Why Your Google Ads Are Getting Clicks But No Enquiries

# Why Your Google Ads Are Getting Clicks But No Enquiries

You've set up Google Ads. You're paying for clicks. The traffic's coming in. But the phone's not ringing, and the enquiry form's sitting empty.

This is one of the most frustrating problems in online marketing, and it's also one of the most common. The good news: it's usually fixable. The bad news: it rarely fixes itself.

If you're in this position — say, spending £500 a month on Google Ads and getting 100 clicks but only 2 enquiries — the issue isn't that Google Ads doesn't work. It's that something in your setup is broken. And most of the time, you don't need to be a marketing expert to find it.

The Real Problem: Intent vs. Reality

When someone clicks your Google Ad, they're making a small promise to you. They're saying: "This looks like it might solve my problem."

When they leave your site without enquiring, they're saying something else: "It doesn't."

That gap between click and enquiry happens because one of four things has gone wrong. In our experience at BrightClick, we see these problems over and over again — and they're almost always solvable without spending more money on ads.

Let's walk through each one.

1. Your Landing Page Doesn't Match Your Ad

This is the biggest culprit.

Imagine you're a plumber in Manchester. Someone searches "emergency plumber near me" at 11pm on a Saturday. They click your ad because it says "24-Hour Emergency Plumber — Call Now."

They land on your homepage. There's a photo of your team. There's a paragraph about your company history. There's a services menu with 12 options. Nowhere above the fold can they see:

• Your phone number
• A clear statement that you're actually open right now
• Any mention of emergency callouts
• A way to book immediately

They're not going to dig through your site at 11pm. They're going to hit the back button and click the next result.

What this looks like: Your ad talks about one thing (emergency availability), but your page talks about something else (company history).

What to do about it:

• Your ad headline should match your page headline
• If your ad says "Same-day fitting," your page should lead with same-day fitting, not general information
• Put your phone number or enquiry button within the first 3 seconds of landing
• Remove unnecessary information that doesn't support the specific need they clicked for

2. Your Keywords Attract the Wrong Kind of Click

This one's more technical, but worth understanding.

Let's say you're a freelance accountant. You bid on the keyword "accounting software." Someone searches that, clicks your ad, and lands on your site. But they're looking for software to do their own bookkeeping — not hiring an accountant.

They click, you pay, they leave. That's a wasted click.

Why this happens: Broad match keywords (which Google defaults to) can be too broad. "Accounting software" might bring you people looking for software, not people looking for accountants.

What this looks like:

• High click-through rate, but very low conversion rate
• Lots of traffic from people who clearly aren't customers
• Very short session duration (people leaving after a few seconds)

What to do about it:

• Review your keyword list and your search terms report (in Google Ads, under Keywords > Search Terms)
• Add negative keywords — words that people might search for that indicate they're *not* a customer
• If you're an accountant, add negatives like: -software, -free, -DIY, -tutorial
• Be more specific with your keywords. Instead of "accounting software," bid on "accountant Manchester" or "bookkeeping help for small business"

3. You're Not Actually Tracking Conversions

This is surprisingly common. And it means you're essentially flying blind.

You think your ads aren't working because you're not getting enquiries. But you might not actually *know* if enquiries are coming through.

Here's what we mean: maybe someone clicks your ad, fills in your contact form, and submits it. But you haven't set up Google Ads conversion tracking, so Google doesn't know it happened. To you, it looks like another wasted click.

What this looks like:

• You have no idea how many form submissions or phone calls come from your ads
• You're guessing at what works and what doesn't
• Your Google Ads dashboard shows only clicks, not actual business results

What to do about it:

• If people call you: set up call conversion tracking in Google Ads (you'll need to add a Google forwarding number to your website)
• If people submit a form: install the conversion tracking pixel on your "thank you" page
• If people book online: set up conversion tracking for completed bookings
• Once this is done, you'll actually *see* which clicks lead to business

4. Your Page Speed Is Killing You

This one's less obvious, but it matters more than you'd think.

If your website takes 4 seconds to load, roughly 40% of visitors will leave before it even loads. That's not an opinion — that's what studies show.

Google Ads people tend to be in a hurry. They clicked your ad looking for something specific. If your site is slow, they're gone.

What this looks like:

• Very high bounce rate (people arriving and leaving immediately)
• Clicks that look like they're not even reaching your site
• Especially bad on mobile devices

What to do about it:

• Test your page speed at Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev)
• Anything under 3 seconds on mobile is good. Anything over 5 seconds is losing you money.
• Common fixes: compress your images, remove unnecessary plugins, enable caching, upgrade your hosting
• If you don't know how to do this, ask your web host or a web developer — it's usually affordable

Your Diagnosis Checklist

Before you change anything about your ads, run through this:

Landing Page Match:

• [ ] Does your page headline reflect what the ad says?
• [ ] Is your phone number or contact button visible without scrolling?
• [ ] Does the page content directly address the reason someone clicked?

Keyword Intent:

• [ ] Have you looked at your Search Terms report in the last month?
• [ ] Do the actual searches people make match what you're selling?
• [ ] Have you added negative keywords?

Conversion Tracking:

• [ ] Can you see in Google Ads how many form submissions you get?
• [ ] Do you know how many phone calls come from your ads?
• [ ] Are you measuring actual enquiries, not just clicks?

Page Speed:

• [ ] Have you tested your page speed in the last 3 months?
• [ ] Is your mobile page loading in under 3 seconds?
• [ ] Have you removed obvious slow elements (huge images, auto-playing videos)?

What to Do Next

Pick the one that feels most likely in your situation. If you're not sure, start with landing page match — it's the most common problem and the easiest to fix.

Make one change at a time. Don't overhaul everything at once. Give it a week or two, then look at your results.

If conversion tracking isn't set up, do that first. You can't improve what you can't measure.

If this feels outside your comfort zone, or if you've tried this and it's still not working, that's the point where specialist help makes sense. We work with businesses like yours every week, and often we can spot the problem in an afternoon.

But honestly, most of the time, one of these four issues is the answer. And once you fix it, you'll suddenly see why you're paying for clicks that were never going to become enquiries.

The real win isn't spending more on ads. It's making sure the clicks you're already paying for actually have a chance to convert.