Your Display campaigns may sometimes serve fewer impressions or spend less of their budget than expected. In this article, we’ll outline common reasons why your ads may not be serving, and how you can troubleshoot using the tools in Google Ads.
Before you begin
What to expect when a campaign is enabled
If you recently enabled your Display campaign, it can take some time for your campaign to start serving impressions. There are a few reasons for this:
- It takes 24-48 hours for newly created or edited ads to be reviewed to ensure they meet all policy requirements.
- For campaigns using automated bidding strategies, there may be performance fluctuations or changes in spend as Google Ads optimizes towards your set goal. These strategies require a learning period, so avoid making changes during this time. After making changes to your campaign, allow 1-2 business days or longer for the system to reflect the changes and gather new performance data.
- It may take Google Ads some time to adjust serving if you make changes to your campaign settings.
Recommendations
Recommendations help highlight opportunities to improve performance when your Display campaign is not running or is getting low traffic. For example, you can look out for the following example recommendation types when troubleshooting these issues.
Common recommendation types to fix campaigns not running:
- Campaign hasn’t started or has ended
- Create or unpause an ad group
- Account budget exhausted
- All ads disapproved
Common recommendation types to fix low traffic:
- Adjust your CPA targets
- Raise your budgets
Use diagnostic insights to identify why your campaign isn't serving
Diagnostic insights highlight issues that may be limiting your campaign’s ability to serve. Diagnostic insights also provide recommendations on how to resolve these issues. Learn more About diagnostic insights.
Example: An advertiser hasn’t gained any conversions or traffic after creating a campaign. They use diagnostic insights to discover that their campaign isn’t serving because their assets are disapproved, and views a recommendation to fix these disapproved assets.
If your ad still isn’t receiving any impressions after 2 business days, check the common reasons listed in this article.
12 common reasons why your Display ads are not running or are getting low traffic
1. Account issues
If your account is suspended, or if you have a billing issue on your account, you won’t be able to run your ads until the problem is resolved. Check your account status and billing information to ensure they are in good standing.
Learn more about Account issues.
2. Ad groups, assets, or ads are not active or have policy issues
Even if your campaign is enabled, check to make sure you have active ad groups, assets, or ads within your campaign.
Learn more about Ad groups, assets, or ads are not active or have policy issues.
3. Date ranges and campaign start and end dates
Google Ads shows you performance data for the date range that you select.
Learn more about Date ranges and campaign start and end dates.
4. Auction dynamics
Other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions as you can affect your campaign’s ability to serve.
Learn more about Auction dynamics.
5. Low bid targets and optimization goals
While it may be possible to serve ads with a very low bid, your campaign is not likely to enter or win as many auctions and your ads may not have as many impressions. For new campaigns, consider using "Maximize Clicks" to allow the system to automatically set bids to bring you the most clicks within your budget.
Learn more about Low bid targets and optimization goals.
6. Low budget
When you have a low budget, your ads may not serve as often while Google Ads ensures your campaign doesn't spend more than your spending limit.
Learn more about Low budget.
7. Display Targeting is too narrow
While targeting settings help you find the right set of users most interested in your business, each time you add targeting, you narrow the potential reach of your ads. Review your targeting settings to ensure they align with your business's service area and target audience.
Learn more about Display Targeting is too narrow.
8. Targeting overlaps with other campaigns or ad groups
You may have multiple campaigns or ad groups in your account that are eligible to enter overlapping auctions due to similar keywords or other targeting.
Learn more about Targeting overlaps with other campaigns or ad groups.
9. Conversion tracking
If your campaign is using Automated bidding to optimize towards conversions, but is not getting sufficient conversion data or your conversion tracking is not set up correctly, your ad may have limited serving.
Learn more about Conversion tracking.
10. Low creative asset coverage and diversity (Ad Strength)
If you’re running an asset-based campaign, such as Responsive Display Ads, it’s important to ensure you have a diverse set of creatives across ad formats. Improve your ad strength by including relevant keywords, headlines, and assets to increase the likelihood of your ads being shown.
Learn more about Low creative asset coverage and diversity (Ad Strength).
11. Audience segments are disabled, removed, or revoked
If any of your data audience segments(formerly known as "remarketing lists") are disapproved, you'll view the status of your data segments changed to “Disabled” due to policy violation in your Google Ads account, and you'll receive an email about the issue.
Learn more about Audience segments are disabled, removed, or revoked.
12. Certain features used in campaigns
Your campaign may be paused if:
- You’re using certain features
- Your account doesn't have a good history of policy compliance and positive user engagement.
Learn more about Certain features used in ad campaigns.
Related links
Before you begin
If you recently enabled your campaign or made changes, it may take some time for impressions and traffic to stabilize. Here's what to expect:
- Ad review: New or edited ads take 24-48 hours to be reviewed to ensure they meet all policy requirements.
- Learning period: Campaigns using automated bidding strategies need time to optimize. Avoid making changes during this period. Allow 1-2 business days or longer for the system to adjust and gather new performance data.
