The easiest way to waste money in digital marketing is to start spending before you actually know what success looks like.
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I see it happen all the time. A business decides they should be running Google Ads, sets a budget, hires someone to manage it and hopes the phone starts ringing. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. And even when it does, many business owners still aren’t sure if those leads are actually worth anything.
Before you spend a single dollar on advertising, you need to understand your numbers. I always start with a simple question. What is a lead worth to you?
Most people can’t answer that straight away. They might say they are happy to spend money if the return on investment is good, but when you ask about profit margins, conversion rates or how much they are willing to pay for a lead, the clarity disappears. If you don’t know those numbers, you can’t measure whether your advertising is working. You’re essentially guessing and hoping for the best.
That becomes even more important if your business has historically relied on referrals. A referral lead behaves very differently from a cold lead that found you through Google. Someone referred by a friend already trusts you. Someone clicking on an ad is just starting that relationship. If you don’t understand that difference, you can easily misread your results.
It’s also worth remembering that Google Ads is far bigger than most people realise. Many people think it’s just those sponsored results at the top of a search page. In reality, Google’s network includes display ads across websites, remarketing ads that follow people around the internet, shopping ads, YouTube video ads, discovery ads in Gmail and feeds, and even ads inside Google Maps.
That reach is powerful, but it also means it’s very easy to burn money if you don’t have a clear strategy.
One thing I encourage every business owner to do is make sure they actually own their advertising account. You would be surprised how often agencies set up accounts under their own ownership. If the relationship breaks down, the client can’t take the data with them. Your ad account contains valuable information about what works and what doesn’t. That data should belong to the business paying for it.
Once the basics are sorted, the next big mistake I see is focusing on the wrong metrics. Agencies often talk about impressions and clicks. Those numbers sound impressive, but they don’t pay your bills. An impression simply means your ad appeared. A click means someone visited your website.
The metrics that actually matter are the ones that represent real business outcomes. Phone calls. Enquiry forms. Sales. Those are the numbers that deserve your attention.
Even then, you need to track them properly. For example, many campaigns count someone clicking on a phone number as a conversion. That doesn’t necessarily mean the person actually called. If phone calls are important to your business, proper call tracking can show which keyword led to the call and whether that call turned into real revenue.
Another common source of wasted budget is overly broad targeting. Many campaigns rely heavily on broad keywords, which allows Google to show ads for searches it thinks are related. The problem is that “related” can be very loose.
I’ve seen campaigns where businesses selling house extensions were accidentally paying for clicks related to eyelash extensions and hair extensions. It sounds ridiculous, but it happens more often than you’d think.
That’s why regularly reviewing search terms and adding negative keywords is so important. Words like “free”, “job” or “how to” often attract people who are not looking to hire you. If you’re paying for those clicks, your budget disappears quickly.
Location targeting is another powerful lever that many businesses overlook. If you run a service business, most of your customers are searching locally. Someone looking for a plumber or handyman usually wants someone nearby. Building campaigns that target those local searches can dramatically improve your results.
The broader your targeting, the more you rely on luck. The more specific you become, the more control you gain.
At the end of the day, Google Ads isn’t magic. It’s simply a tool. When you approach it with clear objectives, proper tracking and focused targeting, it can become one of the most reliable growth channels a business has.
If this sparked a few ideas about your own advertising, or made you curious about what might be happening inside your account, let’s continue the conversation. I’m always happy to chat over coffee or see you at the next Masterclass.