The account says you're getting clicks. The phone isn't ringing. Google is happy to keep charging you, so it's on you to work out where the money is going.
The causes are almost always on a short list, and most of them are visible in your own account if you know where to look.
You're paying for the wrong searches
Your keywords are what you bid on. The search terms are what people actually typed. They're often very different.
Open the search terms report (in the Insights and reports section, or under Keywords, depending on the current layout). It lists the real searches that triggered your ads. In an account nobody has checked for a while, it's common to find:
- People looking for jobs: "electrician apprenticeship Leicester".
- People looking for something free or DIY: "how to fix a leaking tap".
- Competitors' names, if that isn't deliberate.
- Places you don't cover.
- Services you don't offer, that happen to share a word with ones you do.
Every one of those is a click you paid for that was never going to become an enquiry.
Negative keywords
The fix is a negative keyword list: words that stop your ad showing. "Jobs", "free", "course", "DIY", "salary" and the towns you don't serve are typical starting points. Build the list from your own search terms rather than a generic download, because every trade has its own odd ones.
Your match types are too loose
Broad match lets Google show your ad for anything it decides is related. Paired with Google's automated bidding and good conversion data, it can work. Without that, it tends to wander.
If your search terms report is full of loosely related nonsense, tighten up. Phrase and exact match give you much more control over which searches you pay for, especially in a smaller account.
Your tracking is counting the wrong thing
This one is sneaky, because the account can look like it's working.
Check what is actually set as a conversion. Go to Goals, then Conversions, and look at each action listed. Common problems:
- A page view counted as a conversion, such as visiting the contact page. Visiting a page isn't an enquiry.
- The form loading counted instead of the form being sent. Every visitor who scrolls past it becomes a "conversion".
- The same enquiry counted twice, once from the website tag and once imported from Analytics.
- Nothing tracked at all, so Google's automated bidding has nothing to aim at.
If your tracking rewards the wrong thing, Google's bidding will cheerfully find you more of the wrong thing. Fixing tracking is often the first job in any account we take on, because nothing else can be judged until it's right.
Your ads go to the homepage
Someone searches "emergency boiler repair Huddersfield", clicks your ad, and lands on a homepage that leads with kitchen installations and a photo of the team.
They wanted an answer to the thing they typed. If the page doesn't give them one in the first few seconds, they go back and click the next ad.
Send each group of ads to a page that answers that search. It should repeat what they searched for, show who you are and where you work, say what happens next, and make the phone number and form easy to find. That's usually a dedicated landing page rather than a page written for the whole site.
Your budget is spread too thin
If you're running eight campaigns on £15 a day, each one gets a handful of clicks a week. None of them collects enough data to tell you anything, and Google's bidding can't learn.
It's usually better to put the budget behind the two or three services that make you the most money, get those working, and add more once they are. There's more on what a sensible budget looks like in how much Google Ads management costs.
It might not be the ads at all
Sometimes the clicks are good and the problem is further along. The form is broken on mobile. The phone number isn't clickable. Calls go to a voicemail nobody checks. Prices aren't mentioned and people assume you're expensive.
Test it yourself on a phone. Click your own ad (once, it's fine), fill in the form, and make sure the enquiry arrives.
Where to start
- Read the last 30 days of search terms and add negatives.
- Check exactly what each conversion action is counting.
- Look at where each ad sends people, on a phone.
- Cut the number of campaigns to what the budget can support.
If you'd like a structured version of this, try our ten-minute Google Ads audit. Or we'll do it for you: our Google Ads management starts with a free audit, written down whether or not you go further, and the landing pages are designed and built in house. Get in touch if you'd like us to look.
