So, your company is paying big bucks for Google Ads, But Google ads not showing.
However, this isn’t always a problem.
But if you don’t see them with the Google Ad Preview tool, something’s wrong.
Fortunately, there is usually a good reason Google Ads don’t appear.
Below, we delve into why Google Ads not showing or don’t show up and what to do about it.
Some of the reasons they don’t show are technical or administrative issues, and others are performance-related issues.
Most Google Ad account holders pay for their ads with automatic credit card or debit payments. Google charges the account when you get to your payment limit or threshold. It also will charge your card at the end of the month’s billing period.
For your transactions to be processed, the payment details on your card need to be correct. When Google can’t charge the card, the ads won’t appear.
This is one of the most common reasons Google Ads not showing or don’t run. So make sure your payment information is accurate when setting up your account.
Many account holders also have their credit card expire and they forget to update the information.
If you see ‘Low search volume’ in your account, you probably target long-tail keyword’s that few searchers are looking for.
Long-tail keywords can potentially bring high traffic. But this won’t happen if they are stopping your Google ads from showing up. When Google sees that you are going after low-volume keywords, it will make the ad inactive in the account.
You can fix the problem by seeing if your keywords are in the low keyword search volume category. Go to the Keyword part of your Google Ads account and review ad Status. If you see ‘low search volume,’ you can see the problem.
If the keyword is rarely searched for because it’s extremely niche, use a broader term to cover more searches.
Google evaluates ads based on how relevant they are to what the person is searching for. But it also judges by how relevant your landing pages is to the ad and keyword. So the ad rank will drop if the landing pages isn’t optimized and meaningful to the user.
Solve the problem by examining the targeted keywords you target and thinking about what the searcher is looking for.
What are the questions the searcher has? What is causing their problem? What are they looking for to solve their issue?
The landing pages should answer these critical questions. The message must match the ad and the landing pages.
Some advertisers simply don’t put enough time, effort, and research into the quality of the landing pages. But this an essential part of successful campaigns.
The more effective you are at establishing relevance between the landing page and the ad, the more often your ads appear.
Using negative keywords in your ad campaigns ensures you don’t spend money on undesired search traffic. But be careful when you set up negative keywords with broad match modified.
Check the negative keyword list and ensure that you don’t have negative keywords that cancel out keywords in any ad groups.
A phrase match keyword that doesn’t perform well may be ineligible to show ads. This may happen if your active keywords are too broad, so use long-tail keywords are different match types.
Sometimes ads don’t appear because they have been paused. Or, the google ads campaign or ad groups level where the ads reside were paused. If that’s happened with your ads, you only need to enable ads again.
Also, Google ads may not show if they were taken out of your account. If that happens, you would need to recreate them.
You can check if you paused or removed the ads by going to Change History to see what has been changed.
If nothing in your account has been paused or removed and you still don’t see ads, Google may have disapproved them. An ad that Google didn’t approve, obviously, won’t show.
You may need to review Google’s ad policies.
If you focus on a geographic location outside your area, you won’t see your Google Ads. But, of course, that also is the case if you have a different language preference option.
Also, if the language selection in the search engine is different than what is in your campaigns, you won’t see your ads.
Sometimes Google will review ad accounts. This is for security, and the search engine will check that your billing information is accurate. But your ads will not appear during the review process.
Good news – the process only takes two or three days, then the ads will show again.
However, account reviews are part of Google’s business, so there isn’t anything you can do but wait.
If, for some reason, the account is reviewed for more than three days, you will need to contact them.
Depending on how you have planned your Google Ad budget, you could run through your ad budget too fast. For instance, some Google advertisers set up their ads to deliver quickly. This can make your campaign limited by budget.
If the ad campaign shows ‘limited by budget,’ it means the ad may not show because of your CPC compared to the allotted budget. Google Ads will try to spread the budget over the day for the best performance. So, your ads will not show each time a person looks for your keywords in Google.
Address this problem by lowering bids or boosting your daily budget.
Ad Schedule: Also, try setting up your ad schedule to certain hours of the day and focus on times when there is more user engagement.
As you see by this list, there are myriad reasons your Google Ads may not appear.
