An ad can be switched off, blocked by policy, alive but losing every auction, or showing perfectly well to everyone except you. Each of those has its own signal in the account, and the account will tell you which one it is — in a status column, not in a search box. The order below goes from the checks that end the question immediately to the ones that need judgement.
Delivery can be stopped at the account, the campaign, the ad or the keyword — and each level has its own wording. Start at the account: Google lists a suspended account or a billing problem among the reasons nothing runs at all. Then the ad itself: Under review means it is still being checked, usually within one business day; Eligible means it complies with policy; Eligible (limited) means it runs with restrictions, for example around trademarks or gambling; Disapproved means it will get no impressions until the violation is fixed, and hovering over the status shows which policy it broke; Not eligible usually means the campaign or ad group above it is paused, removed, ended or still scheduled.
Eligible is not the same as serving: it says the ad may enter auctions, not that it wins any
A fixed disapproval goes back for review, and the status changes only after that review passes
Check the dates: a campaign that ended, or has not started, reports no traffic rather than an error
A keyword that reads Low search volume is tied to very little search traffic; Google keeps it inactive until that traffic rises and re-checks about once a week, so the fix is usually a broader match type or a phrasing people actually use rather than deleting it. Rarely shown due to low Quality Score and Below first page bid estimate both point at the auction rather than at policy. If the keywords are fine and the ad is eligible, the problem is one level further down — in the auction itself.
Ad Rank is the set of values that decides whether an ad is eligible to show and where on the page it appears. It combines the bid, the quality of the ad and the landing page, the Ad Rank thresholds, how competitive the auction is, the context of the search — location, device, time, the search terms, the other ads on the page — and the expected effect of your assets and formats. The thresholds are the floor: Google sets them dynamically for every auction from factors including ad quality and the position on the page, and they vary with the person's location and device. An ad under the threshold does not appear at any bid, which is why raising the bid alone often changes nothing.
Google's own list of reasons a campaign does not run or gets little traffic includes low budget, bid targets too low to enter many auctions, targeting narrowed by every added layer, campaigns in the same account competing in the same auctions, and — for automated bidding — not enough conversion data to optimise with. Low Ad Strength belongs on the list too: Google says it can reduce Ad Rank and limit impressions. If the campaign is Performance Max, our guide to a campaign that will not spend covers the same ground from the budget side, and conversion tracking explains the measurement half.
Account and billing first, then campaign status and dates, then the ad status, then the keyword status, then the ad preview and diagnosis tool for the exact search you care about. Only when all of those are clean does it make sense to talk about bids, budget and quality — and then the question changes from “why is nothing showing” to “why are we losing these auctions”, which is a different piece of work. Write down what you changed and when, because delivery reacts with a delay and reports can take hours to settle.
Accuracy check: reviewed against current Google Ads Help documentation on 26 September 2026.
Not necessarily. Google says the ad preview and diagnosis tool is preferable to searching yourself, because your own searches add impressions without clicks and affect your statistics, while a live search reflects your history, location and device. Use the tool, then confirm with the impressions and clicks in the account.
Eligible means the ad complies with policy, not that it wins auctions. Look one level down at the keyword status, which can read Low search volume, Rarely shown due to low Quality Score or Below first page bid estimate, and at the Ad Rank thresholds the auction sets.
Google describes Ad Rank thresholds as what determines your ability to compete in an auction. They are set dynamically for each auction from factors including ad quality, the position on the page, and the person's location and device. An ad below the threshold does not show, whatever the bid.
Not immediately. Google says such a keyword is tied to very little search traffic and stays inactive until that traffic rises, and that it re-checks about once a week. You can wait, broaden the match type, or find a higher-volume phrasing in Keyword Planner.
Yes, and it is the first thing to rule out. Google lists a suspended account or a billing problem among the reasons nothing serves. No campaign-level change helps until that is resolved.
Everything you need to run Search yourself is here. Search is also where budgets leak fastest — and the channel we are strongest in, so we can take the account from here.
Ask us to run it
