Google Search Ads are a fantastic way to tap into existing demand and quickly drive people to your web pages to start getting leads and sales.
At our agency, we’ve even seen them work to drive valuable sales leads in as quickly as one week!
We once set them up for a therapist who had just started a brand new practice, and within four months, she told us to turn them off because she couldn’t take any more patients!
But when they don’t work, it can be frustrating. The complexity of the Google Ads interface alone is enough to turn most people away.
So, how do you set up and manage your Google Ads right so they drive you leads and sales profitably? Start by avoiding the common Google Ads mistakes below.
1. Not researching and selecting effective keywords
The entire power of Google Search Ads comes from catching people during crucial moment-in-time searches when looking for products or services like yours.
So, what keywords should you target?
You want to find the search phrases with the right combination of good search volume and strong search intent.
The Google Ads keyword planner can show you the estimated monthly search volume for keyword phrases on Google. This is amazing; researching these should be considered a core business skill of the 21st century.
The harder, more human skill is gauging the user’s search intent.
Businesses, marketers, and salespeople regularly select keywords WAY TOO GENERAL.
So, a lawyer might try running ads for “legal services” or “law firms.” That’s not necessarily bad, but it’s even better to get more specific. What kind of law do you practice? Examples might include estate planning, corporate law, personal injury, etc. For each of those, there are informational searches and commercial searches.
If someone searches Google for “what to include in a will” or “create my own will,” they’re not necessarily looking to hire an estate planning attorney. “Estate planning lawyer near me” or “hire a lawyer to create a will” would be a better bet.
I used to own an online custom pet painting business called Splendid Beast. When I did keyword research to discover demand for pet portraits, I saw that people do all kinds of online searches for phrases like:
- Pet art
- Cat art
- Dog art
But these phrases are still pretty general and seem more like informational or discovery searches. Google’s result page shows ads and companies for them and images people can peruse.
It is also important to manage broad-match keywords carefully to avoid irrelevant matches that do not convert.
I prefer to go after keyword phrases with more clear commercial intent to buy, such as:
- Custom pet portraits
- Custom cat portraits online
- Custom dog paintings
- Hire artist to paint my dog
Everyone Googles differently, so don’t assume the first phrases you imagine are the best. Let the online search demand market guide your focus, and stick primarily to commercial keyword phrases that imply people are willing to spend money.
2. Not tracking conversions or looking at the right metrics
To determine whether your Google Ads are effective, you need to measure the results through accurate conversion tracking. While it’s great to know your Impressions, Clicks, and Cost Per Click (CPC), the number you want is your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). If you’re selling products online, you’ll also want to know your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), which is called Conversion Value / Cost in Google Ads.
This all requires a special setup. You’ll need your tracking codes in place, configured, and tested. We usually recommend using Google Tag Manager for this, but if your website or e-commerce platform has a place to enter your Google Ads info, that can work, too.
3. Not building dedicated landing pages for your campaigns
You need to measure the results to know whether your Google Ads are effective. It’s great to know your Impressions, Clicks, and Cost Per Click (CPC), but the number you want is your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). If you’re selling products online, you’ll also want to know your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), which is called Conversion Value / Cost in Google Ads.
This all requires a special setup. You’ll need your tracking codes in place, configured, and tested. We usually recommend using Google Tag Manager for this, but if your website or e-commerce platform has a place to enter your Google Ads info, that can work, too.
There are many tools you can use to build standalone pages like this. Here are a few:
- LeadPages
- Unbounce
- HighLevel
- ClickFunnels
- Instapages
- HubSpot
- Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)
Sometimes, we build these with WordPress and have our developers hide the top menu.
Whatever tool you land on, know that the best landing pages are custom-built to match whatever you’re advertising, they have only one Call to Action (CTA) button, and often no top menu or other links to distract the user.
Speaking of which, the next mistake we see is the following.
4. Not having one single, clear as daylight, Call to Action (CTA) button
Businesses are often happy to receive leads however they come in, whether by phone call, email, form submission, live chat, text message, booked appointment, etc.
However, to be truly effective, you should only ask your users to do one thing per web page, and they should know exactly what happens after doing that.
So, for example, if you want them to fill out a form, tell them exactly what will happen after they fill it out. For example:
“Once we receive your information, we’ll follow up within one business day to set up a call to learn more about what you’re looking for.”
Reduce any anxiety or doubt they may have about the process.
Oh, and the CTA should be a web button, if possible. Check out this crystal-clear example from the LeadPages website.
