5 PPC Red Flags to Watch Out for in Your Google Ads Account

By: Sophie Fell, Director of Paid Media, Two Trees PPC

Managing multiple PPC accounts and campaigns can be overwhelming. With countless metrics to track and optimize, it's easy to overlook critical issues that can hinder your success. In this blog post, we'll explore five common PPC red flags that can signal trouble in your Google Ads accounts and provide actionable solutions to address them. Whether you're a seasoned Google Ads pro or just starting your Google Ads training, these insights will help you identify and fix problems, improve your campaign performance, and achieve your marketing goals.

1. Weak Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR is a vital metric that measures the relevance and effectiveness of your ads. A low CTR indicates that your ads aren't resonating with your target audience, leading to missed opportunities and wasted ad spend. To address a weak CTR, consider the following:

• Review Your Asset Reports: Analyze the performance of individual headlines and descriptions in your responsive search ads (RSAs). Replace underperforming elements with stronger alternatives to improve ad engagement.

• Check Your Ad Group Themes: Ensure that your ad groups are focused on a single theme. If you find multiple themes within an ad group, split them into separate ad groups with tailored content to improve relevance and CTR.

2. Missing or Incomplete Campaign Settings

Campaign settings play a crucial role in targeting the right audience and maximizing your ad reach. Overlooking these settings can lead to inefficient campaigns and wasted ad spend. Here are some key settings to check:

• Location Targeting: Ensure that your ads are targeting the correct geographic locations. Avoid the default setting of "people interested in" and instead target "people in" your desired locations.

• Language Targeting: If your ad copy and landing pages are in a single language, make sure your campaign settings reflect that. This will improve the quality and relevance of your traffic.

3. Lack of Exclusions

Exclusions help you refine your targeting and avoid showing your ads to irrelevant or undesirable audiences. If you're not using exclusions, you're likely wasting ad spend and missing out on potential conversions. Consider adding the following exclusions:

• Negative Keywords: Exclude irrelevant search terms that trigger your ads but don't lead to conversions.

• Audience Exclusions: Exclude specific audiences, such as existing customers or competitors, from seeing your ads.

• Content Suitability, Placement, and Topic Exclusions: Avoid showing your ads on sensitive or inappropriate content or placements.

• Brand Exclusion Lists: Prevent your ads from appearing alongside competitors or unrelated brands.

• Location Exclusions: Exclude specific geographic locations where your products or services aren't available.

4. Subpar Quality Scores

Quality scores reflect the relevance of your ads, keywords, and landing pages to user search queries. Low quality scores can lead to higher costs and lower ad rankings. To improve your quality scores, focus on the following factors:

• Expected CTR: Improve your ad copy and targeting to increase the likelihood of clicks.

• Ad Relevance: Ensure that your ads closely match the user's search query and intent.

• Landing Page Experience: Create landing pages that are relevant, useful, and easy to navigate.

5. Incomplete Conversion Data

Conversion tracking is essential for measuring the success of your campaigns and optimizing your strategies. If you're not tracking conversions or your tracking is incomplete, you're missing out on valuable data that can inform your decision-making. Here's what you can do:

• Set Up Conversion Tracking: If you haven't already, implement conversion tracking to measure the actions users take on your website after clicking on your ads.

• Track Lighter Conversion Events: In addition to primary conversions like purchases or leads, track micro-conversions like product page views or add-to-carts to gain deeper insights into user behavior.

• Assign Primary and Secondary Conversions: If you're using Smart Bidding and have multiple conversion goals, prioritize them by assigning primary and secondary statuses to guide the bidding algorithm.

By addressing these common PPC red flags, you can significantly improve the performance of your Google Ads accounts. Remember, ongoing monitoring and optimization are key to success in PPC.

Sophie, Two Trees PPC's Director of Paid Media, has spent the last near-decade of her life working in Paid Media. In that time, she's successfully managed over $200M in ad spend for national and global brands such as LinkedIn, VUE Cinemas, Juicy Couture, FILA, and National Trust. 

You can find her on LinkedIn