Why your Google Ads aren't converting (and how to fix it)
When a business tells us "Google Ads doesn't work for us," an audit almost always finds the same five leaks. None of them are exotic. All of them are fixable. Here they are, in the order we usually find them.
Leak #1: You're paying for the wrong searches
Broad match keywords without a disciplined negative list means a plumber in Houston pays for "plumbing salary," "plumbing course" and "how to fix a tap myself." In audited accounts, 20–40% of spend routinely goes to searches that could never become customers.
Fix: read your Search Terms report monthly (weekly at first). Add negatives ruthlessly: free, jobs, salary, course, DIY, meaning, wikipedia. Tighten match types on your money keywords.
Leak #2: Conversion tracking that lies
Half the accounts we open are optimizing toward nothing — tracking page views as "conversions," counting the same lead twice, or tracking nothing at all. Google's algorithm optimizes toward whatever you call a conversion. Feed it garbage, get garbage.
Fix: track things with business value only: form submits, calls over 60 seconds, purchases. Test-fire every one. If an agency runs your ads, ask them to show you the conversion actions this week.
Leak #3: Ads land on your homepage
Your homepage speaks to everyone, which means it converts no one in particular. Someone searching "shopify developer" who lands on a generic agency homepage bounces in seconds — and you paid for that bounce.
Fix: one focused landing page per campaign, with one action to take, matching the search intent word for word. This alone commonly doubles conversion rates.
Leak #4: You're invisible on mobile speed
More than half of ad clicks are mobile. If your page takes six seconds to load on a phone, you're paying for clicks that never see your offer.
Fix: test your landing page on PageSpeed Insights. Under 3 seconds on mobile or fix it before spending another dollar.
Leak #5: Set-and-forget management
Google Ads decays without attention: search terms drift, competitors adjust, quality scores slip. An account that was profitable in March quietly isn't by August. Check your change history — if nothing's been touched in 30 days, nobody is managing your account, whatever the invoice says.
Fix: weekly optimization, monthly ad testing, and a report that ties spend to revenue in plain language.