There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind who sees your site about what they’re supposed to do on the page. One hundred users should be able to access it without anyone being confused about which elements are clickable and which aren’t and their next steps.
5. Not knowing your target metrics to hit
You always want to think ahead about what success would look like.
In general, advertising is spending money to make more money. That sounds basic, but you’d be amazed at how many businesses don’t first clarify their numbers.
If you sell services, you want to find out or calculate what your average sale is worth. From there, you want to get some sense of your Gross Profit Margins on a sale like that because that will start to guide you as you budget for pay-per-click (PPC) ads and monitor their results.
For example, a hair salon client of ours once told me that the average new female client spent $1,400 per year with them. This was a shock to me as a man, but it was pretty interesting!
Let’s say only 30% of that would be gross profit.
$1,400 x 0.3 = $420
After costs, that leaves just $420 of average gross profit per woman client per year.
So, to advertise profitably over a one-year time frame, this hair salon needed to bring in new clients for less than its gross profit of $420.
From there, we can project out the following and then measure it in the wild once the ads are running:
- Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Lead Conversion Rate
- Sales Conversion Rate
Let’s assume a $3 CPC (based on the middle range of what the Google Ads Keyword Planner is telling us for our keywords in our geography) and go with the 2.5% conversion rate the website sees according to Google Analytics (which we could probably improve with a dedicated landing page, as discussed in Mistake #3 above).
That comes out to $120 per lead. But that’s not the same as a customer.
From there, we need to know our lead-to-sales close rate, which we’ll have to keep track of. We know from our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that around 1 out of 4 leads become regular customers. That means we must multiply the $120 cost per lead by 4 to understand our cost per sale or customer acquisition.
$120 x 4 = $480
Dang. $480 is more than the $420 of annual customer profit we calculated above, so we need to improve any (or ideally all) of the following to make this work:
- Increase average annual customer value for the year ($1,400)
- Decrease Cost Per Click ($3 CPC)
- Increase our Conversion Rate and thus decrease our Cost Per Lead Acquisition
- Increase our Sales Conversion Rate and thus decrease our Cost Per Sales Acquisition
We have many levers to pull. Options #1 and #4 above involve the sales team selling more products or services or closing more leads into sales.
Options #2 and #3 hinge on following the advice in this guide, so read on!
6. Not matching keywords to ad copy to landing page copy closely enough
This one goes with not researching and selecting effective keywords. Once you know the highest-intent, highest-volume keywords to target, you should build your campaigns around them.
Unfortunately, Google once again tries to lead you astray by recommending that you just keep on adding keywords to your ad groups until the cows come home.
We recommend structuring your campaigns and ad groups around your target keywords and, ideally, the landing pages you built for each.
For example, when I bought the pet painting company Splendid Beast, they might have been running all of the following keywords in one ad group:
- Pet paintings
- Pet portraits
- Dog paintings
- Dog portraits
- Cat paintings
- Cat portraits
So, the first thing I did was create separate landing pages, at least for pets, dogs, and cats (it’s okay to combine similar concepts like paintings and portraits if they’re roughly the same thing).
Then, I created ad groups that matched the keyword phrases and wrote separate ads for each keyword phrase inside those ad groups.
Understanding and optimizing your campaign settings is crucial to avoid disrupting the learning phase of bidding algorithms, which can lead to suboptimal performance.
So if someone Googled for “custom pet portrait,” they’d see an ad like this:
The Ad Groups looked like this (see below) in the Campaign on the back end of the (much-hated) Google Ads interface.
Average Click-Through Rates (CTRs) are usually benchmarked in the 2-4%. Notice how this campaign saw CTRs over 8%! That’s because people click on ads that are tightly tailored to their search.
If the landing page they’re taken to is tailored to them and follows the guidelines above, they’re more likely to convert into leads or sales!
7. Trusting in and relying too much on Broad Keyword Match
As you can see, Google steers you toward many defaults that are not in your interest. Another one is the keyword match type.
Here is the semi-confusing way Google defines these with the example of a lawn mowing service. Here are the three levels of keyword specificity an advertiser could use:
| Broad Match (Comprehensive) | Lawn mowing service | Lawn aeration prices |
| Phrase Match (Moderate) | “Lawn mowing service” |
Lawn mowing service near me Hire company to mow lawn Landscaping services to cut grass |
| Exact Match (Tight) | [Lawn mowing service] |
Lawn mowing service Grass cutting service |
Back in the day, we had more control. For example, a keyword phrase match in quotes like “custom pet portrait” would only trigger ads for Search Terms that contained those words in that exact order with nothing in between, such as “order custom pet portrait online.”
