Where Google Ads Budgets Quietly Leak

Most underperforming ad accounts are not badly written. They are structurally leaky, and the same handful of mistakes accounts for the majority of wasted spend.

Search partners and display left on

A search campaign with display network expansion enabled will quietly spend a large share of its budget on placements you never chose, at a much lower intent. Separating networks into their own campaigns is the first thing to check in any audit.

No negative keyword discipline

Broad match without a maintained negative list buys free, jobs, cheap, and the name of every competitor's product you do not sell. Reviewing the search terms report weekly and adding negatives is unglamorous and returns more than any bid strategy change.

One campaign, every location and device

Pooling all geographies, devices and match types into one campaign makes performance differences invisible and unbudgetable. Splitting by intent and geography lets you move money toward what works instead of averaging it away.

Conversion tracking that counts the wrong thing

Counting every form view, or every phone click including mis-taps, makes bad campaigns look profitable. Bidding algorithms then optimise toward the wrong signal, which is worse than not using them at all.

Fix tracking first. Every other optimisation depends on the numbers being true.