Seven places Google Ads budget quietly leaks
We usually find 20–30% of spend recoverable in the first audit.
Leak one: conversion tracking that counts the wrong thing
If your primary conversion is a page view or a raw form submit, Smart Bidding is optimising toward noise. Define a conversion the business recognises — a qualified enquiry — and feed offline outcomes back where you can. Everything downstream depends on this.
Leak two: broad match without a negative list
Broad match with an aggressive tROAS and no negative keyword discipline will find you every adjacent query in the market. Review the search terms report weekly for the first two months and build the negative list as a permanent asset.
Leak three: search partners and Display expansion
Both are on by default and both dilute performance for most lead-generation accounts. Separate them, measure them honestly, and keep them only if they earn their place.
Leak four: location settings
"Presence or interest" means people merely interested in Hyderabad see your ads. For a local service business, set it to "presence" and watch the wasted clicks drop.
Leaks five to seven
Ad schedules that ignore when your team can answer the phone. Landing pages that load in six seconds on mobile, wasting the click you just paid for. And branded campaigns cannibalising organic clicks you already own — worth testing with a proper holdout before assuming either way.
What to do first
Fix conversion tracking, then negatives, then landing page speed. Our Core Web Vitals guide covers the speed work, and landing page anatomy covers what happens after the click.
A 30-minute consultation and a written summary of what we would prioritise.
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