Google Ads dead overnight - help?!

olivia-roas

Had a Google Search campaign run smoothly for 4 months, generating leads consistently. Then day before yesterday: around a dozen clicks, nearly 100 impressions. Yesterday: 0 clicks, 60 impressions. Today: nothing - zero impressions, zero clicks. Campaign status says 'Eligible (Limited)'. Diagnostics show 'Enhanced conversions has setup issues impacting performance' and 'Target CPA is set too low to get conversions'.

Current setup: Search campaign, Maximise Conversions with Target CPA, about $14/day budget. conversion tracking tracks WhatsApp clicks and phone calls. No disapproved ads, campaign enabled.

Google recommends increasing Target CPA. broken conversion tracking could also kill impressions, right? Thinking of removing Target CPA temporarily or switching to Maximise Clicks. Anyone dealt with this? Is it purely the Target CPA being too restrictive or something else?

noahcontent

Remove target CPA as test.

marketingmule

Set your target CPA higher. Something might have pushed up the floor price-either a rival bidding more aggressively or something in your account that's triggered Google to penalise you. Any other alerts showing? Low quality score, landing page issues, that kind of thing?

miaaffiliate

Drop the target CPA or leave it blank. That's your fix

chatbox

That "Eligible (Limited)" flag combined with an enhanced conversions error is almost always the culprit. i've seen it dozens of times - it tells Google's bidding engine it can't trust your conversion data, so Maximise Conversions with a target CPA just freezes up. Here's how I'd approach it:

fix the enhanced conversions setup first. head into your Google tag (assuming you're using GTM) and verify the email or phone field is actually being passed correctly. A mismatch in the parameter name or a missing user‑provided data variable will kill the signal.
Then remove the target CPA entirely. Let the campaign run on Maximise Conversions alone for 5-7 days to rebuild the learning phase. $14/day is really tight for target CPA bidding anyway - giving it more flexibility for a week usually gets things moving again.
if impressions don't recover within 48 hours after fixing the tag, check whether a recent landing page change triggered a policy flag. That's an easy one to miss

dailygrind

Pause the tCPA and switch to maximise conversions without a target until you fix enhanced conversions. that solved it for us.

wordweaver

Oh, the classic 'everything was fine for three months and now Google's gone on strike' situation. Love that for you.

First off - did you touch anything? Even a tiny bid tweak or a landing page update can send the algorithm into a sulk. Speaking of which, check your landing page hasn't suddenly turned into a 404 or a slow-loading mess.

Removing tCPA was the right shout. If that doesn't wake things up, you've got options. Could switch to maximise clicks, sure, but personally I'd go manual CPC and see what the minimum bids look like. Are they laughing at your budget? That $14 CPC threshold - is it still reasonable, or has a new deep-pocketed competitor waltzed in and ruined the neighbourhood?

Loads of things to dig through. Just don't panic-click everything at once - Google Ads smells fear.

ctrjunkie

Mate, I've been there - campaign running smooth for months then BAM, flatline. Proper frustrating.

that "eligible (limited)" status plus those two diagnostics is actually a massive clue. If enhanced conversions aren't firing right, that'll choke delivery every time. And if your Target CPA is set way below what Google actually needs to get conversions, it'll just stop serving to stop you wasting budget.

Here's what I'd do: pause the campaign, fix the enhanced conversions setup - make sure the tag's actually firing on your thank-you page. Then check your real cost per conversion from the last month. If your Target CPA is a lot lower than that, Google literally can't get conversions at that price so it gives up.

Try setting your Target CPA to about 1.2x your actual historical cost per conversion for a couple of days. See if impressions come back. then slowly drop it once delivery's stable. Google needs to see it can actually get conversions before it'll trust a lower target.

also, double-check no negative keywords sneaked in, or recent changes to location or ad schedules. Small innocent tweaks can tank delivery when bidding's already struggling.

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What's your actual cost per conversion been running over the last month? That'll tell us if the CPA target's truly too low or if something else is off

olivia-roas

Mate, drop that Target CPA right now and switch to Maximise Clicks or even Maximise Conversions. Google's algorithm gets locked into a stupid loop after a few months - it's like the machine just gives up. Seen this happen on multiple accounts. blast it with Max Clicks for 48 hours to wake the hell up, then reintroduce a CPA floor if you must. Don't overthink it - the algo needs a kick in the arse.

ethan-pr

I manage several agency accounts myself, and the auto-apply features Google quietly enables are a nightmare - easily half the reason campaigns suddenly flatline. a colleague caught a sneaky budget cap change last month that would've drained a client's daily spend for days before anyone noticed.

The other culprit is usually one of those "helpful" recommendations that gets auto-accepted without anyone catching it in time. Always worth checking those settings first

noahcontent

keep max conv. but remove tcpa