5 Google Ads Mistakes That Are Burning Your Ad Budget As You’re Reading This

If you’re running Google Ads, chances are you’re making at least one of these 5 deadly mistakes.

When you fix at least one of these, your Google Ads will be a money-printing machine that gets you clients while you sleep.

It’s not some complicated coding, it’s not some technical issue. Here are the 5 bottlenecks which stop your Google Ads from getting more clients.

[1] Google Ads Mistakes - Your Targeting

If you don’t solve this, you’re going to start getting requests and calls from countries 99% of people couldn’t even find on a map.

But when you fix this, your ads will only be shown to the people most likely to buy from you.

So, do 2 things:

1 - Location Targeting. 

Show your ads to only people in your local area. You can even add exclusion areas so your ads will never be shown in that area.

Whatever you choose to do, choose the local group most likely to buy from you.

2 - Keywords Targeting.

Choose keywords that your customers would search to find you. For example, “painting contractor near me”.

We’ll get into more detail about picking the right keywords later.

The lesson is still the same - make sure your ads are shown to people most likely to buy from you, otherwise it’s like advertising shoes to people without feet.

[2] Google Ads Mistakes - Forgetting These Words

Linking back to the previous point, you want to reach local people because it’s easier for you to serve local clients.

However, local people also want to buy from a local company. For them, local businesses are more trustworthy and the work is done quicker.

So, add this to your headline or description:

“In (Area)”.

This may look like this:

One of your 15 headline options - “Professional Plumber In Watford”.

One of your 4 description options - “Leaky Roof? Trusted Roofing Company In Milton Keynes”.

It’s a nice little addition which goes a long way in making customers trust you.

[3] Google Ads Mistakes - Not Being Specific

If you only take on certain clients, let people know.

For example, “accepting all renovations above £35,000”.

Doing this is great for 2 reasons:

1 - People who meet that criteria will think “this is exactly for me!” and that your business is tailored to them

2 - It saves you money on Google Ads. You only pay per click, so people who don’t meet that criteria won’t click.

[4] - Google Ads Mistakes - Not Excluding Keywords

Make it so you don’t come up when people search for something.

Imagine if a steakhouse came up when someone searched up ‘vegan restaurant’. That’s money wasted in showing your ad to someone who will never buy.

So, how do you spot what keywords to exclude?

You fix mistake 5.

[5] Google Ads Mistakes - Not Following The 80/20 Rule

Lots of businesses leave 100% of their budget towards exact match keywords.

Sounds great, right? Only show your ads to people who search the keywords you choose!

But you’d be surprised what stupid stuff people search to find you.

Someone might misspell ‘plumber’ and write ‘plumbeer’. Someone might write ‘sparky’ instead of ‘electrician’.

So, leave 20% of your budget towards broad targeting. This not only shows your ads to people looking for your service, but also helps you analyse what keywords to exclude.

Just go to campaigns, insights and reports, then search terms. You’ll see what people are searching to find your ads.

From there, add the ones that work to your exact keywords and the ones that don’t to your exclusion list.

The process is:

Broad targeting makes your ads show to people searching for something similar —> Spot which keywords are getting you clients and add them to exact targeting —> See which keywords make no sense for your service and exclude them —> Repeat.

If any of these tips are too technical or complicated, click here for a free marketing analysis and we’ll help your Google Ads hit it out of the park,, or your money back.