Google Ads can be an incredible tool for growing a business.
It can also be a really efficient way to light money on fire.
And unfortunately, the difference isn’t always obvious.
Your campaign can be getting impressions. Your ads can be getting clicks. Google might even be telling you that your optimization score is 92%.
Looks good, right?
Maybe.
The question I care about is: Is any of that actually turning into business?
When I take over or audit an existing account, there are a handful of mistakes I see again and again. Some are small. Some can quietly waste hundreds or thousands of dollars.
So, if you’re currently running your own ads or paying a Google Ads marketing company to manage them, here are a few things worth checking.
1. Targeting Keywords That Are Way Too Broad
This is probably one of the easiest ways to waste money.
Let’s say you’re a boutique hotel in Southern Utah.
You probably don’t want to pay every time someone searches something vaguely related to “Utah travel.”
You want people who are actually looking for a place to stay.
There’s a huge difference between traffic and qualified traffic.
A campaign could generate 2,000 website visitors and still perform worse than one that generates 200 if those 200 people are much closer to making a purchase.
Good Google Ad marketing isn’t about getting the most clicks possible.
It’s about paying for the right clicks.
2. Ignoring Your Search Terms
Keywords and search terms aren’t the same thing.
Your keywords tell Google what kinds of searches you want to target.
Your search terms show you what people actually typed before clicking your ad.
And sometimes those two things are… not even close.
This is why I regularly look through search terms when managing campaigns.
You might discover you’re paying for people looking for jobs, free services, DIY instructions, products you don’t sell, or locations you don’t serve.
Every irrelevant click costs money.
Which brings me to…
3. Not Using Negative Keywords
Negative keywords tell Google when you don’t want your ads to appear.
And they’re one of my favorite little cleanup tools.
Let’s say you offer professional tattoo removal.
Someone searching “tattoo removal machine for sale” probably isn’t your customer.
Neither is someone searching “tattoo removal training.”
Adding terms like “machine,” “training,” or “jobs” as negatives where appropriate can help prevent your ads from appearing for searches that don’t match what you actually offer.
One irrelevant click doesn’t seem like a big deal.
But multiply it by hundreds of searches over months?
Now we’re talking real money.
4. Sending Every Ad to Your Homepage
Please stop doing this.
Okay, not always.
Sometimes your homepage really is the best landing page.
But if someone searches for a specific service and your ad promises that specific service, the page they land on should continue that conversation.
If I search “spa maintenance St. George” and click your ad, I shouldn’t have to dig through your homepage, open the Services menu, scroll around, and figure out whether you even maintain spas.
Make it easy for people.
The fewer questions someone has to answer between clicking your ad and contacting you, the better.
5. Not Tracking Conversions Correctly
This one is HUGE.
If you don’t have proper conversion tracking set up, how do you know whether your ads are working?
Clicks aren’t conversions.
Impressions aren’t conversions.
Someone spending 45 seconds on your website isn’t necessarily a conversion either.
I want to know whether people are calling, submitting forms, booking rooms, scheduling appointments, making purchases, or completing whatever action actually matters to your business.
Without good tracking, we’re making decisions with incomplete information.
And I really don’t like guessing with someone else’s money.
6. Treating Every Conversion Like It’s Equally Valuable
This is something that gets overlooked.
Not every action on your website has the same value.
Someone viewing your contact page is not necessarily the same as someone submitting a contact form.
Someone clicking “Book Now” isn’t necessarily the same as someone completing a $1,500 hotel reservation.
Depending on the business, I may track several different actions—but I want to understand which ones actually contribute to revenue.
Otherwise, it’s very easy to look at a report full of “conversions” and think your campaign is performing beautifully when the business isn’t actually seeing the results.
7. Letting Google Make Every Decision
Google Ads gives you a lot of recommendations.
Some are genuinely helpful.
But Google’s goal and your goal aren’t always exactly the same.
Google wants you to use Google Ads.
I want your business to make money.
Those are related goals, but they’re not identical.
So I don’t automatically apply every recommendation simply because Google says it’ll improve an optimization score.
I look at the actual account.
What are we trying to accomplish?
What does the data say?
Does this recommendation make sense for this business?
Sometimes yes.
Sometimes absolutely not.
8. Setting It and Forgetting It
Launching the campaign is the beginning.
Not the end.
Google Ads needs attention.
I regularly look at search terms, keywords, budgets, conversion data, locations, ads, landing pages, and overall campaign performance.
Some weeks don’t require dramatic changes.
That’s okay.
Making changes simply for the sake of saying you “optimized” something isn’t necessarily helpful either.
But someone should be paying attention.
If you’re paying a Google Ads marketing company every month and nobody can explain what’s being monitored, tested, or learned from your campaigns, I’d start asking questions.
9. Focusing on Cost Per Click Instead of Cost Per Customer
Cheap clicks sound great.
I’d rather pay $2 per click than $10, wouldn’t you?
Not necessarily.
If the $2 clicks never convert and the $10 clicks consistently turn into $500 customers, I’ll happily take the expensive clicks.
This is why context matters so much in paid advertising.
Cost per click is useful information.
But it isn’t the whole story.
Ultimately, I’m much more interested in what you’re paying to generate an actual lead, booking, sale, or customer.
10. Using the Same Strategy for Every Business
This is probably my biggest issue with cookie-cutter Google Ad marketing.
What works for a hotel doesn’t necessarily work for a pool company.
What works for an e-commerce brand doesn’t necessarily work for a local wellness business.
And what works for a company with a $10,000 monthly ad budget might make absolutely no sense for a small business spending $1,000.
Your campaigns should reflect your actual business.
Your location.
Your margins.
Your customers.
Your competition.
Your goals.
That’s especially important with marketing in St. George, Utah, where you’re often targeting a very specific local audience rather than trying to reach everyone everywhere.
More isn’t always better.
More qualified is better.
Your Budget Probably Isn’t the Only Problem
When Google Ads aren’t working, one of the first instincts is often:
“Maybe we need to spend more.”
Sometimes that’s true.
But before increasing the budget, I want to know what we’re doing with the money we’re already spending.
Are we targeting the right searches?
Are people landing on the right pages?
Is conversion tracking accurate?
Are we filtering irrelevant traffic?
Are the ads actually generating qualified leads?
Because putting another $1,000 into a campaign that’s already wasting money usually doesn’t solve the problem.
It just wastes money faster.
Let’s Find Out Where Your Ad Spend Is Going
If you’re looking for a Google Ads marketing company that takes a hands-on, thoughtful approach to your campaigns, let’s talk.
Book a free discovery call with me and we’ll discuss your business, your goals, and what you’re hoping Google Ads can accomplish. If we’re a good fit, we’ll build a strategy around your actual business—not a template I’ve copied from someone else’s account.
Already running ads yourself or paying another company to manage them?
This is exactly what my consulting and diagnosis calls are for.
We’ll dig into your existing account, pick apart the campaigns, look for wasted spend and missed opportunities, and figure out where things may have gone wrong. Then I’ll give you tailored recommendations for what I’d change and where I’d put your money moving forward.
Because sometimes you don’t need a bigger Google Ads budget.
You just need to stop wasting the one you already have.