Why Google Ads Approved but No Impressions? How to Fix?

Google Ads approved but no impressions? Google ads campaign eligible but not running is frustrating. Low ad quality, limited budget, targeting problems, or tough competition may be the main reasons. Review ad quality, adjust budget, fix targeting, and analyze competition. Mega Digital is here to help you optimize for better results!

What is Google Ads are eligible but no impressions?

If you have recently enabled your Search campaign, it might require some time before it begins displaying impressions. Several factors contribute to this:

• Ads that are newly created or edited undergo a review process that typically takes 24-48 hours to ensure they comply with all policy requirements.
• If your campaign uses automated bidding strategies, there might be fluctuations in performance or changes in expenditure as Google Ads learns to optimize according to your specified objective.
• If you make alterations to your campaign settings, it may take Google Ads some time to adjust how ads are delivered.

Try the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool, it assists you in determining the reason behind a specific search term not being displayed. Keep in mind that the search results provided by these tools can change over time.

Top 10 reasons why Google Ads approved but not running

To answer the question: “Why are my Google Ads not getting impressions?”, examine the most 10 common causes that Mega Digital has discovered while running ads for over 1000 clients.

1. Billing issues

• If you pay through monthly invoicing, review your account budgets. If your campaign costs reach the specified amount in the account budget before the set end date, all ads in the account will cease running. In this case, you need to create and modify an account budget.
• Check the “Billing Summary” or “Transactions” pages for any declined payments. Your account may be paused until the outstanding balance is settled.

2. Campaign date ranges

When you choose a specific date range, Google Ads provides you with performance data for that selected period. Your campaign will not display impressions beyond the date range during which it has been active.

What to do:

Ensure that the selected date range encompasses both the start and end dates of your campaign by following these steps:

• Sign in to your Google Ads account.
• Navigate to the Campaigns tab.
• Click on the date range drop-down menu, located above the statistics table.
• Select “Custom” from the options.
• In the calendar pop-up, choose the start date and end date of your campaign.
• Click “Apply” to confirm the date range.

3. Low bid targets & optimization goals

If you set a very low bid for your ads, it’s unlikely that your campaign will participate or succeed in many auctions, resulting in a lack of impressions for your ads. When using Smart Bidding and setting targets based on CPA or ROAS without considering past performance, this can restrict the effectiveness of your strategy, potentially leading to your campaign not serving at all.

Mega Digital offers Google advertising services that excel in optimizing bids. If you encounter challenges in this area, seek guidance from the experts at Mega Digital for assistance.

What to do:

• Ensure your campaign’s optimization strategy aligns with your goals.
• Consider if your manual or automated bidding targets are achievable based on historical performance. For Smart bidding, adjust CPA or ROAS targets to higher bids and potentially increase impressions.

4. Low budget

When you have a low budget, your ads may have limited serving as Google Ads aims to prevent exceeding your spending limit. Your campaign status might appear as “Eligible (Limited)” indicating under-serving or non-serving due to budget constraints.

What to do:

• Check the budget report to gain insights into your campaign’s spending compared to the average daily budget. This will help you understand the impact on performance and spending limits.

To access the budget report in your Google Ads account, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Campaigns icon.
2. In the section menu, select the Campaigns drop-down option.
3. Click on Campaigns.
4. Hover over your campaign’s budget in the “Budget” column or click the pencil/edit icon to view a window displaying your average daily budget. You can make changes to the average daily budget and save them.
5. You can also review recommendations to improve your return on ad spend (ROAS).
6. To view the budget report, click on “View budget report.” This will redirect you to the “Budget report” page.

• Consider increasing your budget to ensure your campaign has sufficient funds to run consistently throughout the day. These are what you can do to overcome Google Ads approved but no impressions issues.

5. Too narrow targeting

Targeting settings assist in reaching the specific audience interested in your business. However, it’s important to note that each time you add targeting or encounter issues with remarketing lists, the potential reach of your ads becomes more limited.

