11 Signs Your Google Ads Agency Might Be Wasting Your Money
Google Ads works. Badly managed Google Ads works too, just for Google.
By Lance Wagner · Published · Last Updated
How do I know if my Google Ads are being wasted?
Your Google Ads budget is probably being wasted if conversion tracking is broken, nobody reviews the search terms report, brand and non-brand are mixed together, or ads point at your homepage. Those four alone account for most wasted spend in small business accounts.
You don't need to learn Google Ads to tell whether it's being run well. You need to know what bad looks like.
Eleven signs, in rough order of how much money they cost.
1Nobody can tell you what a lead costs
If the answer involves clicks, impressions or engagements, the account is not being managed toward your business.
Cost per lead and cost per customer are the only two numbers that matter to you. Everything else is a diagnostic.
2Conversion tracking is broken or double counting
A shocking number of accounts count page views as conversions, or count the same lead three times.
Ask to see what a conversion is defined as. If a thank you page view and a phone call are both counted, and the phone call also fires a form event, your numbers are fiction.
3Nobody reads the search terms report
This is where you see the actual phrases people typed. It is also where you find that you paid for jobs you don't do and towns you don't serve.
Ask for last month's search terms report. If it takes a week to produce, nobody's been looking.
4No negative keyword list
Every account needs a growing list of what not to show up for. Free, jobs, salary, DIY, and the names of things you don't sell.
An empty negative list is the clearest sign of an account on autopilot.
5Brand and non-brand are in the same campaign
People searching your business name were going to find you anyway. Mixing those conversions in with everything else makes results look better than they are.
Split them. Then look at the non-brand numbers and have an honest conversation.
6Ads point to the homepage
Someone searched for one specific thing. Sending them to a homepage makes them hunt for it.
Every ad group should land on a page about that exact service.
7Performance Max is running unsupervised
Performance Max can work well. Left alone with no brand exclusions and no asset control, it quietly eats your budget and takes credit for people who already knew you.
Ask what the brand exclusion setup looks like. A blank stare is your answer.
8Location targeting is loose
Default settings will show your ads to people merely interested in your area, not just people in it.
If you serve one metro, set presence only and draw the radius where you'd actually drive.
9Calls aren't tracked
Local businesses get most of their leads by phone. If calls aren't counted as conversions, the account is optimizing against your best channel.
Track calls over 60 seconds. Anything shorter is usually a wrong number.
10Reporting is screenshots
A good report says what happened, what it cost, what changed and what's next. On one page.
A dashboard with 40 metrics is not transparency. It's cover.
11You don't own the account
If the agency created the account under their own management and won't transfer it, you're renting your own history.
Own the ad account, the analytics property, the domain and the Google Business Profile. Always.
The short version
- Ask for the search terms report. It answers most of these questions at once.
- Split brand from non-brand before you judge performance.
- Track phone calls or you're flying blind in a phone-driven business.
- Own your accounts, no exceptions.
Questions people ask
- How much of a Google Ads budget is typically wasted?
- It depends entirely on management quality, not on Google. The common leaks are irrelevant search terms, untracked calls, homepage landing pages and unmanaged Performance Max. Audit those four and most accounts find recoverable spend.
- Should I fire my Google Ads agency?
- Not before you ask for the search terms report, the conversion definitions and a brand versus non-brand breakdown. If those three take more than a week, you have your answer.
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