3 Unobvious reasons why your Google ads performance drops (and how to fix it)

I was reading a story the other day about Nokia’s downfall.

And it explains perfectly how many brands screw up their Google Ads.

In the early 2000s, Nokia owned the market.

I still remember playing Snake on my dad’s Nokia, sitting cross-legged on the floor.

My thumbs were tapping the chunky keyboard.

My eyes were glued to the tiny, glowing screen.

Back then, it felt like I was holding the pinnacle of technology.

They were THE phone company. Everyone had one. Their brand felt untouchable.

Until the iPhone arrived—and crushed it all…

Touchscreens made Nokia phones obsolete.

All of a sudden, the iPhone became the new status symbol.

And within a few years, Steve Jobs had completely wiped Nokia off the market.

That story revealed an important truth about business:

What worked now won’t work forever.

Nokia collapsed because they couldn’t adapt to the smartphone era.

They stood by and watched as their competition took the lead.

Same for Google Ads.

Your campaigns might shine one week, then crash the next.

This can happen because a new competitor enters the scene and “steals” your customers.

Or your target audience changes…

Their needs shift, their expectations grow, and suddenly, your message falls flat.

Or maybe it’s your data…

The customer lists that once guided Google’s algorithm now mislead your targeting.

The custom labels you set up 6 months ago no longer match what's actually happening with your campaigns.

The longer these issues linger, the harder they impact your results.

That’s why at Echelonn, we set up a system to catch them before they cost you:

1. Checklists to review the account daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.
2. Automation to alert errors or sudden performance drops in real time.
3. SOPs to diagnose and recover from any issue

This approach lets us pinpoint problems at their source and tackle them immediately.

So no matter how the market moves, your performance stays on track.