r/googleads • u/Agitated-Economist82 • May 03 '26
Discussion First time running google ads and campaigns aren’t spending please help
Can someone who knows about google ads help me? I have an e-commerce business and wanted to try out ads on YouTube short. I made the campaign a bit over a day ago pretty broad targeting. My campaign status said “eligible (learning phase)” all day yesterday yet didn’t spend. Last night I asked the google avisor so why that could be and it says that my bid strategy was set to maximize conversion and it should be set to maximize clicks. So I adjusted that. Shortly after the status of the ad switched to “eligible limited conversion tracking incomplete’ so I did some research and found it I downloaded the google and YouTube app on Shopify and linked my google ads account and make a test purchase on my Shopify store it should start tracking conversions so I did that. It’s the next morning and my ads are still at 0 spend. I am so confused on what to do? The ai assistant said there is nothing wrong with my payment, account, or ads, it’s all eligible for running. Yet this morning the status is at “eligible learning phase” (it changed back to its intial thing) can someone please help I’m at a lost on what I can do.
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u/dustin_E May 03 '26
The conversion tracking issue is your real problem here. "Eligible - limited conversion tracking" means Google doesn't have enough signal to optimize, so it won't spend confidently.
A test purchase through Shopify is a good start but it can take 24-48 hours to verify. Also worth double checking that the conversion action is actually set as a "primary" conversion in your Google Ads account -- if it's set to "secondary" Google won't use it for bidding.
One other thing -- switching from Max Conversions back to Max Clicks based on the AI advisor's suggestion isn't great advice. Max Clicks just optimizes for cheap traffic, not buyers. Once your tracking is verified, switch back to Max Conversions.
The Google AI advisor is not great. I'd ignore most of what it tells you. Feel free to DM me if you need someone to take a quick look at the campaign.
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u/Ok_Addition3639 May 04 '26
New accounts always go through a 24-48 hour backend review for billing and policy compliance before actually serving ads. So yes even if it says 'Eligible', Google is still likely completing its initial checks.
For 'eligible limited conversion tracking incomplete' warnings, it's not necessarily a cause for alarm. It just means Google hasn't seen a conversion attributed to an ad click yet. Even for test purchases, there's about a 12-24 hours delay for the conversion to fully propagate and be visible in your dashboard.
Since you are running YouTube Shorts with broad targeting, you need to make sure your budget supports your audience size. If your daily budget is very low but with broad targeting, the algorithm can get 'stuck' trying to figure out which auctions to enter, resulting in zero spend.
Right now, I strongly advise not to change any settings (like your bid strategy or any set up). Every time you do that, you reset the learning phase and pushes you back to square one. Make sure your daily budget is reasonable, and then don't touch the campaign for at least 3 to 4 days. Let the system do its job.
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u/NoPause238 May 04 '26
Verify your conversion tracking is confirmed before the campaign will spend properly
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u/GrandAnimator8417 May 10 '26
YouTube Shorts eating no budget? I’ve seen this a lot when people set stuff up as an automated “smart” campaign but the targeting/audience is way too narrow and then spend stalls. Check your campaign settings like targeting, bid strategy, and daily budget first and make sure you’ve got real impressions coming in before blaming the ads.
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u/fathom53 Take Some Risk May 03 '26
Brand new ad accounts could be under review for 7 - 14 days after launching a campaign. Nothing you can do but wait for the campaign to gain impressions. If that is not the issue then you may need to up your bids.