Unfortunately, many users have this problem, but the good news is that it’s not difficult to fix once you pinpoint the issue.
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When this apartment complex client partnered with PPC.co, their goal was clear: generate more qualified leads through Google Ads. In just 60 days—from January to March 2025—we transformed their paid acquisition performance. Total conversions more than tripled, jumping from 10 to 32, while the overall conversion rate soared by over 300%. At the same time, we drove down the cost per conversion by 44%, delivering significantly more leads at a much lower cost.
By strategically combining Performance Max and high-intent Search campaigns, we not only increased lead volume but improved overall efficiency and ROI. This rapid and measurable improvement underscores the value of data-driven optimization and expert campaign management.
This case study is a testament to what can happen when a well-structured campaign meets expert strategy and continuous optimization. Whether you're launching a new property or looking to boost occupancy in a competitive market, PPC.co delivers real results—fast.
Ready to grow your leads and lower your cost per conversion?
Contact us today to schedule a free audit and discover how we can help you achieve similar results.
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If you’re running an e-commerce or retail business, you already know that visibility is everything. The best product in the world won’t sell if no one sees it. That’s where paid ads for ecommerce comes in.
Done right, they drive traffic, conversions, and repeat customers.
Done wrong, they drain your budget and leave you wondering what went wrong.
Whether you’re spending $500 a month or $50,000, your goal is the same: profitability. Not just clicks, and certainly not just impressions. You want to turn ad dollars into real, predictable revenue.
So how do top-performing e-commerce and retail brands make their paid ads work?
What are they doing that you’re not?
This guide breaks it down step-by-step, so you can start running profitable ads with confidence.
Before you launch a single campaign, you need clarity on your audience and goals. Are you trying to boost first-time sales? Increase average order value? Each objective requires a different strategy and metrics for success.
Don’t fall into the trap of launching ads just to “see what happens.” Paid media works best when it’s part of a bigger strategy. So before you log in to Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager, get specific about what success looks like.
If you want to run profitable paid ads, knowing your numbers is the foundation of your entire strategy. Without a clear understanding of your margins, break-even points, and how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer, you’re essentially gambling with your ad budget.
And in e-commerce, that can get expensive fast.
Let’s start with the most critical numbers you need to know:
Your break-even ROAS tells you the minimum return you need on your ad spend to not lose money. It’s calculated by dividing 1 by your gross profit margin.
So if your margin is 50 percent, your break-even ROAS is 2.0. That means for every $1 you spend on ads, you need to make $2 in sales just to break even.
For example, let’s say you’re running Facebook Ads and spending $1,000 on a campaign. If your break-even ROAS is 2.0, you need to generate at least $2,000 in revenue to avoid losing money. Anything above that is profit. Anything below that eats into your cash.
Once you know your numbers, you can reverse-engineer your ad strategy instead of throwing money into the void and hoping for results. For instance, if your AOV is low (say $25), you might struggle to profit from ads unless you have a very low COGS or high conversion rates. In that case, you might want to:
On the other hand, if your AOV is $150 and your margins are strong, you have more room to compete in ad auctions, bid more aggressively, and test multiple audiences and creatives without instantly wiping out your profit.
A lot of beginner advertisers focus entirely on immediate return from ads. That’s understandable – but short-sighted. If you’re breaking even or slightly losing on the first sale, that might still be a smart move if you’re building long-term customer relationships.
That’s where Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) comes in. If you know that your average customer places three orders a year, each worth $60, then their LTV is $180. If you spend $40 to acquire that customer with your first ad, but earn $140 more over the next 12 months, that ad was extremely profitable in the long run.
Top e-commerce brands build their paid strategies around LTV-to-CAC ratio – how much they earn over time compared to what they paid to acquire the customer.
A healthy ratio is usually 3:1 or higher. So if you’re spending $50 to acquire a customer, you want to earn at least $150 from that customer over time.
Once you understand your numbers, you can plan your ad spend with precision. You’ll know exactly:
Let’s say you want to make $5,000 in profit this month, and your product has a 50 percent gross margin. That means you need $10,000 in sales. If your target ROAS is 2.5, you can spend up to $4,000 in ad spend to hit that goal. With those numbers in hand, you now have a roadmap for campaign budgeting, not just a shot in the dark.
