If conversions dropped to zero on a specific day while clicks stayed about the same, your tracking broke, not your campaign. Start with the conversion action’s status in Google Ads: go to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary, and read the Status column. Misconfigured means conversions have stopped recording entirely.
Tracking breaks quietly. The ads keep spending, Smart Bidding loses its signal, and reports show a slump that never happened. This page covers Google Ads first, then LinkedIn and Microsoft Advertising.
First, rule out the harmless causes
- Conversions are just late. The last few days always look light because people convert days after they click. Compare periods that end before your usual click-to-conversion delay.
- The conversion action is new. Google’s Awaiting conversions status means nothing was recorded in the last 7 days. That’s normal for an action created in the last 48 hours, for paused campaigns, or for a site with little traffic.
- The campaign isn’t meant to convert. Awareness, reach and video view campaigns aren’t built to drive conversions, so zero there isn’t a tracking fault.
- Volume is just low. Two conversions a week falling to zero for one week is noise. A sudden drop to zero on a campaign that normally converts every day is the real signal.
Signs your tracking broke
| Signal | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Conversions fall to zero on one date; clicks steady | Tag removed, broken or blocked |
| All conversions has numbers; Conversions shows zero | Conversion action set to secondary |
| Conversions per click suddenly doubles or more | Duplicate tag, or “Every” counting on a lead action |
| Google status shows Misconfigured or Needs attention | Setup error or broken tag |
| LinkedIn server-side count equals or beats the Insight Tag count | Deduplication not working |
| Offline conversions stop arriving from your CRM | Upload connection broke |
The causes, most to least likely
1. The tag was removed or broke
Site redesigns, new tag manager containers, cookie consent changes and rebuilt forms are the usual culprits.
How to confirm it: Conversions fell to zero on a date that lines up with a site release. Several campaigns that send people to the same site dropped together.
Where to look: In Google Ads, go to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Google now uses five statuses: Active, Needs attention, Misconfigured, Awaiting conversions and Removed (Google Ads Help). Needs attention means there are problems to fix but recording hasn’t fully stopped. Misconfigured means it has. Hover over the status for Google’s next steps.
2. The conversion action is set to secondary
Google reports primary actions in the Conversions column and uses them for bidding. Secondary actions are for observation only and appear in All conversions, not Conversions.
How to confirm it: All conversions shows numbers but Conversions shows zero. This often happens after someone adds a new action, imports one from Google Analytics (those start as secondary), or edits a goal.
Where to look: Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Use Edit goal and check that the action is set to Primary under Conversion action optimization.
3. Counting is set to “Every” on a lead action
Google offers two counting options. “Every” counts every conversion after a click, which suits sales. “One” counts only one conversion per click. Google recommends One for leads, because usually only one unique lead per click adds value.
How to confirm it: Conversions per click jumps, and the CRM shows far fewer new leads than Google Ads reports.
Where to look: Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Click the action, choose Edit settings, then Count.
4. The tag fires twice
Two copies of the same tag, for example one hard-coded on the site and one in Google Tag Manager, double-count every conversion.
How to confirm it: Conversions roughly doubled overnight with no change in clicks or leads in your CRM. Check the page source and your tag manager for two tags sending the same conversion.
5. LinkedIn’s Insight Tag and Conversions API aren’t deduplicating
Many advertisers send the same LinkedIn conversion twice: once from the browser through the Insight Tag and once from their server through the Conversions API. LinkedIn only removes the duplicate when both events carry the same event ID (LinkedIn). When they match, LinkedIn keeps the Insight Tag event and discards the server one.
How to confirm it: In the conversion breakdown in Campaign Manager, compare the Insight Tag and Conversions API counts. LinkedIn says the Insight Tag count is typically higher when deduplication is working. If the server count matches or beats it, the event IDs probably don’t line up. Separately, if website conversions dropped to zero while clicks held, check the Insight Tag itself. The LinkedIn Insight Tag fix walks through it.
6. Offline conversion imports stopped
If your CRM sends qualified leads or closed deals back to Google Ads, that upload can fail without anyone noticing.
There’s a recent reason this may have happened. Google says that starting June 15, 2026, offline conversion import and enhanced conversions for leads uploads move to the Data Manager API and are blocked in the Google Ads API. Developer tokens that hadn’t sent these uploads earlier in 2026 aren’t allowlisted to keep using the old route (Google Ads Help). An older Salesforce or HubSpot integration, or a custom script, may need updating.
How to confirm it: The offline conversion action stopped recording on a specific date while new qualified leads kept arriving in your CRM. Ask whoever owns the CRM connection when it last ran successfully.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft reports a tracking status on each conversion goal. Tag unverified means no data has arrived from the UET tag yet. Tag inactive means none in the last 24 hours. No recent conversions means the tag works but nothing was recorded in 7 days, which usually points to a goal set up wrongly or an untagged conversion page.
How to fix it, step by step
- Fix the source. Restore the tag, re-publish the tag manager container, repair the form’s thank-you page, or reconnect the CRM upload.
- Set the right action to primary, and switch lead actions to “One” counting.
- Remove duplicate tags so each conversion fires once.
- Give browser and server events a shared event ID on LinkedIn, so the Insight Tag and Conversions API deduplicate.
- Move offline imports to a supported path. Check that your CRM connector or script uses the Data Manager API, or Google Ads Data Manager in the interface.
- Add a data exclusion for the outage. Google recommends data exclusions for conversion outages so Smart Bidding ignores the bad data (Google Ads Help). Exclusions apply to click dates, so start earlier than the break. Google’s example: an outage from Oct 15 to 18 with a 5-day conversion delay means excluding Oct 10 to 18. Don’t remove an exclusion once it’s applied.
- Flag the bad date range in reports, so nobody reads the dip as a real slump.
How to tell the fix worked
- Within 24 to 48 hours: a test conversion records, and the Google status returns to Active. On Microsoft, the goal shows Recording conversions.
- After one conversion delay window: conversions per click is back near its level before the break, not double it.
- After 2 to 4 weeks: platform conversions and new CRM leads from paid campaigns line up again, and Smart Bidding performance settles.
How PipeHalo catches this
“Conversion tracking may be broken” is one of the 15 checks PipeHalo runs every morning across LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and Reddit Ads. It flags a platform when website conversions or lead-form leads over the last 3 days fall to 20% or less of their usual rate while clicks hold at 80% or more.
The Action Center flag shows the money at stake, the spend running without a working signal, and “What to try” steps for the platform. PipeHalo keeps checking every day, and an open flag clears itself once conversions are recording again. Tracking fixes happen in your site and tag setup, so your team makes them. See every daily check, or read how PipeHalo uses access to your accounts.
Related questions
What’s the difference between Conversions and All conversions?
Conversions counts primary actions, which Google uses for bidding. All conversions adds secondary, observe-only actions. A gap between them is normal. Zero in Conversions with numbers in All conversions is not.
Should I count leads as “One” or “Every”?
Google recommends “One” for leads, since one lead per click is usually what adds value. Use “Every” for purchases.
Do I need both the LinkedIn Insight Tag and the Conversions API?
You can use either or both. If you send the same conversion through both, give the browser and server events the same event ID so LinkedIn counts it once.