Why did my Google or Facebook ads stop working?

Ascent Vision · Published October 24, 2026

First work out which problem you have. If the ads stopped running, the cause is usually in the ad account: Google's help pages list a paused, ended or removed ad, a disapproved ad, a budget that limits the campaign, and missing or invalid billing information among the reasons. If the ads still run but stopped bringing inquiries, look at what happens after the click: the page, the form, the phone, your reply time, the season and competitors. Hold off on raising the budget until you know which.

Two different problems

	Ads stopped running	Ads run, but fewer inquiries
What you notice	Spending drops, or the ads no longer show	Spending carries on while calls and forms fall
Where to look	The ad account: status, notices and billing	The website, the phone, your replies and the market

If the ads stopped running

Status: Google's ad status page says Paused, Ended and Removed ads do not run, and an ad is Not eligible when its campaign or ad group is paused, removed, ended, pending or incomplete.
Disapproved: Google says such an ad "cannot run because its content or its destination violates Google Ads policy", and points to fixing the ad or appealing the decision.
Under review: Google says most reviews finish within one business day, though more complex ones can take longer.
Budget: Google says a campaign limited by budget "might not run or spend effectively", and suggests considering a higher budget in that case.
Billing: Google says ads will not run until the account is active with valid billing information. As general advice, an expired or replaced card can be the cause.
A suspended account is its own case; the related answer on why an ad account was suspended covers it, for Google and for Meta.
For Facebook and Instagram ads, as general advice, check the same things in the same order: whether each ad is still active, whether one was rejected, and whether the payment method still works.

If they run but stopped bringing inquiries

Something changed after the click: the page the ad opens was edited or broken, the form stopped sending, or the number forwards to a line nobody answers. Fill in the form and call the number yourself; the related answer on why a website gets no inquiries covers the page, form and phone checks.
Replies got slower. The related answer on how fast to reply to a new lead covers why that matters.
The season: fewer people may need the service this month, so compare with the same month last year.
Competition: a new or bigger advertiser can make each click cost more.
The ad itself: the same ad shown to the same people for months can wear out, especially on social media.
The count broke: inquiries still arrive but are no longer recorded with paid as their source.
Clicks without calls: the related answer on fake or accidental clicks covers what Google says about invalid clicks and what to check when clicks rise but calls do not.

What to ask, and what not to do first

One question to whoever runs the ads often gets to the cause: what changed in the two weeks before the drop, in the account, on the website, on the phone or in the market? Ask for inquiries and jobs won, lost or still open by month, not clicks alone, and keep your own login so you can look for yourself; the related answer on who should own your ad accounts explains why.

Outside that budget case, avoid raising the budget first: as general advice, more money behind a broken form or an unanswered phone buys more lost inquiries. Google's help page also advises against frequent budget changes, which it says can reset the learning phase of its Smart Bidding strategies. And before replacing the website, check whether one page or one form broke.

Sources

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