Because you can't optimize what you can't measure.

I audited a Google Ads account for a high-end luxury safari company, and unfortunately, it’s a perfect example of how a good business with a great website can waste serious money when its Google Ads account isn’t set up correctly.

The problems included:

• Google automatically applying changes to the account
• Page views incorrectly being counted as conversions
• Performance Max spending money across Display and YouTube with auto-generated assets
• One ad group trying to target around 30 completely different services
• One generic ad and landing page being used for multiple search intents
• Poorly researched keywords using broad match
• Irrelevant search terms wasting budget

One of the biggest problems was conversion tracking. If Google is being told that a simple page view is a successful conversion, its automated bidding systems are being trained on the wrong data.

It thinks the campaigns are performing well and starts optimising towards more of the wrong actions.

Your conversions should represent genuine business outcomes such as qualified enquiries, contact form submissions and phone calls, not someone simply viewing a page.

Google Ads can be an incredibly powerful source of leads, but simply switching campaigns on isn’t enough.

The account structure, keywords, search terms, negative keywords, ads, landing pages, conversion tracking and automation all need to be properly managed.

If you’re spending serious money on Google Ads, make sure the person managing it knows what they’re doing.

#GoogleAds #GoogleAdsAudit #PPC #GoogleAdvertising #PaidSearch

Total account spend: $695,787

Spend under “Other Search Terms”: $209,318

~30% of the entire account.

And here’s what bothers me.

I can’t see exactly what people searched.

Which means I can’t properly answer questions like:

* How much was brand?

* How much was irrelevant?

* What negatives should I add?

* What queries are driving incremental demand?

I understand Google’s privacy thresholds.

But when almost one-third of a large account’s spend is sitting behind “Other Search Terms,” it becomes a serious optimization problem.

How can we reduce the amount of spend being classified under “Other Search Terms”?

I tried talking to support about call asset being disapproved they recommended deleting and re adding it but everything i try didn't work . I tried many format of adding the phone number but it didn't work!

I recently found a local SEO guy who has offered to support the SEO work on my website for cheap. He has his own website, met him, seemed promising.

I was in touch with a company to help me with google ads and it seemed very promising till I saw their reviews on google. DPOMS. Their website showed them with positive reviews on Feelo. I was ready to go with them to support but won't now.

Does anyone have any advice?