Hundreds of Google Ads accounts have one thing in common: part of the budget flows somewhere nobody notices. Here are the seven leaks we find most often in audits.
1. No negative keyword list
With broad match, your ad can show on searches with no buying intent — “free”, “jobs”, “how to”. Review the search terms report at least weekly and add irrelevant terms to a negative list.
2. Conversion tracking is wrong (or missing)
Counting page views as conversions, recording the same sale twice, or not measuring phone calls at all teaches smart bidding the wrong signals. An account optimised on bad data never reaches the right goal.
3. Brand and generic searches in one campaign
People searching your brand already know you; those clicks are cheap and convert well. Mixed with generic searches, they make performance look better than it is and hide problems. Split them.
4. Every ad goes to the homepage
Sending someone who searched “Cappadocia balloon tour” to your homepage asks them to find it all over again. Every ad group needs a landing page that matches the search intent exactly.
5. Location targeting left on “interest”
The default setting shows ads to people in your target area and to people interested in it. For a local business, that means budget leaking to other cities and countries.
6. Nobody looked at schedule and device data
If clicks at 3 a.m. never convert, or tablet traffic never buys, that data is waiting in your reports. Small adjustments bring real savings.
7. “Set and forget” management
Google Ads is a live auction; competitors, search behaviour and the algorithm keep changing. Accounts left alone for months slowly lose efficiency.
In short
Each of these seven can waste a noticeable share of budget on its own. The good news: all are measurable and fixable. If you’d like us to look at your account together, ask for a free pre-audit.
There’s no good or bad ad. There’s the pixel.