What to do:

• Keywords:

If your Search campaign is unable to run, it may be because you are only targeting a small list of low search volume keywords. To resolve this, optimize your keyword list for better performance by:

• Adding negative keywords to control costs and ensure your ads appear only for desired search terms.
• Checking the search terms report and gaining insights into the search queries that led people to see and click on your ad.
• Using keyword match types to control the audience that views your ads.
• Audience targeting:

If the number of users on your audience list falls below Google’s requirements, your campaign may not be able to serve. Ensure that your audience size meets the necessary criteria for effective targeting.

• Location targeting:

Targeting a single postal code, a small radius, or a low-population city can restrict the reach of your campaign or prevent it from serving altogether. Here’s how to effectively target ads to specific geographic locations for better results:

1. Go to the Campaigns tab.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Scroll down to the “Locations” section.
4. Edit or add locations where you want your ads to appear.
5. Exclude any locations you want to avoid.
6. Save your settings and monitor performance for adjustments.

6. Overlap targeting

If you have multiple campaigns or ad groups with similar targeting, there may be overlapping auctions where one campaign receives most of the traffic. This might be the reason why Google Ads is eligible but not running.

What to do:

Review your campaign’s targeting and adjust it to avoid overlap with other campaigns in your account. By refining your targeting, you can distribute traffic more effectively across your campaigns. Follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. Navigate to the Campaigns tab.
3. Select the campaign you want to review.
4. Click on the Settings tab for that campaign.
5. Evaluate the targeting options such as keywords, demographics, locations, and audience settings.
6. Identify any areas where you may want to make adjustments or refine your targeting.
7. To make changes, click on the Edit button next to the specific targeting option you wish to modify.
8. Make the necessary updates to your targeting settings.
9. Save your changes.

7. Lost impression share

Impression share data, particularly Lost Search IS (ad rank), reveals the percentage of time your ads were not displayed on the Search Network due to ad rank in the auction.

What to do:

To reduce ad rank, enhance your ad quality and adjust your bids. It’s important to note that impression share data might not be available if your campaign did not generate sufficient traffic.

Learn more about Google Ad Rank to understand why Google Ads are approved but no impressions.

8. Conversion tracking

If your campaign uses Automated bidding to optimize for conversions but is experiencing limited ad serving, it could be due to insufficient conversion data or incorrect conversion tracking setup.

What to do:

• Use the Conversion tracking status troubleshooter to verify and ensure the accuracy of your conversion tracking setup.
• Evaluate the historical performance of your targeted conversion action to ensure it happens frequently enough to be utilized effectively for Automated bidding.

9. Ad Quality

Ad quality refers to the user experience when viewing your Search ads. Higher ad quality typically results in better performance, including improved ad positions and lower costs. Different indicators of quality may exist depending on the ad type. For instance, the Ad Strength metric can be used to assess the quality of Responsive Search Ads. Google establishes specific quality thresholds through Ad Rank to ensure ads meet the required level of quality.

What to do:

• Evaluate your Quality Score at the keyword level. A higher Quality Score indicates that your ad and landing page are more relevant and valuable to users searching for your keyword compared to other advertisers.

• By reviewing and improving your quality score, you can enhance the overall quality and performance of your ads in Google Ads.

>>> Read more: What Is Google Ads Quality Score and How to Increase It

10. Auction Dynamics

The presence of other advertisers participating in the same auctions as your campaign can impact the serving of your ads. When a new advertiser enters these auctions, it can influence the number of impressions your ads receive.

What to do:

To understand how your campaign is performing compared to others in these auctions, you can use the Auction Insights report. This report provides valuable information that can help you make decisions about how much to bid and how much budget to allocate for your ads. By analyzing the Auction insights report, you can optimize your campaign’s performance and stay competitive in the auctions.

>>> Read more: Google Ads Auction Insights: Basic Guide for Higher Ad Rank

Discover the top 10 reasons why Google Ads’ status is eligible but not running and generating impressions. Mega Digital aims to provide you with the answers to help resolve your concerns.

Final word

Our article has shown you all the common reasons Google Ads approved but no impressions and solutions to this issue. If you’re facing difficulties with Google Ads and finding it challenging to handle on your own, Mega Digital is here to offer exceptional Google Advertising services.