GOVERNMENT JOBS · IT CAREERS · PRACTICAL GUIDES
GOVERNMENT JOBS · IT CAREERS · PRACTICAL GUIDES
JobJet Insights · Google Ads
A Google Ads account can look busy while producing little commercial value. Impressions rise, adverts receive clicks and reports look active, yet the sales team sees few suitable enquiries. Waste is often a sequence of small mismatches rather than one dramatic error. The five mistakes below are useful audit questions for a small business. None proves that a campaign is failing on its own; use the evidence in your account.
A page view or button click may happen far more often than a real purchase or useful enquiry. If the campaign’s main goal rewards those actions, the report can improve without improving business results. Audit which conversion actions are primary and how they are counted. Test submissions end to end. Keep supporting engagement metrics available for diagnosis without confusing them with customers.
A service keyword can attract recruitment, training, free-download and support searches. Review available search-term data regularly and maintain a deliberate negative-keyword process. Broad matching is not inherently wasteful, and exact matching does not remove every risk. The mistake is using any setting without checking the traffic and outcomes it produces. Avoid copying long exclusion lists without reviewing their meaning.
A click from the wrong market is expensive if you cannot fulfil the request. Review location options, actual lead locations and service limits. A nationwide manufacturer may welcome remote enquiries; a local emergency service may not. Align the account, advert and landing page around the same delivery reality. Investigate unexpected locations before drawing conclusions from a single report.
Sending every advert to the homepage makes visitors find the relevant service again. Broken forms, intrusive pop-ups and unreadable mobile layouts add further friction. Use a page that answers the advert’s promise, explains the service and offers a practical next step. Check the confirmation message and receiving inbox after every major website change. Do not optimise the button colour while the form is failing.
A low-cost enquiry can be a duplicate, an irrelevant request or someone with no realistic need. Give every lead a simple outcome label and review the cost of qualified opportunities. Ask for the reasons behind exclusions and changes. Regularly changing budgets or bidding settings because one week looks weak can also make evaluation harder.
For each suspected leak, record the symptom, evidence, proposed fix and success measure. For example: “Many job enquiries; eight of the last ten unsuitable leads mention vacancies; exclude clear recruitment queries and clarify the service; review the share of suitable enquiries.” This turns a vague complaint into a test. It also prevents repeated changes that are never reviewed.
Choose the highest-spend service with weak qualified outcomes. Audit its conversion goal, queries, geography and landing page before changing the rest of the account.
Platform guidance checked on 19 October 2026. Interface options and policies can change; use the linked official documentation for current details.
Explore the Digital Marketing Insights library, or read our guide to auditing a landing page around the visitor’s next decision.
