The Most Common Google Ads Mistakes and How to Fix Them

January 20, 2026December 28, 2025

Ever launched a Google Ads campaign only to watch your budget vanish with nothing to show for it? Yeah, it happens with most businesses.

In fact, many businesses across Australia lose thousands monthly because of simple Google Ads mistakes that could’ve been avoided from day one. And the worst part is, most of this wasted ad spend comes from setup errors you can fix yourself.

We’ve worked with hundreds of businesses struggling with online advertising, and the same problems keep appearing. Wrong keyword targeting, missing conversion tracking, and poor campaign structure drain budgets faster than you’d expect.

This article breaks down the major Google Ads mistakes beginners make and shows you exactly how to stop wasting money.

Stay with us to learn where your ad spend goes and which fixes deliver real results.

Conversion Tracking: The Setup Most Businesses Ignore

Conversion tracking measures which clicks turn into sales, phone calls, or form submissions for your services. It shows you exactly what amount your ad spend produces and which customers your Google Ads account actually brought in.

The truth is, most businesses skip this step completely. They launch campaigns without proper tracking and then wonder why nothing seems to work. You’re spending money daily but have no clue which keywords bring paying customers versus window shoppers who just browse and leave.

Here’s what makes this worse. When you import conversions from Google Analytics instead of setting up native tracking in your Google Ads account, you get incomplete revenue data. The performance data doesn’t match up, and you can’t see which ads generate sales.

That’s why you need to fix conversion tracking straight away before you spend another dollar. Without it, tracking conversions properly becomes impossible, and you’re basically guessing where your money goes.

Negative Keywords: The Fast Fix for Wasted Spend

Negative keywords stop your ads from showing on irrelevant searches, which saves you money on clicks that were never going to convert.

We’ve found through hands-on work that businesses lose hundreds of dollars monthly because they never add negative keywords to their Google Ads campaigns. Your ads appear for searches like just the letter “C” when you sell printer cartridges (this happens more often than you’d think). Each useless click costs money, and the traffic goes to the wrong people entirely.

Without a negative keyword list, Google shows your ads to anyone remotely related to your product. So you need to block irrelevant searches before they drain your budget.

The good news is that this fix only takes minutes. You just open your Google Ads account, click on Keywords in the left menu, then select Negative Keywords. Add the terms you want to exclude, and Google stops showing your ads for those searches immediately.

Useful Tip: Add negative keywords weekly based on what you see in your search terms report. If you notice wasted spend on certain phrases, add them as negatives right away to stop the bleeding.

What Does Your Search Terms Report Tell You?

The search terms report shows the exact phrases people typed into Google before clicking your ad. That means it reveals what users actually searched for, showing mismatches between your intent and Google’s interpretation of your keywords.

You may even find out your coffee shop ads trigger “espresso machine repair” searches, which explains why no one buys. That’s wasted budget on irrelevant searches you never wanted.

And believe it or not, most accounts ignore this report because they don’t realise how much money it saves them. They miss both money-wasting search terms and high-performing ones to expand on.

The report basically tells you how users found your ads and whether Google understood your keywords correctly. Which is exactly why you should check your search terms weekly to spot problems early.

Once you understand what triggers your ads, you’ll notice patterns in user behaviour that point to other important issues with how your keywords are set up in the first place.

Keyword Match Types Explained for Beginners

Keyword match types control how closely a search query needs to match your keywords before your ads appear.

Google gives advertisers three targeting options: broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Each one affects how much traffic your campaign gets and which potential customers see your ads.

Let’s break down the two common mistakes people make with match types:

1. Using Only One Match Type Limits Reach

Mixing match types helps you reach more potential customers without losing control over who sees your ads. That means, if your campaign only uses exact match keywords, you need to add phrase and broad match variations to get in front of more relevant searches.

Google recommends mixing broad, phrase, and exact match keywords to balance control with reach. The right combination lowers your cost per click while expanding your targeting beyond just one approach.