Recommendations
Recommendations help highlight opportunities to improve performance when your Display campaign isn't running or has low traffic. Examples of recommendations include the following:
Common recommendation types to fix campaigns not running:
- Campaign hasn’t started or has ended
- Create or unpause an ad group
- Account budget exhausted
- All ads disapproved
Common recommendation types to fix low traffic:
- Adjust your CPA targets
- Raise your budgets
Go to the Recommendations page in your Google Ads account
Use diagnostic insights to identify why your campaign isn't serving.
Diagnostic insights highlight issues that may be limiting your campaign’s ability to serve. Diagnostic insights also provide recommendations on how to resolve these issues. Learn more About diagnostic insights.
For example, if an advertiser hasn’t gained any conversions or traffic after creating a campaign, they can use diagnostic insights to discover that their campaign isn’t serving because their assets are disapproved, and view a recommendation to fix these disapproved assets.
Common reasons your ads aren’t running
The following sections will cover common reasons why your ads may not be running or are experiencing low traffic, along with troubleshooting steps.
1. Account issues
If your account is suspended or has billing issues, your ads won’t run until the problems are resolved.
Learn more about Account issues.
2. Ad groups, assets, or ads aren't active or have policy issues
Even if your campaign is enabled, make sure you have active ad groups, assets, or ads within your campaign.
Learn more about Ad groups, assets, or ads are not active or have policy issues.
3. Date ranges and campaign start and end dates
Google Ads shows you performance data for the date range that you select.
Learn more about Date ranges and campaign start and end dates.
4. Auction dynamics
Other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions as you can affect your campaign’s ability to serve.
Learn more about Auction dynamics.
5. Low bid targets and optimization goals
While it may be possible to serve ads with a very low bid, your campaign is not likely to enter or win as many auctions and your ads may not have as many impressions. For new campaigns, consider using "Maximize Clicks" to allow the system to automatically set bids to bring you the most clicks within your budget.
Learn more about Low bid targets and optimization goals.
6. Display Targeting is too narrow
While targeting settings help you find interested users, each time you add targeting, you narrow the potential reach of your ads. Review your targeting settings to ensure they align with your business and audience.
Learn more about Display Targeting is too narrow.
7. Targeting overlaps with other campaigns or ad groups
You may have multiple campaigns or ad groups that are competing against each other in the same auctions because of similar keyword themes or targeting.
Learn more about Targeting overlaps with other campaigns or ad groups.
8. Conversion tracking
If your campaign is using automated bidding to optimize for conversions, incorrect conversion tracking or insufficient data can limit ad serving.
Learn more about Conversion tracking.
9. Low creative asset coverage and diversity (Ad Strength)
If you’re running an asset-based campaign, such as Responsive Display Ads, it’s important to have a diverse set of creatives across ad formats. Improve your ad strength by including relevant keywords, headlines, and assets to increase the likelihood of your ads being shown.
Learn more about Low creative asset coverage and diversity (Ad Strength).
10. Audience segments are disabled, removed, or revoked
If any of your data audience segments(formerly known as "remarketing lists") are disapproved, the status of your data segments will change to “Disabled” due to policy violation.
Learn more about Audience segments are disabled, removed, or revoked.
11. Certain features used in campaigns
Certain features, or a lack of policy compliance and positive user engagement, can cause your campaign to be paused.
Learn more about Certain features used in ad campaigns.
12. Ad groups paused due to low activity
To improve your advertising experience, Google Ads automatically pauses ad groups that haven't served for a while.
Ad groups are considered low activity if they were created over 13 months ago and have 0 impressions over the past 13 months.
To find or re-enable these ad groups:
From your Notifications
- Click the Notifications icon in the top bar of your Google Ads account.
- Select the notification about low activity ad groups, and click View.
The “Ad groups” page shows a list of paused groups. You can filter paused ad groups based on “Status reason”. Low activity ad groups will have the status “Paused (due to low activity)”.
From the “Ad groups” page
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon.
- Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
- Click Ad groups.
- Click the filter icon and input “Status reason”.
- Check “Ad group paused due to low activity” and click Apply.
To turn on paused ad groups again, follow the instructions in Pause or enable your ad groups.
In Google Ads Editor
Ad groups that are paused due to low activity are visible in Google Ads Editor. To view your paused ad groups, filter by “Paused by system reason” and select Low activity, then click Apply.
It’s strongly recommended that you only unpause ad groups that you believe will receive impressions in the coming weeks. Unpaused ad groups will be automatically paused again if they don’t receive any impressions for 3 months.
13. Your campaign is paused or was removed
Your campaign may be paused or have been removed. For more information, refer to:
Related links
- Fix your website visitor data segments, tags, and ads
- Check the review status of an ad or asset
- Edit your budget for Smart campaigns
- Tips to improve your website
- Write an effective ad for Smart campaigns
- About keyword themes in Smart campaigns
- Edit a Smart campaign
- How ad groups work
- About ad group status