Ad Platforms Are Wasting Your Money (Here’s How To Stop It)

Most business owners assume ad platforms are on their side.

They’re not.

Google Ads, Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads are all built to make money for the platform first, not to get you clients.

And the fastest way to improve your ads is to question EVERYTHING ad platforms automatically enable for you.

Why “Default Settings” Are Dangerous

When you launch ads, platforms helpfully switch things on for you.

Sounds nice, right?

But those auto-toggles exist for one reason: to maximise how much you spend.

They don’t care about how many clients you get.

That’s an important difference.

The Platform’s Goal vs Your Goal

Let’s be clear:

• Your goal is to get more clients, profitably

• Their goal is to spend your budget as fast as possible

The platform makes money when your ads show to more people and when people click your ads.

Whether those clicks and views turn into clients is not important to them.

Examples

Google is pushing AI hard right now.

One example is AI Max.

It sounds smart and advanced, it sounds like it’ll “optimise” your ads.

But it:

• Expands your targeting too wide

• Shows ads on searches that don’t make sense

• Burns budget on low-quality clicks

More clicks don’t mean more clients.

For local businesses, especially, tighter control is always better than “AI knows best”.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram) does the same thing.

By default, it often includes:

• Facebook Marketplace

• Random low-quality placements

These placements are cheap…because they convert terribly.

Your ad might get loads of impressions and clicks, but still no enquiries.

The Simple Rule That Saves You Money

If you take one lesson from this article, have it be this:

If the platform turns it on automatically, question it.

Even if you think it’s a best practice.

Ask this:

• Does this actually help me get clients?

• Or does it just help the platform spend my money?

  
  

What To Do Instead

Before launching or scaling ads:

• Review every setting manually

• Turn off anything you don’t fully understand

• Focus ads on:

  • The right people

  • The right location

  • The right intent

.When you remove useless features:

• Your budget lasts longer

• Your leads improve

• Your cost per enquiry drops

Question every setting automatically enabled when you run ads.

If you need any advice or direct implementation to create successful ads that get you clients, click here for a free marketing consultation to get in touch.

We’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

Thanks for reading,

Filip Szemiczek