Meanwhile, sticking to exact matches only means you miss variations of search terms your customers type in. While your competitors capture relevant traffic from related searches, your ads stay hidden from buyers.

Keyword Match Types Explained for Beginners

2. Too Many Keywords Per Ad Group

Ad groups where you stuff with dozens of unrelated keywords make it harder for your ad copy to match what people searched for.

Cramming 40 keywords into one ad group means your Google Ads can’t match what people searched for. And when that happens, Google penalises mismatched ads with lower Quality Scores. Ultimately, it just drives up what you pay for every single click.

In our experience, keeping under 20-25 tightly related keywords per group improves how relevant your ads appear. Smaller groups help your campaign deliver better results because each ad speaks directly to what users want.

Wrong Keyword Grouping Kills Quality Score

Quality Score measures how well your keywords, ads, and landing pages match each other and the searcher’s intent. It’s basically Google’s way of grading how relevant your entire setup is to what people want.

This is where most people go wrong with their Google Ads campaign. Putting “men’s hoodies” and “blue t-shirts” together confuses Google about what your ad really promotes. Your Quality Score drops because your ad about hoodies sends people to a page selling t-shirts, which creates a mismatch that Google penalises.

Every click can cost 30-50% more when the Quality Score is low, since Google charges more for ads it thinks aren’t helpful to searchers.

The solution: perfect targeting starts with keeping related keywords together so your ads match what people searched for.

For example, create one ad group just for “men’s hoodies” with keywords like “buy men’s hoodie,” “men’s pullover hoodie,” and “hoodie for men.” Then make a separate group for t-shirts with its own focused keywords. This tight grouping tells Google exactly what you’re selling and who should see each ad.

Trust us, when you organise keywords this way, your cost per click drops noticeably, and your ad spend delivers better results.

Why Your Ad Copy Gets Ignored (And Wastes Clicks)

Ad copy is the text people read before deciding whether to click your ad or skip it entirely, and most businesses write copy that sounds like everyone else’s.

Generic headlines like “Buy Now” or “Best Prices” don’t tell target audiences why your business is different from competitors (we’ve all been there). These ads could work for any company, which means nothing catches the eye of users scrolling through Google Ads results.

Your ad lacks a clear benefit statement, so people skip it to click on ads that promise something specific to their needs. That’s where understanding consumer behaviour helps. Potential customers want to know what they get before clicking, not after.

Yet, most marketers miss this completely. They’re paying for an ad position but getting low click-through rates because the copy feels identical to every other ad. The result is wasted ad spend on impressions that never turn into clicks.

Good ad copy needs to deliver results by showing value upfront. But even the best ads fail if they send people to the wrong place.

Landing Pages That Lose You Money

Sometimes the simplest mistakes cost the most money with landing pages. You may not even realise your site is pushing away the traffic you’re paying for.

Here’s how landing pages kill your conversions:

Mismatched Messages: If your ad promises free shipping, but the landing page doesn’t mention it anywhere, people bounce immediately because they feel misled.
Mobile Problems: Most Google Ads traffic comes from phones these days (more than 62% in the second quarter of 2025). So your landing pages need to work perfectly on mobile, or you’re throwing money away. Visitors also leave when buttons don’t work, or text is too small to read on mobile screens.
Slow Loading: Slow loading times mean people abandon your landing pages before they even appear. In fact, 32% of users leave sites that take longer than three seconds to load. You’re paying for each click but losing conversions because the page takes forever to load.

Bottom Line: Fix your landing pages so ads and content match. When they work together, users stick around, and your Google Ads spend actually delivers results.

Where Does Your Google Ads Budget Go?

Most business budgets leak money through location settings, time-of-day bidding, and device targeting that wasn’t configured properly.

Let’s be real here. You set location targeting to Brisbane, but your Google Ads still show to people 50km outside your service area. That’s wasted budget on paid advertising that reaches the wrong geographic location entirely (and the damage adds up fast).

Half your ad spend drains after business hours when no one’s available to answer calls from your ads. The thing is, Google keeps running your campaigns 24/7 unless you schedule specific hours. So poor targeting like this is one of the common reasons Google Ads campaigns fail to deliver conversions.

