What to do when Google Ads performance decreases

Facing a decline in Google Ads performance? Don’t panic.
There’s a step-by-step framework that will help you regain control, establish clear communication with stakeholders, and optimize campaigns without making chaotic moves.

Every PPC specialist knows this scenario: you open the account, and the numbers are slowly but surely trending downward.
Dashboards are showing red indicators, the pressure is rising, and management expects answers.

It’s important to understand: declining results aren’t just a figure in a report or one bad day. It’s a trend forming over weeks, impacting the business and raising more and more questions within the team.

The marketer’s job is not just to react, but to explain the situation, propose an action plan, and show the path back to stability.

In this guide, we’ll go through a step-by-step strategy: how to properly analyze the problem, align goals with management or clients, and identify which levers to pull in your advertising account.

Start with diagnostics, not changes

Before rushing into campaign edits, it’s crucial to understand the true cause of the decline.
Drastic moves — relaunching campaigns, adding a large number of new keywords, or changing match types — can actually make things worse.

The same goes for blindly applying all Google’s Recommendations. Following them without analysis rarely leads to success and can sometimes end in disaster.

It’s better to pause, assess the data, and stick to a clear strategy until the root cause is identified.

Define real goals and separate signal from “noise”

Not every drop in metrics means actual performance decline.
A manager may sound the alarm due to falling impressions or website traffic. But often these are secondary indicators, not true business KPIs.

The key question: are your core KPIs dropping — such as ROAS or cost per conversion?
For lead generation accounts: is the number of leads truly going down, or is CPA simply increasing?

If you had a measurement system in place at the start of campaigns, now is the time to revisit it.
Aligning goals with clients or stakeholders helps prevent misunderstandings. Often, a single email is enough to ease unnecessary tension.

Remember: an increase in CPA may be a natural outcome of focusing on lead quality over quantity. A proper measurement framework helps interpret such shifts correctly.

Look at the bigger picture: external factors

When a real decline is confirmed, check beyond the ad account. The problem isn’t always within the campaigns — sometimes it’s the market itself.

• Seasonality: Results fluctuate throughout the year. For example, a rental company will inevitably face lower demand in winter. That’s not an account error but a predictable pattern.
• Promotions: Sharp spikes during sales events and drops afterward are normal dynamics. The “decline” may simply be a return to baseline.
• Competition: Competitors may have lowered prices, launched major promotions, or increased budgets. This impacts performance even if your campaigns stayed the same.
• Market shifts: Demand can decrease due to economic, social, or global factors. Always account for this context in your analysis.

Time to optimize: strategic actions

Start with the biggest budget consumers

Sort campaigns by spend. Analyze those eating up most of the budget first, since they drive overall performance.

Evaluate their contribution to key KPIs. For e-commerce, that’s usually ROAS and conversion cost. For lead generation, focus on CPA and lead volume.

Choose levers based on goals

If ROAS has dropped:

• Adjust bidding — raise target ROAS slightly to make algorithms act more cautiously.
• Reduce budgets — limiting spend while tightening goals often brings ROAS back in line.
• Optimize within campaigns — pause poorly performing keywords or narrow match types.

If revenue per conversion is the goal:

• Reallocate budget to high-revenue campaigns.
• Strengthen winning segments by splitting them into separate campaigns.
• Cut underperformers that don’t significantly contribute to revenue.

For lead generation accounts:

• If lead volume drops: expand reach with new keywords, enable Dynamic Search Ads, loosen match types, and shift budgets toward high-converting campaigns.
• If CPA rises: tighten targeting, add negatives, cut costly keywords, and set stricter CPA targets in Smart Bidding.

Improve ad creatives and landing pages

Once campaign settings are refined, turn to ads and landing pages — the user-facing elements that make or break performance.

• Ad copy: Even with RSAs, you can influence outcomes by analyzing which headlines and descriptions perform best and testing new creative angles.
• Landing pages: The offer must match the ad promise. Pages should be fast, clear, and conversion-focused. A slow or confusing landing page can ruin even the best ad strategy.

As PPC experts like Harrison Jack Hepp emphasize: landing pages aren’t just support — they’re a critical part of paid search strategy.

Balance the funnel

Optimizations often push budgets toward bottom-funnel campaigns, which can improve short-term results but drain the funnel long-term.

Maintain a balance between awareness campaigns and conversion-focused ones. If you also run paid social (Facebook, Instagram), use them to fill the top of the funnel consistently.

Key takeaways

To navigate performance declines in Google Ads confidently, follow this framework:

1. Provide context for the decline.
2. Align goals with stakeholders.
3. Consider external factors.
4. Apply targeted optimizations.

Successful PPC is the combination of strategy and tactics. A structured approach keeps you in control, even when numbers start to slip.

We can set up Google Ads for your business

We create high-performing Google Ads campaigns that reach your target audience and drive measurable results.

Our services include:

• Search Ads — so customers find you when they’re already looking for your product or service.
• Display Ads — to boost awareness and attract new clients.
• Remarketing — to re-engage users who have already shown interest in your offers.
• Performance Max — to scale sales with automation and AI.

Get in touch with us — we’ll set up Google Ads to work for your business and deliver maximum results.

This article available in Ukrainian.