Google Ads clicks but no conversions: what to check, in order

1. Can a conversion be counted at all?

• Open Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Every action you care about must be Primary: only primary actions go into the Conversions column and into bidding. Secondary actions show up only in "All conversions".
• Look at the status next to each action. "Inactive", "Unverified" or "Misconfigured" means the tag is not recording, and the zero is a measuring problem, not a traffic problem.
• Do a test yourself: fill in your own form or complete a test purchase, then check the action a day later. Reporting can take up to 24 to 48 hours.

2. Who is clicking?

Open the search terms report (Campaigns, Insights and reports, Search terms; if your menu hides it, this link opens it directly). It lists what people really typed before clicking. On broad match and AI Max it is often far from your keywords: job seekers, people looking for free versions, people who wanted a different city. Every one of those clicks is paid.

• Sort by cost, highest first.
• Anything with real spend and zero conversions is a candidate for a negative keyword.
• Before you block a term, ask yourself if it could sell. "Plumber jobs" cannot. "Emergency plumber cost" probably can.

3. Does the page do its job?

Only now look at the landing page. The click promised something in the ad: does the page show it in the first screen? Is the form short, and does it work on a phone? Is there a phone number if people prefer to call?

4. Is the bid strategy chasing clicks?

Maximize clicks does what it says: it buys as many clicks as possible within the budget, and it does not look at conversions. If you run it for weeks and conversions never come, the strategy is not wrong, it is doing a different job. Once tracking works, Maximize conversions optimises for the thing you want, but it needs conversion tracking to run.

Doing step 2 in one question

The free search terms check on this site takes the export of the report and flags the terms that spent more than your average cost per conversion without converting. From an AI assistant, Ads MCP does the same on the live account (find_wasted_spend) and writes the negatives file for Editor.