On top of that, desktop bids match mobile bids even though mobile traffic converts at half the rate for your business. You’re spending the same amount per click on both devices, but mobile users might just be browsing while desktop users are ready to buy. That difference costs you money on every mobile click that goes nowhere.

These targeting mistakes create wasted spend you don’t even notice until you check where the money goes each month.

Start Fixing These Mistakes Today

Google Ads mistakes like missing conversion tracking, ignoring negative keywords, and poor landing pages drain thousands monthly from Australian businesses. However, you can fix each one this week and stop the wasted ad spend immediately.

Start with conversion tracking since you can’t improve a campaign without knowing what works. Then add negative keywords, clean up your keyword grouping, and match your landing pages to your ads. These changes build a stronger strategy that delivers results.

Don’t wait until down the track when your budget’s gone. Businesses that fix these Google Ads mistakes early see a strong ROI from digital advertising.

If you need help getting your campaigns running properly, contact us at SlamStop. We’ve helped hundreds of businesses across Australia turn failing campaigns around.

How to Audit a Google Ads Account Like a Professional

January 10, 2026December 28, 2025

A Google Ads pay-per-click audit (shortly known as PPC audit) involves reviewing your account structure, keyword intent, and how ad spend flows through the funnel. This approach directly links campaign setup to landing page performance while identifying inefficiencies and clearer optimisation opportunities.

But it’s not that simple because most people usually focus on the less important elements and waste money. We’ve been auditing Google Ads accounts for years, so we know exactly where it goes wrong.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the complete audit process. Plus, we’ll show you the most common issues that ruin your PPC performance and teach you how to prioritise fixes for the best output.

Read on to learn how to take control of your campaigns and improve efficiency.

How to Review Your Google Ads Performance

You review your Google Ads performance by checking seven main areas in order: conversion tracking, account structure, search terms, Quality Score, keyword match types, budget distribution, and ad copy. Most audits take two to four hours, depending on your account size.

Here’s how you should audit your Ads account:

Conversion Tracking and Analytics: Make sure conversions trigger on the right pages after someone completes a desired action. Then connect your Google Ads account to Google Analytics so you can follow what happens next, from the initial click-through to the outcome.
Account Structure: Properly organised campaigns give you more control over budget and deliver higher quality scores. That’s why you need to separate campaigns by product type or target audience to prevent mixing unrelated keywords. Each ad group should target tightly themed keywords that share the same intent.
Search Terms Report: The search terms report shows the real phrases people type before seeing your ads, compared to the keywords you target. For example, a plumber bidding on “emergency plumbing” may appear for “plumbing courses” or “plumbing jobs”, which leads to irrelevant clicks and wasted ad spend.
Quality Score and Landing Pages: Your Quality Score directly influences how much you pay per click and how competitive your ads are in the auction. Higher scores often lead to lower costs and better visibility, given that your ad text, keyword intent, and landing page message are closely aligned.
Match Types and Negative Keywords: Keyword match types control how closely search queries relate to your targeted keywords. Broad match keywords often need negative keywords to act as a safety net. It helps keep a PPC campaign focused by refining results over time instead of relying on a fixed number at launch.
Budget and Bidding: You must check which campaigns use the most ad spend and how that compares to the conversion rate. Branded campaigns often bring paying customers at lower customer acquisition costs, yet many accounts still underfund them.
Ad Copy and Assets: Strong ad copy supported by relevant assets can improve your click-through rate by increasing relevance and clarity. We recommend including your focus keyword in headlines for better ad quality. Also, test a minimum of two ad variations per ad group consistently, and add sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets.

When all these aspects work properly, your ads reach the right target audience and convert more potential customers.

Detailed Overview of PPC Audit

A PPC audit is a systematic review of your Google Ads account to identify wasted spend, technical problems, and missed opportunities (we discussed the techniques at length in the previous section). The goal is to find actionable insights that improve your return on ad spend.

Let’s get into more detail about the ways these audits work.