Every ad platform has strengths. But if you try to use them all at once, you’ll burn through your budget without learning much. Instead, pick one or two that align best with your business model and customer behavior.
If you’re selling visually appealing products like apparel, skincare, or home goods, platforms like Instagram and TikTok can deliver strong returns – especially with the right creative. If you’re focused on high-intent buyers, Google Search and Shopping Ads are goldmines. And if you’re targeting professionals or B2B retail buyers, LinkedIn may offer surprising results.
Test channels strategically. Start with the one that matches where your customers spend their time and scale from there. The best platform for you is the one where your ideal customers are already shopping, scrolling, or searching.
One of the biggest mistakes retailers make is casting too wide a net. You don’t want everyone to see your ad – you want the right people to see it.
On Google, this means targeting high-intent keywords that signal buying behavior. Focus on terms like “buy,” “best,” “free shipping,” or product-specific searches. On Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, you’ll want to dial in your custom audiences using demographic data, lookalikes, interests, and behavior.
Don’t forget retargeting. Most people won’t buy the first time they visit your site, but retargeting brings them back when they’re ready. Set up ads that follow people who viewed a product, added to cart, or engaged with your brand but didn’t check out.
The more relevant your targeting, the more efficient your spend and the higher your return.
Creative is the make-or-break factor in most e-commerce ad campaigns. You can have perfect targeting and the right product, but if your ad doesn’t grab attention in the first two seconds, it won’t convert.
Your creative needs to do three things quickly:
Use high-quality product photos or videos. Show your product in action. Highlight a clear benefit or solve a specific problem. Incorporate customer reviews or user-generated content to build trust.
For paid social, test multiple creatives at once – video vs. image, UGC vs. branded, short-form vs. long-form – and let performance data guide your iterations. On search platforms like Google, focus on copy that’s compelling and packed with relevant keywords. Test different headlines and descriptions to see what gets the best click-through rate.
Sending paid traffic to your homepage is a rookie mistake. You want every click to land on a page that’s designed to convert. That means fast load times, mobile optimization, and a clear call-to-action.
If you’re promoting a specific product, send users to that product page and not your full catalog. If you’re offering a bundle or a seasonal deal, create a dedicated landing page with copy, visuals, and layout tailored to that offer.
Remove distractions. Reduce friction. Make it stupid-easy for people to buy. The less effort it takes, the more sales you’ll see. And don’t forget to A/B test. Sometimes a simple tweak to your headline or CTA can double your conversion rate overnight.
Once your ads are live, your job isn’t done. In fact, this is where it really begins. You need to monitor performance regularly, looking at more than just the surface-level metrics.
Click-through rate (CTR) tells you how well your ad is capturing attention. Conversion rate shows how well your landing page is sealing the deal. ROAS tells you how profitable your campaign is. And CPA helps you compare efficiency across different products or audiences.
Watch for early indicators of success – or failure.
Treat your campaigns like living systems. Tweak, test, and improve them continuously.
Once you find a winning combination – an ad, offer, and audience that works – it’s time to scale. Increase your budget gradually while keeping an eye on performance. Scaling too fast can tank your results, so go step by step.
Duplicate high-performing campaigns to test new audiences or creatives. Experiment with upsells, bundles, or time-limited offers to increase AOV. Layer in email or SMS marketing to retarget paid traffic and drive repeat sales.
And just as importantly, don’t be afraid to kill underperforming ads. If something isn’t working after a reasonable test period, cut it. Your budget should be flowing to what works – not what you hope will work.
One of the biggest mistakes in paid advertising is chasing one-off sales without thinking about the bigger picture. Winning e-commerce brands think in terms of customer lifetime value.
If your first sale breaks even, that’s fine. (As long as you have a plan to turn that customer into a repeat buyer. ) You can use post-purchase emails, loyalty programs, and retargeting ads to bring people back.
At the end of the day, when you view paid ads as the beginning of a customer relationship – not the end – you unlock real long-term profitability. And at PPC.co, that’s where we want to help you! We offer industry-leading PPC management services for ecommerce and retail brands who want to stop wasting ad spend and start generating real ROI.
Contact us today to learn more!
