Why most search ads fail: 3 mistakes I've seen in 12 years of reviewing Google Ads accounts
I've reviewed Google Ads accounts for over a decade, including years spent working with advertisers directly at Google. Different businesses, different budgets, the same three mistakes almost every time.
Generic keyword targeting
Say you run an HVAC company. Bidding on hvac or air conditioner in any match type is a money leak. That search could be a student writing a paper, someone comparing AC units to buy at a store, or a DIYer looking for a YouTube tutorial.
Long-tail keywords show intent. Generic keywords show a word. You're not paying for traffic, you're paying for the intent behind it. This is the first of the common Google Ads mistakes local businesses make.
Negative keywords added the wrong way
Most advertisers spot a junk search like how to start an hvac business and add the entire phrase as a broad match negative. Two problems: you'll still get bled by every other "how to" search you didn't think of, and broad match negatives can accidentally block searches you actually want.
Block the pattern, not the single search. One good phrase negative kills a thousand junk queries at once.
Keywords competing against themselves
Those two keywords mean the same thing to a customer, but to Google they're two entries fighting over the same searches. That's keyword cannibalisation: your quality scores drop, your CPCs rise, and you're effectively bidding against yourself.
In one account we restructured, cutting 100+ overlapping keywords down to 15 raised ROAS by 20%. Read the full case study →
None of these are exotic problems. They're structural ones, and they compound: generic keywords bring junk traffic, weak negatives fail to filter it, and cannibalisation makes you overpay for all of it. Most accounts don't need more budget. They need someone to look under the hood.
Think your account has these leaks?
Get in touch and we'll audit your Google Ads account for generic keywords, weak negatives and cannibalisation, then show you what's worth fixing first. See how our Google Ads management handles it.