Regular Audits Reduce Wasted Ad Spend

Regular audits catch budget-draining issues before they cost you thousands in wasted clicks. They find lost budget on the wrong keywords, broken tracking, or ads showing in irrelevant searches.

We’ve found that most accounts leak one-third of their budget without anyone noticing until they run an audit.

Audits also find out which particular keywords attract potential customers versus irrelevant clicks that will never convert. For instance, a Brisbane law firm might find that they’re paying for searches like “law degree requirements” when they only want “personal injury lawyer Brisbane”.

You can also detect technical issues like broken tracking before they drain money for weeks if you perform regular checks on your Google Ads account.

Recommended Audit Frequency

The truth is, your audit frequency depends on your monthly ad spend and account complexity. In our experience, small business accounts under five thousand dollars monthly need only quarterly audits to catch issues before they become expensive problems.

Honestly, data accumulates more slowly when you’re spending less. That’s why checking every three months gives you enough information to identify certain patterns.

That said, if your account has a monthly budget of over twenty thousand dollars, you’ll need to perform checks weekly. You’ll also have to review the account every quarter to prevent budget waste at scale (especially in competitive markets).

When spending increases, a poorly set up Ad campaign can use up your monthly budget very quickly. For that reason, weekly checks help notice problems early, while quarterly reviews look more closely at strategy and account structure.

Pro tip: Run an immediate audit when your conversion rate drops suddenly, or costs spike without explanation.

What Are Common Issues Found in Google Ads Audits?

Common issues found in Google Ads audits often include poor account structure, missing negative keywords, and bidding strategies that don’t match campaign goals. From what we’ve seen, these three issues constantly appear in audits and lead to inefficient budget use.

We’ll take a closer look at these issues.

Poor Account Structure

Believe it or not, using a single campaign for everything lowers ad quality because it mixes unrelated keywords together. So when someone searches for something specific, like “men’s running shoes”, but sees a general ad, they are less likely to click.

The same problem appears at the ad group level as well. Like, when ad groups contain more than 30 keywords (as a rule of thumb), it becomes difficult to optimise them. Why? It’s because you can’t write relevant ads for many different search intents.

But a well-organised account structure gives you more control over budget distribution. It allows you to pause underperforming ads while keeping high-performing campaigns running smoothly.

Missing Negative Keywords

If you don’t use negative keywords, irrelevant searches can trigger your ads. These incidents gradually drain your budget and reduce the overall efficiency of your ad campaign.

And the problem gets worse when you use broad match keywords without any safety net. Specifically, broad match without negatives shows ads for completely irrelevant searches that only share one or two words with your target keyword.

Take an accounting firm targeting “tax services” as an example. They might show ads for “tax refund status” or “free tax calculator”. It’ll attract people looking for DIY solutions and not professional help.

This is why you need to review search terms weekly to build comprehensive negative keyword lists. This practice will protect you from losing money.

Wrong Bidding Strategy for Campaign Goals

The right bidding strategy aligns ad spend with real business goals instead of vanity metrics. For example, Maximize Clicks bidding can waste money when conversion goals are your priority, since it focuses on volume. This way, you’ll get plenty of clicks from people who have no intention of buying.

And if you go the automated bidding way, remember that it needs sufficient conversion data first to work properly (we’ve found it to be at least 30 conversions per month). Without that volume, the system struggles to learn and often makes inefficient decisions early on.

So, match your bidding strategy to your campaign goal for the best results rather than letting Google choose for you.

How Do You Prioritise Your Audit Findings?

You prioritise audit findings by fixing urgent issues like broken conversion tracking first. After that, you should address high-impact problems like wasted ad spend and then move on to time-consuming improvements, namely testing new ad copy.

Let’s start with broken conversion tracking. You have to fix it first because you can’t measure anything without it. And when it doesn’t work, you’re spending money blindly with no idea which campaigns deliver results and which ones burn cash.

Then come the negative keywords. Deal with them next to stop bleeding your budget on irrelevant traffic. Based on our experience, it takes one to two hours to complete this task, and you’ll notice its impact almost immediately.

