If your Google Ads account has gone quiet and the leads just aren’t coming through, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most common things I see. The good news? Most of the time, the problem is hiding in plain sight, and you don’t need to be a wizard to find it.
I’m Nick, founder of Bluelight. We’re a Google Ads agency that works specifically with roofing and renovation companies. So I’m not theorising here. I work with real budgets, real accounts, and real businesses every single day. That means I get to see what actually moves the needle and what’s just noise.
Let me walk you through the same five-step process I use to figure out why an account isn’t pulling its weight. It’s not comprehensive, but it’ll point you in the right direction nearly every time.
Step one: check your website first (yes, really)
Here’s the thing that surprises people. Step one happens nowhere near your Google Ads account.
The first place I look is the website. Specifically: can customers actually get in touch with you? Because more often than not, the real culprit is sitting on the site itself, not in the ad account.
So go through everything. Your contact forms, your email, the phone number listed on the page. Click the buttons. Click the links. Submit the form yourself and see if it actually lands somewhere. Test the lot.
Why does this matter so much? Because you could be running the best campaigns on the planet, but if you’re sending all that traffic to a broken website, nobody converts. Ever. It’s like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
Step two: look at your conversions
Once the website checks out, head into the account and look at your conversions. The whole point of running ads is getting leads, right? So if the leads aren’t there, something’s broken somewhere.
When I dig into conversions, three numbers grab my attention:
- The amount. How many leads are you actually producing?
- The conversion rate. Of the people landing on your site, how many turn into enquiries?
- The cost per lead. Are you paying a fair price, or is each lead costing you a small fortune?
You might find no leads at all, which tells me the account isn’t working full stop. Or maybe a trickle of leads. Or maybe you’re bleeding money for every single one that comes through.
The bit I really care about here is the historical conversions chart. That trend line is gold. It tells me whether your campaigns have never worked, or whether they performed well in the past and then dropped off a cliff after some recent change. Two very different problems, two very different fixes.
Step three: are the clicks coming through?
If the website’s solid and I can see conversions either happening now or showing up in your history, I shift my focus to clicks.
The keyword here is regular. Are you getting a healthy number of clicks landing on your site every single day? Because you can’t capture leads if nobody’s turning up. No traffic, no leads. Simple as that.
An irregular click trend line can mean a few things, and honestly, it’s a bit of detective work. Maybe your budget is too low and you’re running dry by lunchtime. Maybe your cost per click is set too low, so other advertisers just outbid you every time and you barely show up. Or maybe you’re chasing the wrong keywords, or your ads aren’t written to convert.
That last one’s a nice segue, because it brings us to the next step.
Step four: who are you actually targeting?
Next up, keywords. This is where I ask the big question: who are you actually putting your ads in front of?
Inside the keywords, I check whether they’re genuinely relevant to the services you offer. Then I look at the match type, and I’m watching closely for broad keywords. Broad match is sneaky. It drags in piles of useless junk traffic that has nothing to do with your business, and it’ll quietly drain your budget while you’re not looking.
Then comes my favourite report: the search terms report. This one reveals the exact queries people typed into Google before they saw your ad. It’s like reading the searcher’s mind. If a roofer is showing up for “how to fix a leaky tap,” well, there’s your problem right there. The search terms report tells me straight away whether you’re reaching the right people or the wrong crowd entirely.
Step five: does your ad copy actually convert?
In most cases, by the time you’ve worked through those four steps, you’ll have spotted at least one issue holding your ads back. But there’s one last place I always check: the ad copy itself.
Sometimes the targeting is fine, the budget’s fine, the website’s fine, and yet the ads still fall flat. Why? Because you might be up against savvy competitors who simply write better ads. Theirs grab attention and convert; yours blend into the background.
That’s the moment to roll up your sleeves and sharpen your copy. Make your business stand out. Give people a reason to click you instead of the bloke two spots down the page.
Wrapping it up
And that’s the run-through. Was it comprehensive? Not even close. But in my experience, one of these five steps will reveal your problem, or at the very least nudge you toward it.
If your ads have gone flat, or they used to perform and recently dropped off and you can’t work out why, feel free to book a free review with me personally. I’ll take a look at your account and point you in the right direction. No pressure, no jargon dump. Just a straight answer.
You can grab a time using the link below. I hope this helped, and I wish you a great day out there.