Almost every Google Ads account I review is wasting some money. That’s not a criticism. Google Ads has a lot of settings, several are switched on by default, and most business owners set up their campaigns once and get back to running their business. The good news: most waste can be cut without touching the parts of the account that bring in customers.
Below are the nine leaks I find most often, roughly in the order I check them (my own experience from 7+ years and 50+ industries, not an industry statistic), followed by a step-by-step cleanup.
First, put a dollar figure on it
“I think we’re wasting money” doesn’t tell you what to fix. A number does. Pick at least 30 days (90 for smaller accounts), and for each leak below, add up the cost of clicks that couldn’t reasonably have become customers. Keep a simple list: leak, cost, fix. One or two items usually account for most of the waste.
One rule: only count something as wasted if it’s irrelevant or proven not to convert. A keyword with three clicks and no leads hasn’t proven anything yet.
1. Irrelevant search terms
The search terms report shows the searches you actually paid for, and that’s where most waste lives.
How to check: Go to Campaigns → Insights and reports → Search terms (Google’s guide). Sort by cost and mark each term relevant, unsure or irrelevant. Typical waste: job seekers (“dental assistant jobs”), DIY (“how to fix a leaking faucet”), people looking for free help, and services you don’t offer.
The report doesn’t show everything: Google omits some terms without enough query activity for privacy reasons. Look for patterns, not single queries.
Fix: Add irrelevant terms as negative keywords, and add relevant terms that keep converting as their own keywords. Then repeat regularly; new irrelevant searches appear all the time.
2. Missing or badly built negative keywords
Negative keywords stop your ads from showing on searches you don’t want, but they don’t behave like regular keywords. Per Google’s negative keyword documentation:
- Negative broad match: your ad won’t show if the search contains all your negative keyword terms, in any order.
- Negative phrase match: your ad won’t show if the search contains the exact terms in the same order.
- Negative exact match: your ad won’t show only if the search is exactly those terms, in that order, with no extra words.
- No close variants. Negatives don’t match close variants, so you need to add plurals, misspellings and synonyms yourself.
How to check: If the negative lists at campaign and account level are empty, or haven’t changed since launch, that’s a leak.
Fix: Build negatives from your search terms review. Put terms you never want anywhere (like “jobs” or “salary”) in an account-level negative list, which Google says applies automatically to all eligible search and shopping inventory in relevant campaign types.
Don’t overdo it. Google warns that too many negative keywords can mean your ads reach fewer customers. A one-word negative like “cheap” might block junk, or buyers, depending on your business.
3. Broad match without the data to support it
Broad match can show your ads on searches related to your keyword, including ones that don’t contain its direct meaning. Google says it’s “critical to use Smart Bidding with broad match.” That works when Smart Bidding has accurate conversion data. Without it, broad match is one of the fastest ways I know to buy irrelevant clicks.
How to check: In the search terms review, note which keyword triggered each irrelevant search. If most irrelevant spend comes from broad match, and the campaign runs on manual CPC, Maximize Clicks or thin conversion data, that’s the leak.
Fix: On smaller accounts, I usually start with phrase and exact match on the highest-intent terms, and test broad match once tracking is solid and conversions are steady. This is my own practice, not a Google rule.
4. Location targeting set to “presence or interest”
By default, Google targets people in, regularly in, or who’ve shown interest in your targeted locations. That’s “Presence or Interest,” which Google recommends. The alternative, “Presence,” only reaches people in or regularly in your locations. Google notes that advertisers in travel, real estate and education saw about 5% more conversions from Presence or Interest, which makes sense: people researching a place they’re not in yet can be real customers. A clinic, contractor or law firm serving one metro area usually needs people who are actually there.
How to check: See which option is selected in your campaign’s location settings, and check where your clicks actually came from. Add up the cost of clicks from outside your service area.
Fix: For most local service businesses, I switch to Presence and exclude areas I can’t serve. That’s my judgement for local services, and it goes against Google’s default, so check your own location data before and after.
5. Search partners
When you create a Search campaign, search partners are included by default. These are non-Google search sites and apps, and for Search campaigns Google doesn’t tell you which partner site showed your ad. Partner traffic isn’t automatically bad. The point is to look at it separately instead of letting it blend into your averages.
How to check: Segment your campaign data by Network (with search partners), which Google says lets you compare Google Search, search partners and Display Network performance. Compare cost per conversion on search partners against Google Search.
Fix: If partners cost more per lead, or bring leads that don’t turn into customers, turn them off. Google’s steps: in Campaigns, hover over the campaign, select the gear icon, open Networks and untick “Include Google search partners” (Google Ads Help).
