I audit around three or four Google Ads accounts a week. The same mistakes come up so often that I can usually guess the top three before I even log in. If your ads are running but leads are thin, the chances are at least half of these are live in your account right now. Here are the 12 biggest budget killers I see and exactly how to fix each one.

Mistake 1: Running Performance Max on a low budget with no brand exclusions

Performance Max is powerful, but on a budget under $3,000 a month it will spend 60 to 80 percent of your money on your own brand name or on worthless display impressions, then claim credit for conversions that would have happened anyway.

The fix: Add your brand name and competitor brand names as account-level negatives. In the Pmax campaign, turn on brand exclusions (Settings, Brand exclusions). If you are under $3k a month, pause Pmax entirely and run a standard Search campaign instead. Our Google Ads management service only turns Pmax on once a client has enough conversion data to feed it.

Mistake 2: Tracking page views as conversions

If your primary conversion is a thank-you page view, Google has no idea whether the user actually filled in the form correctly or bounced off the confirmation page. Worse, it will optimise toward whoever lands on that page most cheaply, not whoever becomes a real lead.

The fix: Track actual form submissions via GA4 events or GTM, imported into Google Ads as conversions. For phone businesses, track calls over 60 seconds, not every call (so accidental hangups do not count).

Mistake 3: Sending all traffic to the homepage

A user searched “emergency plumber Glenelg”. Your homepage says “Family-owned Adelaide plumbing since 1987”. They leave in 4 seconds.

The fix: Build dedicated landing pages per service and per suburb. The page should repeat the search term in the H1, show a phone number above the fold, and list three trust signals (ABN, reviews, years in business). For geo-targeting help, see our Adelaide Google Ads page.

Mistake 4: Broad match without Smart Bidding

Broad match on Manual CPC or Maximise Clicks is a money printer for Google and a slow bleed for you. The algorithm needs conversion signals to keep broad match on-topic, and without them it will happily spend $200 on searches like “plumbing apprenticeship wages”.

The fix: Either switch match types to phrase and exact, or switch bid strategy to Maximise Conversions with a target CPA. Not both half-done.

Mistake 5: No negative keyword list

I have opened accounts spending $5,000 a month with literally zero account-level negatives. That is malpractice by whoever set it up.

The fix: Add at minimum: free, cheap, DIY, how to, jobs, training, course, review, complaint. Then review the search terms report weekly and add new ones.

Mistake 6: Ignoring the search terms report

The search terms report is the single most valuable screen in Google Ads. It tells you exactly what users typed to trigger your ad and how much each query cost. Most people never open it.

The fix: Set a weekly calendar block for 20 minutes. Open Insights and reports, Search terms. Sort by cost descending. Read the top 30. Add irrelevant ones as negatives. Promote high-converting ones to exact match keywords in their own ad group.

Mistake 7: Location targeting set to “Presence or interest”

This is the default, and it means Google shows your Adelaide ads to anyone “interested in” Adelaide, including someone in Melbourne researching a holiday.

The fix: Locations, Location options, Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations. Same for the exclusion setting: Presence: People in your excluded locations. This one setting change has saved clients 20 to 30 percent of spend overnight.

Mistake 8: One giant ad group with 80 keywords

You cannot write ad copy that is relevant to “emergency plumber”, “blocked drain”, “hot water system repair”, and “gas fitting quote” all at once. Google penalises you with low ad relevance, and users get a generic ad that does not match their intent.

The fix: Split by theme. One ad group per service type, 5 to 15 keywords each, 3 RSAs per ad group. Tight themes outperform broad groups every single time.

Mistake 9: Only one ad per ad group

With a single RSA, you have nothing to test against. Google cannot tell you which message works.

The fix: Minimum two RSAs per ad group, ideally three. Test different angles: price, urgency, trust. Let them run at least 2 weeks before declaring a winner.

Mistake 10: Pinning every headline

Advertisers who came from the old Expanded Text Ad format tend to pin every headline to keep control. Google’s machine learning then has nothing to test, and ad strength drops to Poor. Poor ad strength reduces auction eligibility by a significant margin.

The fix: Only pin headlines where legally or factually essential (a price, a qualification, a disclaimer). Let Google test the rest. Aim for Ad Strength: Good or Excellent.

Mistake 11: Not using asset extensions

Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call, location, price, and image extensions all increase your ad’s real estate and CTR for free. Accounts without them are paying the same CPC for half the screen space.

The fix:

Sitelinks: minimum 6 per campaign
Callouts: minimum 8 per campaign
Structured snippets: at least one
Call extension: linked to your business number
Location extension: linked to Google Business Profile

Mistake 12: Setting a budget without knowing your math

If you set a daily budget without knowing your average order value, your close rate, and your target CPA, you are guessing. And Google is very good at eating guesses.

The fix: Use our Google Ads calculator to work backwards from average order value and close rate to a sensible target CPA and monthly budget. Then run the account toward that number, not the “whatever feels right” number your previous agency suggested. For a deeper look at pricing and what to expect, read our Google Ads cost page.

The meta-mistake: confusing Ads with SEO

Plenty of owners think running Google Ads is a substitute for SEO or vice versa. They are different tools with different timelines and different economics. I wrote a full breakdown on which one to start with in Google Ads vs. SEO: which to run first. Short answer: Ads for immediate leads, SEO for compounding traffic. Both if you can afford both.

What a healthy account actually looks like

A healthy $3,000 a month Adelaide account has:

2 to 4 Search campaigns, themed by service or urgency
Maximise Conversions with tCPA set to your real target
Account-level negative list of 50+ terms
Ad group structure: no more than 15 keywords per group
Ad Strength Good or Excellent on every ad
All extensions populated
Location targeting set to “Presence”
Search terms reviewed weekly
Average CPA within 30 percent of target

If yours does not look like that, there is money on the table.

One hour of review can save thousands

Work through these 12 items honestly. If you find three or more live in your account, you are almost certainly overspending by 25 percent or more. I offer free 30-minute account reviews, screen-shared, no sales pressure. Book a free strategy call or call me directly on 0403 454 199, Tuesday to Friday, 9 to 5 Adelaide time.

Google Ads Mistakes That Waste Your Budget in 2026