And as long as I’m playing cranky grandpa, exact match used to mean if I entered the keyword [pet portrait], my ad would appear if and only if someone Googled “pet portrait” and not “custom pet portrait” because the latter wouldn’t be an exact match.
Alas, the world is going to hell in a handbasket, including the control Google gives you over your advertising. As such, you can see in the table above how running an ad for the keyword “lawn mowing service” in phrase match will still show your ad when people Google “landscaping service to cut grass.” This is the direction Google has been moving for years. I prefer more control, but no one asked me.
In any case, by default, Google sets you up on broad match. As a result, your ads will appear for irrelevant queries, and when people click on them, you will pay when you don’t want to.
Selecting an appropriate bidding strategy is also crucial to maximize ad performance and achieve specific goals in Google Ads.
That brings us to our next point.
8. Not monitoring Search Terms closely enough
Hopefully, you’ve gotten the gist: Google wants your money and doesn’t care whether you profit from the transaction.
That's why it’s imperative to scrutinize the Search Terms your ads appear for and ruthlessly shout “No!” to Google whenever they charge you for a search ad you didn’t want to pay for.
You do this by adding Negative keywords.
For example, Splendid Beast is an e-commerce company, so when I saw people searching “Pet artist near me,” I realized they might specifically want to hire a local artist, not an online one. So unless I wanted to be in the business of selling them on something they weren’t quite looking for, it was easier to add “near me” and a long list of cities as Negative Keywords.
Another example that often comes up is jobs. For example, we often run ads for clients in the senior living industry. Still, if our clients are looking for new assisted living residents (aka customers), they don’t want to pay for web traffic from people looking for jobs, careers, positions, salaries, etc.
Those are standard Negative Keyword lists we add for all clients. Part of the value of working with experienced Google Advertisers is that we can anticipate unwanted Search Terms and set you up on useful Negative Keyword lists from day one of your ad campaigns.
9. Mixing Non-Branded, Branded, and Competitor Traffic
You can bid on your brand name, competitors’ brand names, and unbranded keywords on Google.
The main kind of traffic people usually want from Google Ads is from unbranded search terms.
As in, new customers who wouldn’t have found you otherwise.
But once again, unless you take proactive action, Google mixes all three of these different types of searches (branded, non-branded, and competitor) together.
In the case of Splendid Beast, “pet oil paintings” would be an unbranded keyword because neither Splendid Beast nor any of their competitors are mentioned in the Search Term.
You can also bid on your brand name. That might seem strange, but sometimes your competitors will show up when people Google for you, in which case it might make sense to play some defense to make sure your branded search traffic actually goes to you.
The good news is, those clicks don’t usually cost too much because Google wants to serve its users the best search results and you are the best result for your own brand name.
The bad news is that if you don’t add your brand name as a negative keyword, your campaigns will look like they’re doing great in terms of conversions, conversion rate, and cost per conversion when, in reality, your Branded Searches are obscuring the actual performance of your non-branded keywords.
- RECOMMENDATION: Unless you have a reason to do otherwise, add your brand name and variations to your Negative Keywords.
- Always make Branded campaigns separate from Non-Branded campaigns
Likewise, if you want to advertise your company when people search for your competitors aggressively, you can do that.
But again, those search terms will perform completely differently from your non-branded search terms. People might click on your page from your ad (which means you’ll pay Google for this click), then realize they’re in the wrong place and click back. Or you might snag a few leads or sales from the arms of your competition. Or both could happen. There is no way to know until you test.
- RECOMMENDATION: If you target your competitor’s brand names as keywords, set up your Negative Keyword lists to make these separate campaigns or ad groups.
We usually create the following Negative Keyword lists and attach them to our client’s campaigns as appropriate.
10. Not generalizing Negative Keyword concepts enough
By default, when you review the Search Terms report, Google prompts you to add a specific keyword as a negative keyword.
Here’s an example from Splendid Beast pet paintings where someone wanted a “custom pet portrait mug.”
Because I’ve been running Google Search Ad campaigns for so long, a Search Term like this makes me want to generalize and think about other similar terms that haven’t yet appeared in my report.
Better to proactively add Negative keywords similar to “mug” for products we don’t sell, such as:
- Pillow
- Blanket
- T-Shirt
- Poster
11. Falling for Google’s default location setting
Google hides this really important setting and screws you over by assuming you want the default.
If you want to advertise in the United States, you might assume that selecting the United States as a location to target would do the trick.
Sadly, Google’s default behavior is to show your ads to “People in, regularly in, or who've shown interest in your targeted locations.” See the Red X below to find this default setting.
