Are you running a Google Ads campaign and feeling a bit uneasy about it?
It’s generating traffic. Maybe even some leads. But sales aren’t where they should be.
Or maybe you just have that nagging suspicion you’re wasting a tonne of money.
We manage Google Ads accounts across ecommerce, local services, B2B and B2C. As part of that work, we get to evaluate A LOT of Google Ads accounts. We’ve found that most clients that come to us have campaigns that share the same issues.
Not dramatic mistakes.
Not catastrophic errors.
Just consistent structural weaknesses that quietly limit performance.
The Six Google Ads Issues Losing You Money
It’s probably not because Google Ads “doesn’t work”, and it’s probably not because your budget is too small.
Most Google campaigns are failing because of the same handful of structural mistakes quietly draining performance in the background.
Check your Ads account to see if any of these are costing you.
1. Broken (or non-existent) Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is the mechanism that tells Google: “This action = success.”
A conversion can be a purchase, a lead from submission, even a phone call. When things are set up right, every time a conversion happens a notification should be sent, via a tracking tag, back to Google Ads.
Why is this important?
Google Ads is no longer a manual bidding platform, it’s primarily an AI-driven optimisation engine. For the algorithms to effectively work though, it needs a clear signal of what ‘good’ looks like.
If conversion tracking is accurate, Google can:
- Identify which keywords actually generate revenue
- Learn which audiences convert
- Optimise bids in real time
- Shift spend toward high-performing search terms
- Lower CPA over time
If tracking is broken or misconfigured, Google optimises toward the wrong goal: Page views are counted as a success, revenue isn’t associated with a sale, or duplicate conversions inflate performance and make a loss-making campaign appear profitable.
Good data allows scalable growth, and very often we see dramatic improvements after just fixing conversion tracking – without changing ads, keywords, or budget.
Because once Google understands what success actually looks like, performance compounds.
If the signal is wrong, the optimisation will be wrong.
2. Unfocussed Search Terms
Search terms are the actual queries people type into Google before clicking your ad.
Not your keywords – the real searches.
When campaigns are poorly structured – broad match keywords, no negative lists, or Performance Max left to run wild, Google has too much freedom. It will spend your budget wherever it believes there is some chance of conversion which might include wrong locations, people looking for free services and more
The number of campaigns we’ve seen that are accidentally targeting people searching for jobs in their sector is unreal.
Why is this important?
Without tight search term management, your campaign will likely still generate conversions, but it will also quietly fund a large volume of clicks that are irrelevant to your business: Not enough to necessarily look broken, just enough to suppress profitability.
Get it right with tightened match types and structured negative lists though, and Google will focus its spend on high-intent queries, quality score will improve, and your cost of acquisition will fall.
3. Wrong Bidding Strategy
The bidding strategy you set for your campaign determines how Google allocates your budget in auctions. These range from ‘Manual Bidding; to more automated options like ‘Maximise Conversion’s, ‘Target CPA’, and ‘Target ROAS’.
When picking a bidding strategy, “Maximize Conversions” sounds great BUT, to work effectively, it relies heavily on Google having sufficient historical data and clean conversion signals. Without this data, it’s just guesswork.
Why is this important?
Because automated bidding strategies are only effective when Google has enough accurate data to learn from, if an account has only a handful of reported conversions (or even worse, broken tracking) Google’s optimisation just can’t work. Instead, it tends to overcorrect, creating performance swings in the campaign and fluctuating lead quality.
If you don’t have strong conversion history (30 conversions in the last month is a good rule of thumb), you need to take a step back, use manual strategies to target traffic more effectively, identify those users that are highly likely to convert, optimise bids and scale predictably – and THEN switch to more automated approaches.
4. Poor Account Structure
Your Google Ads probably has many different objectives and targets. Most campaigns are certainly trying to do more than one thing and target different types of customer – that could be a mixture of Brand activity, competitor targeting and remarketing; you could be targeting local and national audiences; or just targeting audiences at different stages of the purchase funnel.
The structure of your Google Ads account should reflect this, with different campaigns and ad groups set up and optimised for your different objectives.
When structured properly, each campaign has a clear job. Each ad group has a clear theme. And each landing page supports a specific intent.
A huge number of campaigns aren’t set up like this – instead everything is grouped together: brand, competitor, multiple locations, remarketing – meaning Google has limited ability to optimise.
Why is this important?
Structure determines a whole range of factors:
- Budget allocation
- Signal clarity
- Audience segmentation
- Bidding accuracy
- Performance predictability
Blend everything together (with mixed intents, mixed locations and mixed audiences) you strip away the ability for both you, and Google’s algorithm, to target precisely.
Get it right and it’s totally different. You can:
- Prioritise high-intent traffic
- Protect brand spend
- Control competitor bidding
- Stabilise (and drive up!) ROAS
- Scale profitable segments independently
More than that though, when everything sits inside one campaign (especially in Performance Max), your data becomes blended: good performers mask low performers; detailed insight disappears; and the campaign becomes less predictable and more volatile. We’ve recently seen an ad account that was bouncing along at the barely profitable, deliver 10x returns on investment – primarily through proper structuring and focus.
5. Weak or Unclear Offering
Your offer is the reason someone converts.
Not your keywords. Not your bidding strategy. Not your ad copy. The offer.
And in many accounts we audit, the offer is either at best generic and poorly communicated, sometimes it’s just non-existent – leaving customers without a good reason to act.
The biggest issues we see are:
- No clear primary benefit
- No defined audience
- No urgency
- No differentiation
- No strong call to action
- Multiple competing messages on one page
Why is this important?
No matter how good Google is at driving qualified traffic, it can’t make your proposition compelling.
Focus on a strong, coherent and compelling offer and you’ll transform conversion rates, improve your quality scores and see your cost of acquisition fall.
6. Sending Traffic to the Homepage (and Hoping for the Best)
Paid search traffic is high intent.
People aren’t browsing, they’re looking for something specific.
Yet many campaigns still send every click to either their home page or a generic category page.
Why is this important?
Because intent matching directly impacts conversion rate.
If someone searches “Emergency dentist near me”, “ISO 27001 consultancy cost” or “Buy running shoes size 10 next day delivery” and lands on a generic homepage, you’re increasing their cognitive load.
Each of those users have a specific need in mind and, when the page they land on does not clearly match that need, there’s a disconnect.
The user now has to search again on your site, figure out where to click, and work out if you’re relevant – and that extra friction reduces conversions.
Push traffic to a page built specifically for that campaign’s intent and you get:
- Messaging that resonates with the users needs
- Improved conversion rates
- Better Quality Scores
- Lower acquisition costs
The Real Problem Isn’t Google Ads
Here’s the uncomfortable truth…
If your Google Ads feel inconsistent, it’s almost never the algorithm. It’s the set up.
Google is very good at optimising. It’s just optimising the wrong signals.
We’ve reviewed hundreds of accounts and, in almost all, the same issues sprung up. None of them dramatic. All of them expensive.
Whether you’re spending £3k, £10k, or £50k a month, you can’t afford invisible inefficiency.
Get a free Google Ads audit
We’ll show you exactly:
- Where budget is leaking
- Where signals are weak
- Where you’re losing money
- And what to fix first
No fluff. Just clarity.
Fill in the form below, or speak to one of the team on 0330 010 9000.