Ten tips to eliminate wasted Google Ads budget
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Posted: Fri 4th Oct 2024
Google Ads can be an incredibly powerful tool for driving traffic, generating leads and increasing sales. However, without careful management, it can also become a source of wasted spend, where your advertising fails to generate the returns it should.
Conducting regular audits of your Google Ads budget is essential to ensure that every penny is spent efficiently. This article will guide you through the key areas to focus on when auditing your Google Ads budget to identify and eliminate wasted spend.
1. Review your keyword strategy
Keywords are the backbone of any Google Ads campaign and managing them effectively is crucial to controlling costs. Start your audit by examining the performance of your keywords. Identify those that are underperforming, such as those with low Quality Scores, high cost-per-click (CPC), or low conversion rates. These keywords may be eating up your budget without delivering the expected results.
Pause or remove low-performing keywords
If certain keywords consistently underperform, consider pausing or removing them. This allows you to reallocate your budget to better-performing keywords.
Use negative keywords
Implementing negative keywords is a highly effective way to prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches. This helps reduce wasted spend on clicks that are unlikely to convert.
Long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords, which are more specific and usually have lower competition, can often provide better value. They tend to attract more qualified leads, thereby improving conversion rates and lowering CPC.
2. Analyse ad copy performance
Your ad copy plays a crucial role in attracting the right audience and encouraging clicks. However, poorly performing ads can lead to unnecessary clicks that don't convert into sales or leads.
A/B testing
Regularly conduct A/B tests on your ad copy to determine which variations perform best. Focus on metrics like click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate. If certain ads are underperforming, revise or replace them.
Ad relevance
Ensure that your ad copy is closely aligned with the keywords you are targeting and the intent behind them. Irrelevant ads can attract clicks from users who are not interested in what you offer, leading to wasted spend.
3. Evaluate geographic targeting
Your ads may be displayed to users in locations where your products or services are not available or relevant, leading to wasted spend. During your audit, assess your geographic targeting settings to ensure they align with your business goals.
Exclude irrelevant locations
Review the locations where your ads are being shown and exclude regions that do not generate valuable traffic. For example, if you only serve certain states or countries, make sure your ads are not being displayed elsewhere.
Adjust bids by location
If certain regions perform better than others, consider adjusting your bids accordingly. Increasing bids for high-performing areas can maximise ROI while decreasing bids in low-performing areas can reduce wasted spend.
4. Assess bidding strategies
Bidding too high or too low can lead to inefficiencies in your Google Ads budget. An effective bidding strategy ensures that you’re getting the most out of your advertising budget.
Manual versus automated bidding
Evaluate whether manual bidding or automated bidding strategies, such as Target CPA and Target ROAS, are better suited to your campaign goals. Automated bidding can be efficient, but only if it's aligned with your overall strategy.
Bid adjustments
Regularly review your bid adjustments for devices, locations and demographics. If certain segments are underperforming, reducing bids for those segments can help minimise wasted spend.
5. Monitor device performance
Different devices (desktop, mobile, tablet) can show varying performance in terms of clicks and conversions. Failing to optimise for device performance can result in wasted spend.
Device-specific bids
Analyse how your ads perform across different devices. If you find that mobile traffic has a lower conversion rate compared to desktop, you may want to lower your bids for mobile devices or adjust your mobile strategy.
Mobile-friendly ads
Ensure your ads and landing pages are optimised for mobile devices. Poor mobile experiences can lead to high bounce rates, wasting your ad spend.
Watch this webinar to explore how Google Ads works, why it’s essential for small businesses and how you can create successful campaigns that deliver real results:
6. Check dayparting and ad scheduling
Not all hours of the day or days of the week are equally valuable for every business. By analysing when your ads perform best, you can schedule them to run only during peak times, reducing wasted spend.
Analyse performance by time
Use Google Ads reports to analyse performance by hour of the day and day of the week. If you notice that conversions drop during certain times, consider limiting your ads during those periods.
Ad scheduling
Implement ad scheduling to automatically pause your ads during low-performing times and increase visibility during peak periods.
7. Examine audience targeting
Audience targeting helps ensure your ads are shown to users who are most likely to convert. Misaligned audience targeting can lead to wasted impressions and clicks.
Refine audience segments
Review your audience segments and refine them based on performance data. Exclude audiences that are not converting well and focus on those that deliver the best results.
Remarketing audits
Ensure that your remarketing lists are up-to-date and targeted appropriately. Remarketing can be a powerful tool, but only if it’s reaching the right people.
8. Audit conversion tracking
Accurate conversion tracking is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaigns. Without it, you could be wasting money on clicks that aren’t resulting in tangible outcomes.
Verify conversion actions
Make sure that all your conversion actions are tracked correctly. Incorrect or missing tracking can lead to misguided optimisations.
Review attribution models
Assess your attribution model to ensure it accurately reflects the customer journey. Different models (e.g. last-click, first-click, linear) can offer different insights into which interactions are driving conversions.
9. Leverage automated rules and scripts
Automated rules and scripts can help you manage your Google Ads account more efficiently, reducing the risk of wasted spend.
Set automated rules
Use automated rules to pause underperforming keywords, adjust bids based on specific criteria, or even schedule ads to run during high-performing times.
Implement scripts
Advanced users can implement scripts to automate routine tasks like budget monitoring, bid adjustments and performance checks. This can help ensure that your account is always optimised without requiring constant manual oversight.
10. Regularly review and adjust your budget
Finally, regularly reviewing and adjusting your overall budget allocation is key to minimising wasted spend. As you gather more data, you can make informed decisions about where to increase or decrease spend.
Allocate budget to high-performing campaigns
Shift the budget from underperforming campaigns to those that consistently deliver a high return on investment.
Set budget alerts
Use budget alerts to notify you when you’re approaching your budget limit, preventing overspend.
In conclusion
Auditing your Google Ads budget is not a one-time task but an ongoing process. By regularly reviewing and optimising the key areas outlined above, you can significantly reduce wasted spend and ensure that your advertising pennies are driving the best possible results.
In the fast-paced world of digital advertising, vigilance and strategic adjustments are crucial to maintaining an efficient and effective Google Ads campaign.
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