A Guide to Fixing Common Google Ads Mistakes
Struggling with Google Ads? Learn how to fix the 6 most common mistakes to avoid in Google Ads with Lead Ember.
Struggling with Google Ads? Learn how to fix the 6 most common mistakes to avoid in Google Ads with Lead Ember.
On the face of it, Google Ads are pretty easy to master. All you have to do is choose the keywords, write the headlines, set the budget, and let the algorithm do the rest. But the reality is far less straightforward. Many users instead end up pouring tens of thousands of Dirhams into inefficient campaigns that generate no meaningful results.
At Lead Ember, we’ve seen businesses report this problem time and again. This is not because these organisations offer poor services or lack demand, but because their campaigns are built on faulty foundations.
The good news? Google Ads mistakes are fixable. If you want better leads, lower costs, and ads that convert, check out this list of common Google Ads mistakes to avoid.
Google Ads rely heavily on the right keyword, or phrase, to decide whom to show your PPC ad to. But, it is, at the end of the day, also just an algorithm. The rest of the context needs to come from us. And this is where most businesses fail.
Let’s use an example.
Suppose your offering is a cybersecurity software for large enterprises. Using a broad term like “security tool” may seem apt. But without the required context, your product could end up being shown to multiple irrelevant users. Homeowners looking for door alarms or students looking for more information online.
Considering you pay for every click, failing to judge the user’s intent has a significant impact on your budget. You want your ads to only reach leads who are ready to convert.
To achieve this, you need to research common cybersecurity pain points and how your product addresses them. But, crucially, you also need to understand the intent behind the search. This is usually broken up into four categories:
You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to research all these in depth. But it’s a long and time-consuming process, which many prefer to leave to the experts.
For businesses that spend thousands of AED a month on Google Ads, failing to account for negative keywords can be similarly disastrous. These terms tell the algorithm precisely what you don’t want your ads to appear for. Forgetting to set them early is leaving the door open for bad traffic.
Let’s revisit the example from above. Your solution caters solely to large enterprises. So you need to eliminate keywords that target small companies or individuals. Phrases like “budget security solutions” or “private security solutions.”
Maintaining a list of negative keywords is by far the easiest way to maximise your ad spend. But it needs to be done the right way. Check out this comprehensive guide on negative keywords to learn more.
If keywords guide relevant users to the meeting, the landing page is what seals the deal. Once here, users should be greeted with a clean, concise headline that backs up all the promises made in the ad and has a properly placed CTA urging action.
One of the most common Google ads mistakes businesses make, however, is directing users to the wrong landing page. In fact, many businesses still use their homepage as the landing page, leaving potential clients to navigate the website on their own. Many others have landing pages with multiple CTAs urging different conversions.
This isn’t just inefficient, it’s actively frustrating.
Creating a landing page that drives conversions is a craft that experts have spent years perfecting. From layout and copy to load speed and mobile responsiveness, every detail matters. To give you an idea of how much of a difference all of this makes: the average landing page conversion rate across industries is 6.6%. When you work with professionals like Lead Ember, that figure is closer to 15% to 20%.
Once you have an ad set up, you’ll naturally see clicks, impressions, and traffic rise. But if you can’t trace those actions back to actual business outcomes, how do you know what’s really working?
Fortunately, Google has extensive conversion tracking options to help you figure this out. Unfortunately, many businesses either skip this step entirely or set it up incorrectly. This is where the problem begins.
To make the most of this data, you need to first define what you consider a conversion. Do you want users who click to schedule a demo? Learn more about a product? Share their email addresses? Or make an outright purchase?
Without asking yourself these questions, you’ll never truly be able to assess the success of your campaign, pause underperforming ads, or optimize future campaigns.
At Lead Ember, we make conversion tracking a core part of campaign setup. Because without it, you’re not running Google Ads — you’re just gambling.
Many businesses settle on a single version of their Google Ad — one headline, one description, one landing page, and run it for weeks or months without variation.
This is a major missed opportunity and a common Google Ads mistake to avoid.
Using A/B testing, or split testing, is one of the most effective ways to improve and optimise your Google Ads campaign over time. It involves running two or more versions of an ad or landing page at once, each with one key difference.
This can be done through the Google Experiments tool, but many businesses find the features limited and prefer to work with the experts instead.
The average RoI of a Google ad is $2 for every dollar spent. But, in this case, spending more doesn’t always mean earning more. In fact, it can often mean the opposite if you don’t have a clear strategy. One of the most common Google Ads mistakes we see is businesses overspending too early or underspending across too many campaigns.
Overspending usually happens when businesses trust the algorithm too much. They assume more budget equals more results, but without proper targeting or testing, it often just leads to losses.
Underspending leads to campaigns that never gain traction. A daily budget that’s too low won’t give the algorithm enough data to optimise. Worse still, it can prevent your ads from entering competitive auctions, meaning you don’t show up when it matters most.
What’s the fix?
The best solutions are always tailored to your exact requirements.
Google Ads can be one of the most powerful lead-generation tools available, but only if it’s used correctly. Avoiding these common Google Ads mistakes isn’t just about saving money. It’s about turning every click into a real opportunity.
If your campaigns aren’t performing and you’re not sure why, we’re here to help. At Lead Ember, we combine technical skill with proven expertise in generating B2B leads. Let us show you what a better Google Ads campaign looks like.
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