As you can imagine, many people outside the United States “show interest” in the United States. So your ads are served to people worldwide, even though you selected the United States as a location to target!
Ditto if you’re targeting your state, region, city, etc.
To fix this, you must dig deeper into more Settings and then Location options as above.
12. Running Display Ads and Search Ads in the same campaign
People browsing the web or using apps behave completely differently from people using Google to search for things.
As an advertiser, the entire purpose of Display Ads and thus their performance in terms of Click-Through Rates (CTRs) and conversion rates will be wildly different (and often terrible).
So don’t run Display Ads in the same Campaign as your Search Ads, or you won’t be able to tell what’s working and what isn’t.
It is also important to manage account structure within the search network to avoid duplicated keywords.
And while you’re at it, exclude Google search partners (other search engines) unless you have a reason to expand beyond ad impressions on Google.
Note that Google’s Performance Max option, which they’re now pushing down everyone’s throats, does the opposite of everything I just said. Be extremely wary.
13. Not taking full advantage of Ad Assets
Google prompts you to include headline and description ad copy variations in your Search Ads, but to stand out and take up the most real estate, you’ll want to build out Ad Assets (formerly known as Extensions).
These allow you to take up more space on the Search Engine Result Page, give people more reasons to consider clicking, and even open up different conversion types, such as Calls right from Ads or Forms that can be filled out directly on the Google result page.
Our favorites are:
- Image
- Business Name
- Logo
- Sitelink
- Callout
- Call
- Location
Notice the rich results below. The top 3 advertisers have images, and the top 2 have site links that can take you directly to the page you’re looking for.
This additional real estate costs nothing extra, so:
- Take the time to set up your Ad assets!
14. Not including keywords in your headlines and descriptions
If someone is doing a Google search, they’re looking for something.
Include their search terms in your ad headlines to clarify that you have exactly what they’re looking for.
The following ad achieved an impressive 9% Click-Through Rate (CTR) for the phrase “custom dog portraits”
Take a look back at the example of “plumbers Madison” above. Google bolded “plumbing” in the ad descriptions, further drawing people’s eyes.
15. Not flexing about Unique Selling Propositions in the Ad Copy
If you have special offers, guarantees, or other differentiators from your competition, put those directly into your Google Ads. Hence, people know you’re different and that they should click to learn more.
These can go in Headlines, Descriptions, Callout assets, or elsewhere.
16. Blindly trusting Google’s automated bidding
In the old days, you used to bid for Search Ads (formerly AdWords) and paid $0.01 more than your closest competitor’s highest bid.
Now Google is pushing all advertisers to trust it to optimize for you with smart bidding strategies…And all their other customers who are competing with you.
I find this strange.
Imagine going to an in-person auction and the auctioneer telling you that you didn’t need to bid because he would automatically bid for you and your competitors.
Huh?
The entire point of an auction is to discover what each party is willing to pay and sell to the highest bidder(s).
We test automated bidding strategies constantly for ourselves and our clients, but sometimes, the CPCs and CPAs climb way too high, so we return to manual bidding.
17. Treating Google Ads and SEO as completely separate
The SEO and PPC teams (or agencies) are often entirely different at bigger companies. But the reality is that each channel, paid vs. organic, works best when considering what’s happening in the other world.
For example, the free SEO tool Google Search Console can help you rapidly identify where you’re not ranking at the top organically and might want to pay for keywords. Just filter for Position > 10.
Likewise, when you connect Google Ads and Google Search Console, you get access to the Paid & Organic report, which can help you see how these two channels play together. It often makes sense to dominate the results page with Google Ads and organic results.
18. Ignoring Impression Share and Auction Insights
Our clients sometimes say, “Hey, I Googled for [our keywords], and I didn’t see us come up.”
Then we explain that their budget only goes so far, and they will sometimes miss out on some searches.
Impression Share shows you “impressions you’ve received on Google search sites divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.”
Once your ads achieve a profitable cost per lead or sale, look at your impression share to see if you can drive more clicks and conversions by increasing your daily budget to show up more often.
Likewise, Auction insights show you how often you show up versus your competitors and how high on the page your results are showing (Top of Page and Absolute Top of Page).
But don’t be fooled by vanity metrics. While it’s nice to be the top dog and show up at the top more often than your competitors, reaching a profitable CPA and scaling up the spend is more important.
19. Ignoring other strategic settings
These can include:
- ad scheduling
- device targeting
- audience targeting like
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Remarketing to previous visitors.
