When a Google Ads account underperforms, the first instinct is to raise the budget or blame the platform. In the accounts we review, the cause is usually simpler: part of the money goes to clicks that could never have become customers. These are the places to look, in the order we check them.
1. The search terms report
Keywords are what you bid on. Search terms are what people typed. The two can be far apart. A company bidding on "project management software" may be paying for "free project management template" and "project manager jobs".
Open the search terms report and sort by cost. Add every irrelevant term as a negative keyword. Typical negatives are "free", "jobs", "salary", "course", "definition", and competitor names you do not want. Do this weekly at first, then monthly. It is the most valuable routine in account management.
2. Match types
There are three. Exact match shows the ad for searches with the same meaning as the keyword. Phrase match includes searches that contain that meaning. Broad match, the default, shows it for anything the system considers related.
Broad match with a small budget and little conversion data spends quickly on loosely related searches. Start with exact and phrase match on the searches you know convert. Widen later, when tracking is reliable and there is data to guide the bidding.
3. Location settings
A campaign can target people who are in your area, or people who are in or show interest in it. The second, wider option is the default, and it can show ads to people in other countries who merely searched for your city. If you only serve customers who are physically there, change it to presence only. Then check the location report for spend outside your area.
4. Conversion tracking
If the account does not record which clicks became enquiries or sales, neither you nor the bidding system can tell good spend from bad.
- Track real outcomes: form submissions, calls, purchases. Not page views or time on site.
- Count each outcome once. Duplicate tags double the numbers and mislead the bidding.
- Mark only meaningful actions as primary conversions.
- Where possible, feed back which leads became customers, so that bidding aims at customers and not at forms.
5. The landing page
An ad for "emergency boiler repair" that leads to a general home page makes the visitor search again, and most do not. Send each ad group to a page about exactly that subject, with the same words as the ad, one clear action and a fast load on a phone. A better landing page improves results on spend you are already making.
6. Networks and campaign types
A search campaign can also show ads on partner sites and on the display network unless those options are switched off. Clicks there are cheaper and usually convert much worse. Run search and display as separate campaigns, so each has its own budget and can be judged alone.
Fully automated campaign types that spread across all of Google's channels can work well with good conversion data. With poor data they spend on whatever is cheapest. Check where the spend went.
7. Automatic recommendations
The account suggests changes and shows an optimisation score. Some suggestions help. Many raise spend: add broad keywords, raise budgets, expand targeting. Check whether recommendations are being applied automatically, and turn that off. Judge each one by whether it serves your goal.
Smaller checks
- Schedule. If nobody answers the phone at night, do not run call ads at night.
- Brand searches. Keep them in a separate campaign, so cheap brand clicks do not flatter the averages.
- Ad text. Each ad group needs ads that speak about its own keywords.
- Too many keywords. A few that convert are better than hundreds with no data.
Summary
Review search terms, tighten match types, correct the location setting, fix tracking, match landing pages to ads, separate networks and distrust automatic changes. Paid search management is part of our SEO and digital marketing service. If you spend on ads and are not sure what comes back, we can audit the account.