First, check that conversion tracking is actually working
Before you do anything else, make sure you are actually measuring conversions correctly. This sounds obvious but it is genuinely the most common issue I find in audits. An account can look like it is not converting when in reality it is converting fine and the tracking is just broken.
Check your conversion actions in Google Ads. Click into Tools, then Conversions, and look at what is being tracked. Are the actions meaningful? Form submissions and phone calls are meaningful. Page views and session starts are not conversion actions. They are engagement signals at best.
If you are not tracking anything meaningful, fix that first. Everything else is secondary until you can measure what actually matters to your business.
Quick check: Go to your Google Ads account and look at the Conversions column in your campaign view. If it shows zero or shows only page views and time on site, your tracking needs fixing before you do anything else.
The most common reasons Google Ads don't convert
1. You're targeting the wrong keywords
This is probably the single biggest cause of wasted spend I see. Broad match keywords in particular can take your ads in completely the wrong direction. You might be targeting "marketing services" and showing up for "marketing degree courses." You are paying for clicks from people who will never buy from you.
Pull your search terms report and spend some time actually reading it. Look at what people typed before they clicked your ad. If a significant chunk of those searches have nothing to do with what you sell, your keyword targeting needs work.
The fix usually involves tightening match types, adding negative keywords and in some cases rebuilding the keyword list from scratch using terms that reflect genuine buying intent rather than broad topics.
2. Your ads don't match what people are searching for
People click on ads that feel relevant to what they just typed. If someone searches for "emergency plumber London" and your ad headline says "Quality Plumbing Services Since 1998," there is a disconnect. The ad doesn't reflect the urgency of their search and they will scroll past or click a competitor instead.
Your headlines should speak directly to the intent behind the search. Emergency searches need urgency. Comparison searches need something that differentiates you. Research searches need something informative. One set of ads trying to do all of that at once will underperform on all of them.
3. Your landing page is doing the wrong job
Getting someone to click your ad is only half the battle. What happens after the click is where most conversions are lost. If you are sending paid traffic to your homepage, you are almost certainly losing conversions that should be there.
Your homepage is designed for people who want to browse and understand your business. Someone who clicked a specific ad has a specific intent. They want that specific thing confirmed quickly and a clear way to take the next step. A homepage makes them work for that. A dedicated landing page gives it to them straight away.
Look at your landing page honestly. Is the headline relevant to the ad they clicked? Is the call to action obvious? Can someone understand within five seconds what you do, why they should care and what to do next? If the answer to any of those is no, the landing page is losing you conversions.
4. Your quality scores are low
Quality score is Google's rating of how relevant your keywords, ads and landing pages are to each other. A low quality score means you pay more per click than competitors with better quality scores. It also means your ads show less often and in worse positions.
Quality score is made up of three things. Expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. If any of those are below average, your costs go up and your results go down.
Improving quality score is not complicated but it does take time. Tighter ad groups with more specific keywords, ads that closely match those keywords, and landing pages that genuinely deliver what the ad promised. Done consistently, it reduces your cost per click and improves conversion rates at the same time.
5. Your bidding strategy is wrong for your account
Google's automated bidding strategies are genuinely good but they need data to work well. If you are using Target CPA or Maximise Conversions on an account that has recorded fewer than 30 conversions in the last 30 days, the algorithm is essentially guessing. And it will guess badly.
New accounts and low-conversion accounts often perform better on manual bidding or Maximise Clicks with a bid cap while data builds up. Once you have enough conversion data, automated strategies can be very effective. Trying to use them before that data exists usually burns budget.
6. You're not using negative keywords
Negative keywords tell Google what you don't want to show up for. Without them, especially with broad or phrase match keywords, your ads can show for searches that are completely irrelevant to your business.
A new account with no negative keyword list is almost certainly wasting a meaningful percentage of its budget on irrelevant clicks. Reviewing the search terms report weekly and adding negatives regularly is one of the highest-value optimisation tasks in any account.
7. Your call to action is unclear or unconvincing
People need to be told what to do next. "Learn more" is not a call to action. It's a placeholder. "Get a free quote," "Book your consultation today" or "Request a callback" are calls to action because they describe a specific, low-friction next step.
Think about what the barrier is for your potential customer. If price is the concern, a free quote removes the uncertainty. If commitment is the concern, a no-obligation call is less threatening than "buy now." Match your call to action to the objection your audience is most likely to have.
8. The timing or device targeting is off
Most businesses see very different conversion rates depending on the time of day, day of the week and device being used. Running ads at full budget 24/7 ignores that reality.
Pull your performance data and filter by hour of day, day of week and device. You will almost certainly find that some segments convert at two or three times the rate of others. Shifting budget towards those segments and reducing bids in underperforming ones is a straightforward way to improve overall conversion rates without changing anything else.
Where to start if you're not sure what the problem is
The honest answer is that most underperforming accounts have more than one of these issues happening at the same time. The difficulty is knowing which ones are the biggest contributors to poor performance without spending weeks digging through data. This applies whether you're managing a consumer campaign or a B2B lead generation account, though the specific fixes often differ between the two.
That is exactly what a Google Ads audit is designed to answer. A proper audit looks at all of these areas systematically, identifies the specific issues in your account and gives you a prioritised list of what to fix first. It removes the guesswork, which is exactly the value a contract Google Ads specialist brings to an account that's already live and spending.
If you would like a free audit of your account, you can request one on this site. It covers 12 areas, gets delivered as a PDF within 5 working days and includes a walkthrough call to go through the findings together. There is no obligation to do anything further, whether you're looking for a PPC consultant in London or remote support anywhere in the UK.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my Google Ads not converting?
It usually comes down to one or more of a few things: keyword targeting that's too broad, ads that don't match what people actually searched for, a landing page that isn't built for the click, a bidding strategy set up before enough data exists, or missing negative keywords. Broken conversion tracking is worth ruling out first, since it can make a working account look like it isn't converting at all.
Why am I not getting any conversions from Google Ads?
Start by checking that conversion tracking is actually measuring something meaningful, like form submissions or calls, rather than page views. If tracking is fine, the next most common causes are broad keyword targeting pulling in irrelevant clicks, or a landing page that doesn't clearly ask for the next step.
What should I check first if Google Ads aren't converting?
Conversion tracking and the search terms report. Those two checks reveal most problems quickly, before you need to dig into quality scores or bidding strategy.
Can broken tracking make Google Ads look like they aren't converting?
Yes. This is one of the most common issues found in audits. If your account is only tracking page views or session starts rather than genuine actions like form submissions or calls, it can look like nothing is converting even when it actually is.
The bottom line
Google Ads not converting is nearly always a fixable problem. The most common causes are keyword targeting that is too broad, ads that don't match search intent, landing pages that aren't doing their job and bidding strategies that don't suit the account's maturity. Fix those four things and most accounts see a meaningful improvement.
The tricky part is knowing which combination of issues applies to your specific account. If you are unsure, start with the search terms report and your conversion tracking. Those two things will usually point you in the right direction.