6. Display Expansion on Search campaigns
A Search campaign can also show ads on the Google Display Network if the “Include Google Display Network” option is ticked under Networks. Google calls this Display Expansion and says it aims to use “only unspent Search budget,” and that campaigns with spare budget can get “up to 15% more conversions at similar CPA to Search.”
That’s Google’s claim. With small lead generation accounts I’m more cautious: someone browsing a website behaves very differently from someone searching for your service.
How to check: See whether Display Network is ticked in each Search campaign’s network settings, then use the same network segment to see Display results on their own.
Fix: If Display isn’t producing leads that become customers, untick it. If you want display ads, I’d rather run them in a separate campaign with its own budget and targeting.
7. Showing ads when nobody can answer
By default, campaigns show ads “All day”. For a business that relies on phone calls, that can mean paying for calls at 11 p.m. that go to voicemail.
How to check: Segment your campaign results by Hour of day and Day of the week (Google’s guide to segments). Look for hours with steady spend and no conversions, and ask whoever answers the phone what happens after hours.
Fix: If nobody picks up after hours, limit call-focused ads to business hours, or make sure a form or online booking works at night. Smart Bidding already uses time of day and day of the week as signals, so on those campaigns I only restrict the schedule for a business reason like this, not because of one quiet week.
8. Brand and non-brand mixed together
People searching for your business by name were probably going to find you anyway. In my experience brand clicks are usually cheap and convert well, so mixed in with non-brand searches they make a losing campaign look fine. The waste is hidden.
How to check: In the search terms report, add up cost and conversions for searches containing your business name. What’s left is your real non-brand performance.
Fix: Run brand terms in their own Search campaign so you can see brand and non-brand results separately. If you run Performance Max, add brand exclusions, which Google says “keep your campaigns from serving for branded queries you want to avoid.” For Performance Max, they apply to Search, Shopping and YouTube search inventory. At Harrington Vacuums, Performance Max campaigns ran with brand exclusions so the budget went toward attracting new customers rather than existing ones.
9. Bad conversion tracking feeding Smart Bidding
This doesn’t show up as one line of wasted spend, but it can be the most expensive leak. Smart Bidding bids for whatever you tell it is a conversion. Google uses primary conversion actions for bidding, and warns that misconfigured settings can prevent Smart Bidding from optimizing effectively.
How to check: Go to Goals → Conversions → Summary. Check that primary actions are real leads or sales, not page views or button clicks. For lead forms, check the count setting: Google recommends “One conversion” for leads, because usually only one lead per click adds value, and “Every conversion” for purchases.
Fix: Make only real business outcomes primary, and count each lead once. At Radiance MedSpa, every phone call was being counted as a conversion. Counting only calls that turned into bookings, together with a new landing page, helped bring cost per lead from $142 to $89.
I cover tracking problems in more depth in my guide on why Google Ads aren’t converting. If your tracking needs rebuilding, that’s what my analytics and tracking setup is for.
A step-by-step cleanup
The order I’d work through an account. Each step makes the next more reliable.
- Fix tracking first (leak 9). Every other decision depends on knowing what converts.
- Pull 30–90 days of search terms and tag them (leak 1).
- Build negatives: an account-level list for universal exclusions, campaign-level for the rest, with variants added by hand (leak 2).
- Check network settings on every Search campaign, segment by network, keep what converts (leaks 5 and 6).
- Check location options and where clicks come from (leak 4).
- Match the schedule to when your team can respond (leak 7).
- Separate brand from non-brand (leak 8).
- Tighten match types where broad match drives irrelevant spend (leak 3).
- Write down what you changed and when, then leave it alone for a few weeks so you can tell what worked.
- Repeat the search terms review weekly on larger accounts, at least monthly on small ones.
With the waste cut, compare your cost per lead to what a customer is worth. That’s when to decide whether to spend more, not before.
FAQ
Should I turn off search partners?
Not automatically. Search partners are included by default. Segment by network and compare cost per conversion against Google Search. If partners convert well, keep them. If they don’t, untick them in the campaign’s network settings.
How often should I add negative keywords?
Every time you review search terms. For most small business accounts, I’d do that at least monthly, and weekly while a new campaign or new broad match keywords are settling in.
Is broad match always a waste?
No. Google designed it to work with Smart Bidding, and with accurate conversion tracking and steady conversion volume it can find good searches you wouldn’t have thought of. It wastes money when it runs without that data.
Want someone to find the leaks for you?
If you’d rather not dig through this yourself, my Google Ads audit is $120. I go through your account and send you a recorded video walkthrough plus a PDF of prioritized fixes within 3 business days, including where I think spend is being wasted.
If you want ongoing help after that, my Google Ads management starts at $750 a month with no contracts (see pricing), and the case studies show what that looks like in real accounts. If you’re comparing options, read Google Ads freelancer vs agency.