5 Common Google Ads Mistakes and How to Fix Them

An interior designer once showed me her Google Ads dashboard with visible frustration. She'd spent $10,000 over six months. Clicks looked decent. But actual leads? Maybe five. Cost per lead: $2,000. She was ready to quit ads entirely.

I spent twenty minutes reviewing her campaigns and found the same five mistakes I see repeatedly. After fixing them, her cost per lead dropped to $180 within two months. Same budget, 10x better results.

Most businesses waste Google Ads money making entirely preventable mistakes. Here are the five most expensive ones.

Mistake 1: Broad Match Keywords Without Negatives

The designer was bidding on "interior design"—broad match, no negatives. Know what that captured? Searches for "interior design schools," "interior design courses," "interior design software," "DIY interior design tips."

People searching those terms aren't looking for an interior designer. They want education, software, or DIY advice. Every click wasted money.

The Fix

Use phrase match or exact match for high-intent keywords. If you use broad match, aggressively build negative keyword lists.

For that designer:

• Changed keyword match types to phrase: "interior design services" "Vancouver interior designer"
• Added negatives: school, course, software, DIY, jobs, careers, salary, ideas, free, tips

Clicks decreased 40%, but relevance increased dramatically. Leads quintupled.

Building Negative Lists

Review search terms report weekly for the first month, then monthly. Add irrelevant terms as negatives immediately.

Create negative keyword lists for common junk terms: free, jobs, careers, DIY, cheap, reviews (if you're not targeting review intent), how to (if you're selling services, not information).

Mistake 2: Sending All Traffic to Your Homepage

The designer's ads all pointed to her homepage—a beautiful portfolio showing residential and commercial work, information about her process, an about page, contact form.

Someone searching "kitchen renovation designer Vancouver" clicked her ad, landed on a general homepage, saw bedrooms and offices and living rooms... and left to find someone who clearly does kitchens.

The Fix

Match landing pages to ad intent. Every ad group needs a specific landing page addressing that search.

• Ad for "kitchen designer Vancouver" → landing page about kitchen design services
• Ad for "commercial interior design" → landing page about commercial projects
• Ad for "condo interior design" → landing page about condo work

Create dedicated landing pages for each major service. If that's not possible immediately, at least link to relevant portfolio sections or service pages—not generic homepage.

After creating service-specific landing pages, the designer's conversion rate doubled. Same traffic, twice the leads.

Mistake 3: Ignoring Search Terms Report

Most advertisers set up campaigns, let them run, and never look at what searches actually triggered their ads.

The search terms report shows actual queries that caused impressions and clicks. It reveals wasted spend and new opportunities.

The Fix

Review search terms weekly initially, then biweekly after campaigns stabilize.

Look for:

• Irrelevant searches (add as negatives)
• High-performing searches (create dedicated ad groups for these)
• New keyword opportunities (searches you hadn't considered targeting)
• Intent mismatches (searches that don't align with your services)

The designer discovered searches like "home stager interior designer" and "feng shui interior designer Vancouver"—services she offered but hadn't explicitly targeted. She created new ad groups for these, capturing additional qualified traffic.

Mistake 4: Poor Ad Copy That Doesn't Differentiate

The designer's ads were generic:

"Interior Design Services
Professional interior designer
Get beautiful spaces"

So was every competitor's. Nothing distinguished her. No reason to click her ad instead of others.

The Fix

Differentiate clearly in headlines and descriptions:

• What makes you different?
• What specific problem do you solve?
• What results can customers expect?
• Why should they choose you?

Better ad copy for the designer:

"West Coast Modern Interior Design
Sustainable Materials | 10+ Years Vancouver
Transform Your Space—Free Consultation"

This specifies style (West Coast Modern), values (sustainable), experience (10+ years local), and offer (free consultation). Someone searching for sustainable design in Vancouver has reason to click this over generic competitors.

Include Offers and CTAs

Ads with specific offers perform better than vague ones.

Weak: "Contact us today"

Strong: "Free design consultation—Book this week"

Clear value proposition + urgency = better click-through and conversion rates.

Mistake 5: No Conversion Tracking

The designer couldn't tell which keywords, ads, or campaigns generated leads. She only knew total spend and total clicks. This is flying blind.

Without conversion tracking, you can't optimize. You don't know what works and what wastes money.

The Fix

Set up conversion tracking for actions that matter:

• Form submissions
• Phone calls (using Google call tracking numbers)
• Chat initiations
• Email clicks
• Purchases (for ecommerce)

Once tracking is active, you can see which campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and individual ads drive conversions—not just clicks.

The designer implemented conversion tracking and discovered that one campaign generated 70% of leads despite only 30% of spend. She reallocated budget accordingly, improving ROI immediately.

Beyond Last-Click Attribution

Consider implementing data-driven or first-click attribution models. Many conversions involve multiple touchpoints. Understanding the full customer journey helps optimize across all interactions.

Additional Common Mistakes

Wrong Bid Strategy

Automated bidding (Target CPA, Maximize Conversions) needs sufficient conversion data—typically 30+ conversions monthly. Without this, automated strategies perform poorly.

Start with Manual CPC until you have conversion volume, then transition to automated.

Ignoring Ad Extensions

Sitelink, callout, structured snippet, call, and location extensions increase visibility and click-through rates. Use all relevant extensions.

Broad Geographic Targeting

If you serve Vancouver, don't target all of BC or "Vancouver area." Be specific. Tight geographic targeting reduces wasted clicks from people outside your service area.

Not Using Audience Targeting

Layer in audience segments: remarketing lists, in-market audiences, customer match. These improve targeting beyond keywords alone.

Setting and Forgetting

Google Ads requires ongoing optimization. Markets change, competitors adjust, performance shifts. Review campaigns at least monthly, make data-driven adjustments.

The Optimization Framework

Fix these mistakes systematically:

1. Review search terms, add negatives
2. Create dedicated landing pages for major services
3. Implement conversion tracking properly
4. Rewrite ad copy to differentiate
5. Refine match types and keyword targeting
6. Monitor performance weekly

The designer followed this framework. Her $10,000 in wasted spend became $10,000 generating 55+ qualified leads. Cost per lead dropped from $2,000 to $180.

Same budget. Drastically different results. The difference was fixing preventable mistakes.

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