Where local businesses waste money on Google Ads

Google's defaults are built for Google's revenue, not yours. Every account we audit has the same handful of leaks.

The first is broad match without a negative keyword list. You end up paying for searches from people who will never buy. Build the negative list in week one and review it weekly.

The second is the display network being switched on inside a search campaign. It looks like cheap traffic. It converts like an accident.

The third is location targeting set to people interested in your area rather than people physically in it. For a local service business, that distinction is the whole budget.

The fourth is running without conversion tracking. If you cannot see which clicks became phone calls, you are not managing a campaign — you are funding one.