We audit a lot of ad accounts, and the verdict “advertising doesn’t work for us” almost always traces back to the same short list of problems. Few of them are obvious from the dashboard. Most are defaults nobody changed.
Here are ten, grouped by where they live. If you run your own ads, check each one this week. Most take minutes to fix.
Contents5 sections
Settings nobody changed
1. Showing ads to people who are not in your area
Google Ads’ default location option includes people who have shown interest in your location, not only people who are in it. A contractor in Richmond Hill can end up paying for clicks from another country. Switch the setting to people in or regularly in your targeted locations.
2. Display ads hiding inside search campaigns
New search campaigns often include the Display Network and search partners by default. For most local service businesses, those placements bring cheaper clicks of much lower quality. Turn them off until search is working well.
3. Broad keywords without negatives
Broad match can find good searches, but without a growing negative keyword list it also finds job seekers, DIY researchers and bargain hunters. Review search terms weekly and exclude the irrelevant ones.
Tracking that tells the wrong story
4. Counting the wrong conversions
Page views, scroll depth and button clicks counted as conversions make weak campaigns look strong and teach automated bidding to chase the wrong people.
5. Ignoring phone calls
For local services, calls are often the biggest share of leads. If only forms are tracked, the campaigns that drive calls look useless and get cut.
Ads and pages that do not persuade
6. One generic ad for everything
A single ad trying to cover twelve services speaks to nobody. Group keywords tightly and write ads that repeat what people searched for.
7. Sending every click to the homepage
The homepage has to serve everyone, so it rarely convinces anyone in particular. Point each ad group to the most relevant service page or a dedicated landing page.
8. No reason to choose you
If your ad reads like the three around it, the cheapest competitor wins. Add a specific offer, a price range, a guarantee or a speed promise.
How the account is managed
9. Changing everything every few days
Automated bidding needs time and stable conditions to learn. Constant changes to budgets, bids and targeting reset that learning. Make fewer, deliberate changes and give them a week or two.
10. Spreading the budget too thin
A modest budget split across many campaigns leaves each one without enough data to improve. Consolidate into fewer campaigns built around what sells best.
A 30-minute self-audit
- Check location settings in every campaign.
- Check whether Display Network and search partners are switched on.
- Open the search terms report and add ten negative keywords.
- List what counts as a conversion and remove anything that is not a real lead.
- Make sure calls are tracked.
- Click three of your ads and see where they land.
If this turns up more than you can fix in an afternoon, our Google and Meta Ads team starts every engagement with a full audit of exactly these points.
