Google Ads conversions dropped overnight? Check the counting before the campaigns

First: did customers drop, or did counting drop?

Take the same days and compare Google Ads conversions with your own records: orders, form emails, booked calls. This one check splits the problem in two.

• Your records held, Google Ads fell: the tag, the conversion action or the settings changed. Go to the next section.
• Both fell: fewer people are buying. Look at clicks, cost per click and the search terms instead.

When the counting broke

• Tag status. In Goals, Conversions, Summary, a status of "Inactive", "Unverified" or "Misconfigured" means the tag stopped recording. A site update or a new theme that removed the tag is a common reason.
• Primary or secondary. Only primary actions count in the Conversions column. If someone switched an action to secondary, it moved to "All conversions" and the Conversions column dropped with no change in real sales.
• Consent in Europe. For visitors in the European Economic Area, a broken consent mode setup can hide conversions. If the drop is mostly EEA traffic, check that first.

When nothing broke

• The click date rule. Google Ads puts a conversion on the day of the click, not the day of the sale. A click last week that bought this week is counted last week. So the most recent days always look low and fill in later.
• Processing delay. Reporting can take 24 to 48 hours. Never judge yesterday.

What not to do

Do not change bids, targets or budgets until you know which half of the problem you have. With broken counting, smart bidding learns from wrong numbers, and every change you make on top of it is a guess.

Doing it in one question

From an AI assistant, Ads MCP can pull spend and conversions per campaign for any window (campaign_performance), so you can line them up with your own records.