It’s not uncommon to launch a new Google Ads campaign filled with excitement after setting your budget, writing catchy headlines, and getting approved by Google. But despite your best efforts, you just got tumbleweed, and the clicks that are costing you a fortune aren’t turning into actual paying customers.
PPC advertising is one of the most powerful tools available to digital marketers, especially at a time where AI Overviews are significantly affecting organic results. When it works, the returns can be incredibly admirable. But when it doesn’t, it can feel like you’re investing a lot just to get nothing in return.
The good news is that poor performance is rarely a result of the platform or the market, and in many cases it’s a simple fix. So if your cost per acquisition (CPA) is too high or your campaigns just aren’t generating the leads you’d hoped for, then here are five common culprits to be aware of and what you can do to fix them.
Google wants to help you reach as many people as possible and spend as much money as possible. Because of this, the default setting for keywords is often ‘Broad Match’. While this sounds great in theory, in practice it can be dangerous for your budget.
For example, if you’re bidding on the keyword ‘colourful socks’, a broad match setting might show your ad to someone who is searching for ‘how to knit socks’ or ‘free sock patterns’. However, these people aren’t looking to purchase colourful socks, they’re just looking for ways to support their hobby. So when they click your ad, which of course costs you money, they immediately bounce because you’re selling socks and not teaching them to knit.
In some industries it might be worth trying to get your brand in front of people who don’t necessarily have intent yet, but it doesn’t work for everyone.
All you need to do is tighten up your keyword strategy. Use more phrase match (your ad only shows if the search includes the meaning of your keyword) and exact match (your ad only shows for the specific meaning) wherever possible. This ensures you are paying for high-intent visitors who are actually looking for what you sell.
Negative keywords are a type of keyword you use to stop your ad from being triggered by certain words or phrases. For example, if you were a high-end interior design agency, you’d want to show up for ‘interior design services’ so you’d use a phrase match keyword to catch all the relevant modifiers that people might add to that term. But, what you don’t want is to show up for ‘cheap interior design’ or ‘interior design jobs’ because these aren’t relevant to your business. Without using negative keywords, you could end up paying for clicks from bargain hunters and job seekers, which can quickly eat your budget.
Review your search terms report regularly, especially in the early days of your campaign. This report shows you exactly what people typed into Google to trigger your ad. If you see irrelevant terms (like ‘free’, ‘DIY’, or ‘jobs’), add them to your negative keyword list. This will ensure your budget is going where it needs to.
If someone clicks an ad that says ‘50% off running shoes’ they wouldn’t expect to land on a generic homepage showing hiking boots, sandals, and brogues. If they did then more than likely, they would immediately leave - this is the disconnect between ad relevance and landing page experience.
Google assigns your ads a ‘Quality Score’ from 1 to 10, which is a measure of how your ad’s quality measures up to your competitors (several metrics are included in this calculation). If your ad promises one thing and your landing page delivers another, your Quality Score will remain low.
It’s worth noting that Quality Score is a relatively controversial metric - it’s true that if your ad quality is low then you will pay more per click and appear lower down the page, but Google doesn’t use the Quality Score itself to determine this. It’s similar to credit score - the credit companies assign you a score based on a number of factors so it’s easier for you to understand, but it’s these factors that the banks use when determining your interest rate, not the actual score.
Create dedicated landing pages for your specific campaigns. If your ad sells ‘running shoes’ then the page they land on should scream ‘running shoes’ in the headline. The transition from the search to the click to the page should feel natural.
It’s a common misconception with those new to PPC that you can set everything up and then leave it running. In reality, your ads need constant monitoring and tweaking to ensure they’re always performing at their best.
Consumer behaviour changes, competitors adjust their bids, and search trends shift. Plus things like negative search terms can take weeks or even months to get on top of after initial launch. If you set your ads running six months ago and haven't touched them since, it’s more than likely that your performance has certainly reduced. Ad copy can get ‘stale’, meaning users get tired of seeing it, and you miss out on new features Google releases.
You should schedule regular check-ins. You don’t need to obsess over it daily, but a weekly review is essential. Look at which ads are underperforming and pause them, and write new variations to challenge your high performers. Optimisation is an ongoing process, not a one-time task.
This is the single biggest technical issue we see. You can’t improve what you can’t measure. If you’re running ads but aren't tracking exactly what happens after the click, you’re running them blind.
Sometimes tracking is set up incorrectly, which inflates your numbers and gives you a false sense of success. Other times, it’s not set up at all, leaving you guessing which keywords are actually making you money.
And if you’re using Google's conversion-driven bidding strategies, whether AI-handled or not, you could well be feeding the wrong information to the algorithm. This means your own campaign could be working against you, and spending money needlessly.
You need to be very sure of your conversion tracking before you start PPC, and you should audit your conversion tracking regularly. Ensure that a conversion is only counted when a valuable action actually takes place. Accurate data is crucial for successful PPC.
PPC can definitely be complex, but it shouldn't be a mystery. By tightening your targeting, improving your landing pages, and keeping a close eye on your data, you can set yourself up for success. And if you’re already up and running but campaign performance is sluggish, then these tips could help you turn things around.
If you need expert help with your PPC campaigns, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today!