Another thing on the priority list is managing your Quality Score. If the score is under five, you often pay more per click because your ads are less competitive than those with higher scores. More precisely, a score of three or four signals low relevance, which means Google expects weaker alignment with what people search for.

And the penultimate one on the list is improving elements that require time, like fixing weak ad copy and optimising your dedicated landing page. These changes take more time but still deliver solid returns (and the impact lasts for a long time).

How Do You Prioritise Your Audit Findings?

Once you fix the most urgent problems, you can then focus on improving overall performance. At that point, reorganising the account structure comes last, because it takes even more time and delivers benefits gradually.

Below is an audit priority matrix to help you understand the fix order:

Issue Found	Priority	Typical Impact	Time to Fix
Broken conversion tracking	Urgent	Results can’t be measured or optimised reliably	~30 mins
Missing negative keywords	High	Significant wasted budget from irrelevant clicks	1-2 hours
Poor Quality Score (under 5)	High	Higher cost per click and reduced ad competitiveness	2-4 hours
Weak ad copy	Medium	Lower click-through rate and missed traffic potential	3-5 hours
Unorganised account structure	Low	Harder optimisation and reduced control over the budget	1-2 days

Get Better Results From Your Ads

You’ve reached the end of our guide on auditing Google Ads accounts like a professional. You now know the seven areas to check, which problems drain the budget fastest, and how to prioritise fixes based on impact and urgency.

If you’re looking for an expert to take a look at your account, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. We’ve been managing Google Ads campaigns for years at SlamStop. Let’s refine your campaigns so every click supports your goals and call to action.

How to Reduce Ad Costs Without Losing Conversions

January 5, 2026December 28, 2025

You can reduce your Cost-Per-Click (CPC) by improving Quality Score and using better keyword targeting.

Sustainable results come from a balanced approach that combines stronger relevance with careful bid adjustments. It allows you to get more clicks from the same budget and supports stronger conversion performance.

If that sounds confusing, don’t worry. Here at SlamStop, we help businesses reduce their Google Ads costs while still keeping the conversions consistent. We simplify your campaigns so your ads reach the right people at the right time.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to reduce CPC through keyword optimisation. We’ll also share bidding strategies and how to analyse performance data.

Read on to learn how to stop overpaying for clicks.

How Do You Lower Your CPC in Google Ads?

You lower CPC by focusing on relevant keywords, cutting wasted spend with negative keywords, and improving your ads. Since these tactics support each other, the best idea is to combine them instead of relying on just one change.

Here are the strategies to reduce your CPC:

Long Tail Keywords: Broad match keywords can trigger irrelevant searches that waste budget. For example, someone searching “women’s trail running shoes size 8” is more likely to buy than someone searching “shoes”, so search volume drops but conversion rates improve.
Negative Keywords: Check your search terms every week to detect wasted ad money. We’ve seen how a plumber targeting “emergency plumbing Sydney” often appears for “plumbing courses” or “plumbing jobs”. So you should add those terms as negative keywords to avoid losing money.
Quality Score: Google scores ad relevance, expected Click-Through-Rate (CTR), and landing page experience from 1 to 10. When you improve these scores, ads often cost less because Google prioritises higher-quality adverts that create a better experience for users.
Landing Page Match: If your ad mentions “free shipping on orders over $50”, that message should appear clearly above the fold on your landing page. When messages don’t match, users leave quickly, which can negatively affect Quality Score over time.
Assets: Since you’re already paying for the click, you should give searchers more reasons to choose your ad. We recommend using sitelinks and callouts because they can increase visibility on search engine results pages.

These tactics create more efficient Google Ads campaigns that cost less while delivering higher-quality traffic.

What Bidding Strategies Reduce CPC?

Bidding strategies that reduce your cost-per-click include manual CPC and automated bidding with maximum CPC limits. The best option for you between them depends on how much conversion data you have and how much control you want over your bids.

Let’s get into more detail about these bidding strategies.

