying to peak curiosity rather than obtaining paying customers.
• A low CPC (cost-per click) with equally low click performance - you might well be paying for cheap traffic that has no intention to buy anything.
• High conversion rates without the associated revenue - you’re probably suffering with a tracking failure. Don’t count the wrong stuff ⛔

The fixes:

• Focus on leads, sales, and revenue. CTR and CPC are part of the band, but they’re not the lead singers.
• Map the full journey - what happens after the click? That’s where tools like Hitprobe come in.
• Know the value of spending more, to get better results. Would you rather pay $2 per click for someone to kick the tyres, or $8 per click for someone to convert into a paying customer with a healthy CLTV (customer lifetime value).

🔥 Bonus tip: Track the metrics that are most important to your business - set up custom metrics in your reporting dashboard to better optimize your data-driven decisions.

Your retargeting strategy needs a rethink

Most people don’t buy on the first click or visit, but that’s OK: that’s where retargeting comes in.

The mistakes of retargeting:

• You’re not actively building a remarketing list of users who engaged but didn’t convert 📋
• Everyone is seeing the same ad and message, no matter where they are in the funnel.
• Your retargeting creative is more generic and meh than it is the dangling hook it should be 🎣

The fix?:

• Neatly segment your audiences based on their ad click actions. Did they visit a specific product page? Retarget based on that product. Product added to the cart but they abandoned the process? Offer a 10% discount to turn interest into actions ✅
• Use different offers and messages for each retargeting group.
• Run retargeting ads across different channels and platforms (like YouTube, Display etc) rather than playing the safe card with Search.

🔥 Bonus tip: Create a custom audience to exclude anyone that’s already converted, so you’re not wasting your ad spend on people who have already done what you wanted.

No testing, no progress

The set-it-and-forget mentality doesn’t work, fact.

If you’re not testing, you’re not improving, and if you’re not improving, should you be blindly putting ads out there in the world?

The usual suspects:

• You’re only running one ad per group, missing out on valuable learnings and its associated data 📊
• You’re not trying out different landing pages to A/B test your overall performance.
• You’ve got some killer messaging, right? If you don’t have a clue which message is working, how do you measure your campaign performance? 💭

How to upgrade your testing game:

• Run multiple ads per group, running different messages and creatives.
• Test landing page variants, i.e. short vs long, bold and striking vs clean.
• Kill off underperforming ads early and often, so you can refocus again.

🔥 Bonus tip: Start your testing with hypothesis-based tests. Don’t just run variations, run tests with an actual theory behind them. That’s how you turn testing into strategy 💪

You’re judging your ads in a vacuum

Not every underperforming ad is actually underperforming. 

Sometimes, the answer isn’t the ad, it’s what’s happening around it.

The pain points:

• Your organic listing (your free placement in the search results you’ve earned through your hard working SEO and content creation work) is competing with your own paid ads.
• Your branded campaigns are stealing credit for sales that were already happening.
• GA4’s attribution can make a click either look like a hero, or a waste of money (depending on the view).

What to do:

• Use marketing analytics tools like Hitprobe to see both paid and organic journeys all under one roof. Seeing real user behaviour and not just the surface stats make all the difference.
• Run incrementality tests - if you’re confused by your current performance, pause your paid ads for a few days and see what changes ⏸️
• Look at the full story: first click, scrolling behaviour, engagement, last click. If you’re only looking at one model, you’re working with one eye closed 🖱️

Remember, context is key. Without it, you’re not analyzing, you’re just guessing with the help of some good looking graphs (Not very helpful hey).

🔥 Bonus tip: Set up custom UTM parameters by ad group or funnel stage, that way, when you analyze the data, you’ll know exactly which message hooked them in (and what led to the win).

You’re paying for ghost clicks (yes, click fraud is real!)

Not every click is a customer, and not every click is even from a real person. Some are bots. Some are from competitors. Others are genuine people having those fat-fingered moments and bouncing from your landing page quicker than you can say:

“Did I just get charged for that ad click?”.

Here’s how click fraud hurts:

• It silently eats into your marketing budget, without giving anything meaningful back in return 💰
• It skews your data, making performance a tricky thing to measure.
• It sends bad signals to smart systems. If Google receives signals from fake sources, can it really know the real from the fake? 🤷

What you can do:

• Use IP and device exclusions to block known or repeat offenders 📱
• Monitor your traffic closely for unusual patterns, like spikes from random countries or sudden click surges.
• Use third-party click fraud detection and protection tools like Hitprobe to deal with fraud before it erodes your budget.

🔥 Bonus tip: Analyze specific times of day to spot potentially bot heavy periods. If you notice high volumes of non-converting clicks, you could consider not showing your ads during these questionable periods.

The wrap up: Google Ads isn’t the problem, but your setup might be

Most of the time, poor performance doesn’t mean Google Ads is broken, it just means you’re just missing a few pieces of the puzzle 🧩

Spend time cleaning up your targeting. Fine tune your tracking. Test like a data scientist. Watch out for fraud. 

Tracking real human behaviour is the key to success, not just buying what Google says happened.

Third-party click fraud and marketing analytics tools like Hitprobe take the guesswork out of the clicks, they fight fraud silently and allow you to connect the dots between the ad click, and the outcome.

It’s time to level up your Google Ads performance, so ditch the dead-end clicks, track what matters, and finally run ads that actually deliver - try Hitprobe for free for 7 days and take your performance to the next level 🚀