Leads or orders are down, and the first reaction is understandable: “The ads aren’t working.” Sometimes that’s true. But more often the cause is simpler and sits close by: the account balance ran out, the website form broke, nobody called a customer back, a product went out of stock. The ads have nothing to do with it, and an argument with your contractor won’t fix any of it.
Below are seven places to check first. Each takes from a minute to an hour. Most don’t need access to the ad account, and where they do, we say which menu item to open. We checked the menu names against Google’s help pages in English in October 2026; depending on the interface version they may differ slightly.
1. Money in the account
What it is. If you top up the account manually (you transfer money in advance), ads run while the funds last. According to Google’s help, when the payment is used up, your ads will stop running. If money is charged to a card and the bank declines the payment, Google may suspend your ads. Some accounts keep running for a short while after a decline so you can fix it, but don’t count on that.
What it risks. Ads are off and you don’t notice: everything in the account looks “set up”, there’s just nothing being shown. Lost days can’t be recovered.
Ask: what is the balance right now, how many days will it last, and is there a backup payment method?
Where to look. The “Billing” menu in Google Ads. The payment settings themselves: Billing → Settings. We wrote separately about how much to keep in the account in our article on the account balance.
2. The website and the contact form
What it is. Open your site on a phone, the way a customer would, go through the path to an order or enquiry, and submit a test request.
What it risks. After a site, plugin or hosting update, a form can quietly stop sending. Ads bring people in, they press “Submit”, and nothing reaches you. The account shows clicks but no leads, and it looks as if the ads are to blame.
Ask: when did someone last check that a form submission reaches the email, messenger or CRM?
Where to look. Your own phone, your own site, a test request marked “test”. Check both the inbox and the place where requests are supposed to land. While you’re at it, see how fast the page opens: if it’s slow, some people will leave without waiting.
One more trap: broken tracking. The opposite happens too: leads keep coming in, but the account shows zero, because after a site change the code that reports a lead to Google Ads broke. The ads may be working fine while the report makes it look like a failure. So before changing the budget or settings, compare the account’s numbers with what actually arrived: email, CRM, call log.
3. The phone
What it is. For many businesses (car repair shops, clinics, salons, construction services) the main “lead” is a phone call. How many calls were missed last week, and did anyone call back?
What it risks. A person who called and couldn’t get through calls the next business in the search results. You paid for the click, and the customer went to a competitor. On top of that, Google Ads in Ukraine doesn’t count calls from ads by itself, so these losses don’t show in the account.
Ask: how many calls were missed last week and who is responsible for them? If there’s no answer, it is in the statistics of your phone provider or virtual PBX.
Where to look. The call log on the phone or PBX, missed calls for the last 7 days. Count which ones were called back and how fast.
4. Disapproved ads and products
What it is. Google can stop showing an ad or a product if it breaks the rules. For an ad, the status is “Disapproved”: according to Google’s help, a disapproved ad will not receive impressions. For online store products in Merchant Center there is the status “Not approved”, and a product with that status can’t be shown on Google.
What it risks. An ad or a whole group of products quietly disappears while the rest of the campaign keeps running. Impressions fall, and you can’t see why without looking at statuses.
Ask: are there disapproved ads or products, and does anyone check the statuses once a week?
Where to look. Ads: Campaigns → Ads → the “Status” column. Products: Merchant Center → “Products” → the “Needs attention” tab. For how we work with online stores, see the Shopping and Merchant Center sections.
5. Season
What it is. In many niches demand moves with the seasons and the calendar: summer versus winter, the run-up to holidays and the weeks after. A drop that looks like “the ads broke” may be an ordinary seasonal dip.
What it risks. If you compare with the previous month, any seasonal dip looks like a disaster. And a contractor who gets blamed spends time justifying themselves instead of working.
Ask: how does this week compare with the same week last year?
Where to look. In Google Ads reports, pick a period and compare it with the same period a year earlier. Do the same with sales in your CRM or accounting program. If you weren’t advertising last year, look at your own sales without ads. On preparing for peak season, see our article on Black Friday.
6. Prices and availability
What it is. A competitor cut a price or launched a promotion, or your best-selling product ran out, or the service people ask for most often is no longer available.
What it risks. The ads may be working while the customer leaves: what they need isn’t on your site, or it’s cheaper next door. In that situation raising the budget makes no sense, it will only increase your spending.
Ask: what is the availability of top products, and have prices changed compared with your main competitors?
Where to look. Open Google search and type in, by hand, the queries people use to find you. Look at competitors’ prices and offers, then go through stock levels for your most popular items.
For stores on Prom.ua. According to specialists’ reports in July 2026, when the ProSale balance (the one Prom deducts order fees from) runs out, the “Buy” button can disappear from the product page. The ads keep bringing people in, but they can’t buy, and in Google Ads it looks like a campaign failure. Log in to your Prom account and check the balance; the platform’s terms change, so go by its help pages.
The price in Google and on your site. If you changed a price on the site but Merchant Center still has the old one, the product can be disapproved: the price on the product page, in the cart and in the product file (the feed) has to match. According to Ukrainian Merchant Center specialists, mismatched prices are among the most common causes of product problems.
7. What changed in the last two weeks
What it is. A list of every change with dates: on the site, in prices, in the ads. A drop rarely comes from nowhere; it usually starts a day or two after some change.
What it risks. If nobody keeps a record of changes, the cause can’t be found: everyone remembers it differently. A new version of the site, a moved page, a price change, a new bidding strategy in the account, and nobody connects it with the drop.
Ask: what was changed on the site, in prices and in the ads over the last two weeks, and exactly when?
Where to look. In Google Ads: the “Campaigns” menu → “Change history”. According to Google’s help, it keeps changes made to the account, campaigns and ad groups over the last two years, and shows who changed what and when. Ask whoever runs the site for site changes. Make a list with dates and lay it over the chart of leads.
Don’t rush to roll back. If you recently switched on a new automatic feature (for example AI Max, which widens search ads to similar queries), it needs time to learn, and a short dip during that period is often normal. Specialists advise leaving such campaigns alone for 2-4 weeks: hasty edits break the learning. Google gives no official figure: its help mentions a benchmark of about 50 conversions or 3 conversion cycles (the path from click to order) for the algorithm to adjust to a new goal, sometimes faster. Hence “2-4 weeks” is practitioners’ experience, not a Google number; if leads are few, 50 conversions take longer. So first compare the date of the drop with the date of the change, and only then decide whether to wait or roll back.
Summary: a short list instead of an argument
Before you demand explanations from your contractor, go through seven points:
- What about the money in the account and the payment method?
- Does a test request from the form arrive?
- How many calls were missed and were they returned?
- Are there disapproved ads or products?
- How does this period compare with the same period last year?
- What about competitors’ prices and availability?
- What changed over two weeks, and when exactly?
If every point has an answer and there are still no leads, the conversation with your contractor will be concrete: you have already ruled out the simple causes. One more quick way to check is the three steps from our article on spending. To see how we set up campaigns, go to the search advertising and Performance Max sections.
Want a free audit of your Google Ads account? Send us a request: we will look at your account and tell you where your leads are getting lost.