Set Maximum CPC Limits on Automated Bidding

Some campaigns can see CPC rise well above the average, for which many people rely on automated bidding. But there’s a problem with this strategy. Google may bid higher when it predicts a strong chance of conversion, and it can sometimes result in paying a lot more for a click than usual.

The solution is to use portfolio strategies. They let you limit your maximum CPC on Target ROAS or Target CPA campaigns.

For example, if your average CPC is $3, you can set your max limit between $9 and $15. It gives the algorithm room to bid up for high-value clicks while protecting you from budget-draining spikes.

Try Manual CPC for New Campaigns

New campaigns usually lack enough conversion data for automated bidding to work well. While there’s no fixed minimum, these systems perform better once more data is collected. Until then, manual bidding helps you control costs and avoid overspending early on.

Now, to set up manual CPC, you need to check which keywords bring conversions at a reasonable cost each week. Then increase your bids by 10 to 20 per cent on those terms (it’ll prevent runaway bid escalation).

As a rule of thumb, you can switch to automated bidding once you’ve got consistent conversion volume (often around 30-50 in recent weeks). The algorithm finally has enough information to optimise properly.

Here’s a quick comparison table to give you a better understanding of available bidding strategies:

Bidding Strategy	Best For	Control Level	When to Use
Manual CPC	New campaigns, testing	Full control	Limited conversion data
Automated with Max Limits	Mature campaigns	Controlled automation	Prevent cost spikes

How Do You Use Performance Data to Cut Costs?

You can cut costs by looking at what’s actually working in your data and then adjusting bids for the right times, locations, and devices. This way, you spend more on what works and less on what doesn’t.

We’ll explain how to use your performance data correctly.

Adjust Bids by Time and Day

Did you know your conversion data shows which hours and days deliver the best results? For instance, you might be paying for clicks at 2 AM when no one is buying, while missing peak hours when your target audience is actively searching.

So, take a look at your “When and where ads showed” report to find your best-performing time slots. If conversions cost $45 between 11 PM and 6 AM but only $28 during business hours, you’re ultimately wasting money.

That’s why we recommend actively decreasing bids during low-performing times to reduce wasted spend and increasing them when conversion rates are the highest.

Target High-Converting Locations

Location reports show which areas deliver the best cost per conversion. To give you an idea, a Sydney campaign might find that North Sydney converts at $32 per lead while Parramatta costs $58. Same city and same ads, yet you’re seeing a completely different performance.

Here’s what you need to do: adjust your bids down for locations with high CPC but low conversions. Honestly, you don’t need to exclude these areas entirely. Just reduce what you’re willing to pay.

Also, don’t forget to focus your budget on regions where your target audience actually converts. Spending money evenly everywhere is how many companies lose their budgets, which we see frequently in our audits.

Pro tip: Apply smaller bid changes first, then measure impact over at least two weeks before scaling.

Optimise for Best-Performing Devices

Device performance can differ a lot across phones, desktops, and tablets, so results aren’t always the same. In many cases, people research on mobile but wait until they’re on a desktop to complete a form or enquiry.

As an example, someone might be researching lawyers on their phone during lunch. However, they often wait until they’re home on a desktop before submitting a contact form.

What can you do then? Well, check device performance weekly and adjust bids based on conversion rates and cost per conversion. In our experience, if mobile brings cheap clicks but desktop converts at twice the rate, increasing desktop bids by 15 to 25% is usually enough.

Your Next Steps to Lower Ad Spend

We’ve reached the end of our guide on reducing CPC without losing conversions. You now know that Quality Score improvements and negative keywords deliver quick wins, while bidding strategies give you long-term control over costs.

Remember that you don’t need to do everything together. Start small by checking your search terms for one week, then add negative keywords the next to stop wasted clicks. After that, review your Quality Score and fix anything hurting your ad rank.

And if you want the expert to optimise your Google Ads campaigns, don’t hesitate to contact us at SlamStop. Our team will help you cut costs while maintaining conversions.

SlamStop

Google AdWords Managers

Month: January 2026