My campaign is not live yet
You clicked Launch in the campaign wizard and saw the Campaign created message, but the campaign is not serving impressions. The most likely reason is that Google is still reviewing it. Most new campaigns clear review in under a day. The causes below run from most to least likely. The campaign's status in Google Ads tells you which one you are in.
It is still in Google's review queue
Every new campaign goes through Google's automated review before it serves. Most reviews finish in under a day. Some take up to two business days. Check the campaign's status column in Google Ads:
- Eligible. Approved and live. If it is eligible but showing zero impressions, see "It is approved but getting no impressions" below.
- Under review. Google is still reviewing. Wait. Do not edit the campaign. Edits restart the review.
- Limited. Approved but restricted (to specific countries or audiences). Click it for the details.
- Disapproved or rejected. See Ad copy or sitelinks rejected by Google.
It is approved but getting no impressions
The campaign is eligible but no one has seen the ad yet. The usual cause is that your budget or bid is too low to win auctions. Work through these:
Budget too low to compete
If your daily budget is small relative to the cost per click in your keyword cluster, you will win few auctions or none. A cluster with a $5 average CPC that runs on a $5 daily budget gets one click on a good day and zero on most. The daily budget comes from the monthly budget on the Launch button, for example Launch at $500 a month. Google Ads gets the monthly budget divided by 30.4, rounded down to the cent (or to a whole unit in currencies that Google Ads takes without cents, such as yen and won): $16.44 a day for $500 a month. The wizard recommends the monthly budget from the cluster that you chose, and you can change it before you launch.
Compare the daily budget with the top of page bid range of the campaign's keywords. To get the bid ranges, paste the keywords into Hero AI and ask for their search volume. Hero AI returns Google's top of page bid range for each keyword. To raise the budget, ask Hero AI. Name the campaign and the new daily amount. Then click Approve and apply on the card. You can also edit the budget in Google Ads. See Set your monthly budget.
Bid too low for the keywords
The wizard launches a Search campaign on Maximize clicks or Maximize conversions. With both strategies, Google sets the bids, so the campaign has no max CPC bid to raise.
Earlier versions of the wizard also offered Manual CPC and Enhanced CPC. A campaign launched on either of them runs on Manual CPC, and each ad group starts at a max CPC of 1.00 in your account currency. That max CPC is often too low to win auctions. The same applies after you switch any campaign to Manual CPC, in Google Ads or through Hero AI: each ad group needs a max CPC high enough to win auctions. In Google Ads, a max CPC that is too low often shows as "limited by bid."
For a campaign on Manual CPC:
- Raise the ad group's max CPC in Google Ads. Hero AI cannot change max CPC bids on existing ad groups or keywords.
- Or ask Hero AI to switch the campaign to Maximize clicks. You approve the change on a card.
Keywords too narrow
A keyword cluster can be valid but very low volume. A handful of searches a month means most days have zero traffic even with a healthy budget. If you have waited a week with little to no impressions, ask Hero AI to add more keywords to the ad group, or add them in Google Ads. Or create a new campaign from a broader seed keyword.
Ad strength too low
Google rates each ad's strength as Poor, Average, Good, or Excellent. Ad strength alone does not stop an ad from serving. Google does not use ad strength for Ad Rank, Quality Score, or the auction. Ad strength is a checklist of the number and variety of your headlines and descriptions, so Average or Good is fine.
Pins can lower ad strength. A campaign from the wizard pins every headline: keyword headlines to position 1, benefit headlines to position 2, and CTA headlines to position 3. So its ad can show Poor or Average ad strength with 15 headlines. On a pinned ad, a low score does not always mean weak copy. Look at the click-through rate before you change the copy.
On an ad without pins, Poor ad strength usually means that the ad has few headlines, or headlines that are too similar. That can lower click-through rate and relevance, and those affect how often your ad wins. Poor ad strength is worth a fix when the headlines do not cover the keywords of the ad group, or when the ad has too few headlines. Ask Hero AI for new ad copy for the affected ad group. The Ad Copy Agent writes 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Do not unpin lines or add keyword variants only to raise the score. See How Hero AI reads ad strength.
When you click Approve and apply, Hero AI updates the existing ad or creates a new responsive search ad. An updated ad stays live. A new ad starts paused, and the card says Responsive search ad N created as paused. Enable it when ready. To start the new ad, ask Hero AI to enable it, or enable it in Google Ads. To reverse the change, click Undo on the card. Undo puts an updated ad back as it was and removes a new ad. See Check your ad.
Landing page or final URL problem
If the landing page URL is broken, redirects unexpectedly, or fails Google's quality check, the ad will not serve. Open the URL directly and confirm it loads, does not redirect to an unrelated page, and matches Google's policies.
It is serving but not the impressions I expected
The campaign is running, just not the way you intended. Check the targeting in Google Ads:
- Wrong location. Confirm geo targeting is set by physical location, not just by interest.
- Wrong language. Campaigns from the wizard target English only. If your audience speaks another language, change the language in Google Ads.
- Wrong device. Google serves on all devices by default. Adjust device modifiers in Google Ads if you need to.
It has been eligible for days with zero impressions
The campaign might show "Eligible" for more than 48 hours with zero impressions, even after you check budget, bids, and ad strength. If so, the remaining cause is usually specific to your account or Google Ads setup. Email support@heromarketer.io with the campaign name and what you have already checked.