If properly managed, a Google Ads campaign can be extremely useful in generating sales and leads for a business. Advertisements that do not perform well often go unnoticed, costing companies a lot of money.
In my career, I have worked with various ads and conducted multiple audits, during which I observed numerous worrying trends that lead to spending a lot of money on unproductive advertisements. If you are managing your ads by yourself or even with an advertisement agency, these signs shouldn’t be ignored.
The most worrying trends that you should look out for that can hurt your Google Ads campaign are,
🚩 1. Google Quality Score Evaluation
Each keyword is evaluated for ‘Quality Score’ by Google, which gauges how relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user’s search. Indeed, not for every ad, but Google sets a benchmark between 0 and 10, and anything lower than 5 indicates issues with alignment.
Why it matters: Low Quality Scores lead to higher costs per click (CPC) and lower ad positions, meaning you pay more for less visibility.
What a Google Ads specialist would do: Improve ad copy, refine keyword targeting, and optimize the landing page experience to raise your score and lower your costs.
🚩 2. Lack of Conversion Tracking
With PPC advertising spending, blindly budgeted without conversion tracking is like spending a day in the woods blindfolded. Not knowing what keywords, ads, or results brought value to your investment means you are likely spending money on ineffective advertising, which can only garner useless hires.
Why it matters: Lack of proper conversion tracking will prevent you from monitoring the exact numbers (conversions) and hinder Google Ads machine learning, which can optimize your campaign for the best results if it’s fed with accurate conversions.
A Google Ads expert’s tip: Ensure proper conversion tracking on all the critical areas of your website, like contact forms, product sales, phone calls, etc. Do it with tools like Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics.
🚩 3. Too Many Broad Match Keywords
There are many pros to using broad-match keywords as they catch an even wider audience, but broad-match keywords can sometimes suck and often attract unqualified traffic. You may face a low ROI if you depend on broad match and lack precise targeting or negative keywords.
Why it matters: Spending money on clicks on words people have no interest in, if it gives you clicks.
What a Google Ads consultant does: Add a mix of match types while building an elaborate negative keywords list tailored for unwanted clicks using SEO Services.
🚩 4. High CTR But Low Conversions
High Results can motivate; however, increasing CTR with significantly lower conversions alludes to problems. If you do not look carefully at other factors, the optimal solutions are usually not found in advertising copy or landing pages.
Why it matters: Your cash gets drained very quickly, and the conversion per dollar spent evaporates without the conversion.
What to fix: Ensure your ad copy reflects your offer and your landing page delivers a seamless user experience. A skilled Google Ads consultant can audit your funnel to fix the leaks.
🚩 5. Set-and-Forget Campaign Management
Most novice PPC advertisers make one of the biggest mistakes: never optimizing their campaigns regularly. You can’t simply set it and forget it. To get the most out of your Google Ads investment, monitor your advertising campaigns and correct them, if required. However, frequently changing your campaign’s structure is also not recommended and can cost you a lot. Therefore, hiring a Google Ads expert who knows how to monitor and what the right way & time are to make corrections to it is always recommended.
Final thoughts
The impact of an expertly adjusted Google Ads strategy is enormous. Avoid burning through these triggers before turning your advertising budget into despair.
If you notice any of these red flags in your current campaigns, it is time to hire a Google Ads specialist who will get things back on track. If you are new to PPC advertising or have been running ads for some time now, a professional PPC expert will remove inefficiencies, enhance performance, and help you scale.