Most people troubleshoot their ads the same way: something feels off, so they start changing things. The headline, the bid strategy, the landing page, the audience. Randomly. All at once. And then they have no idea what actually fixed it or broke it further.
There's a better way, and it only requires three numbers: click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per conversion. That's it. Those three numbers will point you directly at the problem almost every time.
If your CTR is low but your conversion rate is decent, the page is not your problem. The ads are not pulling in the right people. Fix your targeting, sharpen your copy, and stop bleeding budget on vague broad-match terms before you touch a single thing on the page.
If your CTR is solid but your conversion rate is weak, the ads are doing their job and something is falling apart after the click. That usually means a message mismatch between the ad and the headline, a call to action with no real energy behind it, or a form that asks for too much too soon.
If both numbers are low, start on the campaign side first. Fix who you're targeting and what you're saying, then rebuild the top of the page so it feels like a natural continuation of the ad. One continuous message, from search query to call to action, with no left turns.
The video above walks through each scenario with specific fixes, plus the edge cases where neither the campaign nor the page is actually the problem.
Next time results dip, resist the urge to tear everything down. Pull the three numbers first.