Google Ads Wasted Spend: 12 Places Your Budget Leaks and How to Stop It
Most Google Ads accounts waste 15-30% of their budget on clicks that will never convert. Here are the 12 most common leak points โ and exactly how to plug each one.
Research consistently shows that Google Ads accounts waste 15-30% of their budget on clicks that have no realistic chance of converting. On a $5,000/month budget, that's $750-$1,500 per month going nowhere. The good news: most of these leaks are identifiable and fixable without reducing your reach among the right audience.
Leak 1: Broad Match Keywords Without Negatives
Broad match is the single largest source of wasted spend for most accounts. Google will match your keyword to semantically related (and often irrelevant) searches. A keyword like 'marketing software' can trigger for 'marketing degree online', 'free marketing tools', and 'marketing job openings' โ none of which will convert for a paid software product.
- Fix: Build a negative keyword list before running any broad match keywords
- Add intent negatives: free, cheap, DIY, how to, tutorial, course, download, job, salary, what is
- Review search terms weekly and add new irrelevant terms as negatives
Leak 2: Campaigns Running During Off-Hours
Most B2B accounts see conversion rates drop 60-80% outside business hours and on weekends. If your campaigns run 24/7 with the same bids, you're likely paying premium CPC for clicks that never convert.
Leak 3: Ads Serving on Mobile When Desktop Converts
Mobile conversion rates are typically 40-60% lower than desktop for B2B SaaS products. Yet many accounts apply no device bid adjustments โ paying equal CPC for mobile clicks worth half as much.
Leak 4: Campaigns Without Conversion Tracking
No conversion tracking means you can't identify which keywords, ads, and campaigns are actually generating value. Google's algorithms optimize for whatever you tell them โ if you don't tell them anything, they optimize for clicks (quantity) rather than conversions (quality). Broken tracking is a silent budget drain.
Leak 5: Display Network Enabled on Search Campaigns
New campaigns often have 'Search Network with Display expansion' enabled by default. This mixes two very different networks โ search intent vs. passive browsing โ in the same budget and bidding strategy. Display clicks on these campaigns are typically 3-5x cheaper but convert far less often.
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