Are you wasting 50% of your Google Ads budget?
Here’s How to Fix It.

The cost of clicks from Google Ads is rising. Are you getting value?

Google is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools available, with the ability to reach a highly targeted audience at exactly the moment they are searching for your products and services, and as such, it can deliver phenomenal returns.

But only if it is managed correctly!

Most businesses are unknowingly wasting up to 50% of their Google Ads budget through either poor keyword targeting, unoptimised ad copy or the inability to track conversions correctly.

Wasted ad spend is much more common than you may think, and here at Altitude Internet, as an agency that specialises in helping small and medium-sized businesses get the best returns from Google Ads, we have literally seen every problem under the Sun.

This short blog will walk you through some key mistakes that cost businesses thousands each year, and more importantly, tell you how to fix them.

Many advertisers fall into the trap of bidding on what’s known as ‘broad match’ keywords.

This means your ads may show for irrelevant searches that can drain your budget without driving any real leads.

Let’s say you’re a solicitor targeting keywords like ‘family lawyer near me’, but your ads are showing for ‘Law school near me’ or ‘free legal advice’.

The best way to fix this is to use phrase match and exact match keywords rather than broad match, and also to make sure that you have added the most suitable negative keywords, for example,’ School’ or ‘free’.

This will help to reduce the risk of less relevant search terms triggering your ads.

The next major issue that we come across is businesses that are not tracking leads correctly or even at all.

If you are not tracking leads with conversion tracking, how can you possibly know what’s working?

Many businesses rely on metrics like clicks and impressions, but fail to measure actual conversions such as form fills, telephone calls or sales.

It is therefore super important to set up conversion tracking via Google Tag Manager or Google Ads from the start.

You should link your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics account for deeper insights, and where possible, assign a real value to your conversions, for example, £100 for a completed form/enquiry.

This will allow you to track what’s working and what isn’t, and when you know what’s not working, you can drive more of your budget to what is working.

The next area that many businesses fail at is compelling ad copy.

You only get a split second to grab people’s attention, and if your ads don’t clearly show value and include a strong call to action, your competitors are likely going to generate the click even if you are paying more than them.

The best way to fix this is to use responsive search ads to let Google optimise the headlines based on the search query, but also to test different call to actions like get a free “download now” or “speak to an expert today”.

You should also consider highlighting Unique selling points like free shipping, 247 support or five-star rated reviews.

Google Ads is no longer just about the keywords; audience signals matter too, and if you are not layering in audience segments, you’re missing out on enhanced targeting that can drastically improve Google Ads campaign performance.

You should consider adding in-market affinity and remarketing audiences, adjusting bids based on age, gender, device and location as well to maximise audience targeting.

Even with a technically sound Google Ads account, success will depend on your strategy.

That’s why an agency like Altitude Internet can step in and take the weight off your shoulders by using our team of experts, all fully certified in Google Ads campaigns and strategies to get the best from your campaign.

If you would like to schedule a call with a member of our Google Ads team, please click here to schedule a call

We would more than likely want to send a link request to your existing Google Ads account, and once you have accepted this, this will allow us to conduct an appraisal and highlight any areas of either wasted budget under performance or areas of concern.

We help clients in virtually every business sector that you can imagine, from local trade for businesses such as builders, plumbers and electricians, to emergency service companies like blocked drains or Mobile tyre repair, all the way through to professional services, including business sectors like architects, Solicitors and accountants.

We have been working with a client in the mystery shopping space since 2016.

They had tried running Google ads themselves but had struggled to generate any leads that were high quality, or that converted and were worried that they simply were burning through their budget, which they were.

They felt they were wasting precious resources and that they were losing faith in Google Ads.

We put together an intensive plan, having reviewed the Google Ads account and identified a number of areas of wasted budget.

Fast forward to 2024, we still work with this client today, they have successfully scaled their budget significantly over time.

We implemented conversion tracking, then stopped bidding on irrelevant keywords, tightened up the campaign massively with a combination of phrase match and exact match and built out a significant list of negative keywords.

We tested using AB testing techniques and identified the ads that generated the highest level of conversions.

We significantly improved campaign performance, which not only restored their faith in Google Ads as a model but also allowed them to significantly scale their campaign, and it’s now performing at a super high level with an optimisation score of 100% and excellent ad strength.

We have also supported this particular client, helping them to generate leads organically with an intensive SEO plan, and we have seen their business expand across the UK as a result of high-quality lead generation since we have been working with them.

Click here to read the case study in more detail and also to see some other success stories where we have helped clients significantly improve performance from using Google Ads as a lead generation tool.

We’re a 5-star rated award award-winning Google partner. Click here to see what hundreds of customers have said about working with us over the last decade

We have been helping clients generate better returns and results from their Google Ads accounts for over a decade, so if you’d like a free, no-obligation Google Ads account review, please contact us today, and we’ll be happy to schedule a call and see if we can help you.
Our ads management team holds all of the Google certifications, and in most cases, we can help to improve account and campaign performance.

Landing pages and websites can have a direct impact on Google Ads performance, and we can help with those too. Click here to learn more about landing pages and websites from Altitude Internet