Sometimes, these settings can make the difference between unprofitable and profitable ads.
20. Giving Up Too Soon
A money-making machine is a rare and special thing in this universe, so know that creating and finding one takes time and testing.
- Dedicate a budget to test with
- Select a realistic timeframe to test within
Each campaign should be given at least a few thousand dollars and around 1-4 months to give it time to collect the data and give you time to implement what you’ve learned here.
21. Not trying Bing Ads
Many of us snicker when we think of Bing because everyone uses Google Ads now.
However, many Windows PC users use the default browser, Microsoft Edge, which runs Bing.
Plus, Microsoft and Bing gained a lot of attention by incorporating their AI assistants right into their browsers and search engines. Here’s where Bing and Yahoo stand in a recent report.
Bing Ads run on Bing and Yahoo, so there’s another ~15% of the desktop search market to go after here in the US.
This is doubly important if you’re selling to other businesses (B2B) or older demographics, who are more likely to use Bing.
They make it easy to import your Google Ads, so why not try? In some cases, we’ve even seen Bing Ads work better than Google Ads.
Frequently Asked Questions: Avoiding Common Google Ads Mistakes
Why is keyword research necessary for Google Ads?
Keyword research is crucial because it helps you identify the search terms with the right search volume and user intent. Targeting the right keywords ensures your ads reach potential customers at the crucial moment when they're searching for products or services like yours.
What is conversion tracking, and why is it necessary?
Conversion tracking measures the effectiveness of your Google Ads by tracking actions such as sales, form submissions, or calls. It helps you determine your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), providing valuable insights into your campaign's performance.
Why should I create dedicated landing pages for my ads?
Dedicated landing pages tailored to your ad campaigns improve user experience and increase conversion rates. These pages should match the ad's message and have a clear, single Call to Action (CTA) to guide users toward taking the desired action.
How can I avoid broad keyword matches causing irrelevant ad clicks?
Use more specific match types like phrase and exact matches to avoid irrelevant matches. Regularly review your Search Terms report and add negative keywords to filter out unwanted traffic, ensuring your ads only appear for relevant searches.
What are negative keywords, and how do they help?
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing for certain search terms that are not relevant to your business. By adding negative keywords, you can avoid paying for clicks that are unlikely to convert, improving your campaign's efficiency.
Why is having a clear Call to Action (CTA) important in ads?
A clear CTA directs users on what action to take next, reducing confusion and increasing the likelihood of conversion. It should be specific and outline what happens after the user completes the action, minimizing potential hesitation.
How does impression share impact my Google Ads campaigns?
Impression share indicates the percentage of times your ads were shown compared to the total available impressions. Monitoring impression share helps you understand if increasing your budget or improving your ad quality can drive more visibility and clicks.
What are Ad Assets, and why should I use them?
Ad Assets (formerly known as Extensions) are additional information you can add to your ads, such as site links, callouts, and images. They enhance your ad's visibility, provide more reasons for users to click, and can lead to higher engagement.
Why is it essential to match ad copy to keyword and landing page content?
Consistency between your ad copy, keywords, and landing page content ensures a seamless user experience. This relevance boosts your ad’s quality score, leading to better ad placements and higher conversion rates.
How can I effectively use automated bidding strategies?
Automated bidding strategies can optimize your bids for conversions, but monitoring performance closely is essential. Start with manual bidding to understand your campaign's dynamics, then test automated strategy while keeping an eye on critical metrics to ensure they align with your goals.
Next Steps for Your Google Ads
I hope you’ve found this guide helpful. The Google Ads platform is a powerful but complex tool for customizing advertising campaigns, and mastering it is crucial to avoid costly errors and maximize effectiveness. I’ve tried to distill the largest lessons we’ve learned at my digital marketing agency from 2016 until now.
If you’d like to take your Google Ads PPC skills even further, you might enjoy my Google Ads video course here.
https://mydigitalmarketingmastery.com/google-ads-that-sell/
And if you’d like to have an audit of your Google Ads or explore hiring help to set up and manage them, you can email me at the address below.
Thanks for reading, and happy marketing!
Eagan Heath
eagan.heath@asymmetric.pro
Asymmetric Marketing
Partner
About the author
Eagan Heath is a co-founder and Partner at Asymmetric Marketing – a unique agency specializing in building high-performing sales and marketing systems, campaigns, processes, and strategies for small businesses. Asymmetric has extensive experience working with local, ecommerce, and B2B companies.
If you'd like to discuss the challenges you're having and how we could potentially help, you can email Eagan at eagan.heath@asymmetric.pro or book a time with him here.