App campaign performance fluctuations: Account issues
Payments, billing transfers, or account security reviews can stop your ads from serving or reduce your impressions.
Billing and payment issues
Review your Billing Summary or Transactions page to make sure your account balance is healthy and your payment method is valid.
- Outstanding or depleted balance: If you use manual payments, ensure that you have sufficient funds. For automatic payments, resolve any declined transactions. You may contact your bank or update your payment method.
- Payment method changes: When you transition between payment methods (for example, from manual payments to monthly invoicing), it causes a temporary serving delay of 24–48 hours. Verify that your new billing profile is "Active" and you confirmed any "Change Who Pays" approval emails. Review if Google applied a temporary spending limit of 0 during the transition. Google typically lifts these automatically within 24 hours.
- Security verifications: Complete any mandatory security verifications if a red notification banner (like "Verify now" or "Fix") appears in your account.
After you clear the balance or process the update, ads typically resume serving automatically within 24–48 hours.
Account and campaign performance factors
If your billing is in good standing but your ads still aren't serving or you have limited performance, consider these factors:
- Account security reviews: Google frequently reviews new or dormant accounts, which may result in a temporary daily spending limit. Complete all advertiser identity verification steps. Google typically adjusts these reviews within 3–5 business days. Avoid making billing or budget changes during this time.
- Learning phase and bidding: The “learning phase”, which usually lasts 7–14 days, begins when you implement a new bidding strategy, like Target CPA or Maximize Conversions, or apply significant budget changes. Make sure conversion tracking is active and "Recording conversions," and that your targets are realistic based on historical data. Avoid further modifications during this period.
- Policy and asset status: Go to the Policy Manager or Ads and assets tab to look for "Disapproved" or "Eligible (Limited)" statuses. Fix flagged assets, such as non-functioning landing pages (404 errors) or incorrect formats.
- Targeting and Auction Insights: Use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool to identify why ads aren't appearing for specific keywords. Review if targeting is too narrow or if competitor activity (visible in Auction Insights) or low Ad Rank is causing you to lose impression share. Also, review if your status is "Limited by budget."
What you can do
Check your Google Ads Billing page to make sure there are no issues that would prevent the account from serving.
Need something else?
Check other common reasons why your campaign performance is fluctuating.
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