Table of contents
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Key Takeaways
- Many local businesses waste 25 to 35 percent of their Google Ads budget on unqualified clicks.
- Key issues include no negative keyword list, use of broad match keywords, missing conversion tracking, and default campaign settings.
- Address these issues by auditing your Search Terms, adjusting keyword match types, and enabling conversion tracking.
- Review campaign settings to disable Search Partners and Display Network for better targeting and cost-effectiveness.
- Use our free Ad Spend Leakage Estimator to identify and calculate your monthly waste in Google Ads.
If you’re running Google Ads for your local business, there’s a good chance a significant portion of your budget is being wasted every single month on clicks that will never become customers.
This isn’t an accusation — it’s a statistical reality. Industry data consistently shows that self-managed Google Ads accounts waste 25 to 35 percent of their budget on average. For an account spending $2,000 per month, that’s $500 to $700 disappearing without generating a single lead.
The frustrating part is that most of this waste is preventable with a few specific changes.
The Four Biggest Sources of Wasted Google Ads Spend
1. No Negative Keyword List
When you set a keyword like “HVAC repair Des Moines,” Google doesn’t just show your ad for that exact phrase. Depending on your match type settings, it shows your ad for anything Google considers related.
Without a negative keyword list, your HVAC business might be paying for clicks from people searching for HVAC jobs, HVAC certification courses, DIY HVAC repair videos, or HVAC companies in completely different cities.
Every one of those clicks costs real money and has essentially zero chance of converting into a customer.
The fix: Open your Search Terms report in Google Ads, look at every search that actually triggered your ads in the last 30 days, and add anything irrelevant as a negative keyword. Most businesses find dozens of irrelevant terms on their first audit.
2. Broad Match Keywords
Google sets new keywords to broad match by default. Broad match is Google’s widest targeting option — it lets Google show your ads for searches it considers “related” to your keyword, which can include competitor brand names, entirely different services, and searches with completely different intent.
A roofing company using broad match on “roof repair” might find their ads showing for “car roof repair,” “roof repair DIY,” or “roof repair Minneapolis” — all completely irrelevant and all costing money.
The fix: Switch your highest-spend keywords from broad match to phrase match or exact match. This gives you tighter control over which searches trigger your ads.
3. Missing Conversion Tracking
Without conversion tracking, Google’s algorithm doesn’t know what a win looks like for your business. It optimizes for clicks — not for calls, not for form fills, not for actual leads.
This means Google is distributing your budget across all the placements and searches that generate the most clicks, regardless of whether any of those clicks ever become customers.
The fix: Set up conversion tracking for both phone calls (with a minimum duration threshold to filter out wrong numbers) and form submissions. This gives Google’s algorithm the data it needs to optimize toward actual leads instead of empty clicks.
4. Default Campaign Settings Working Against You
When you create a new Google Ads campaign, several settings are turned on by default that benefit Google’s revenue more than your results:
Search Partners expansion shows your ads on non-Google search engines and partner websites where conversion rates are typically much lower than pure Google search.
Display Network expansion shows your ads on websites, YouTube, and Gmail even when you set up a Search campaign. These placements are cheap to click but almost never convert for local service businesses.
Both can be turned off in Campaign Settings → Networks.
How to Audit Your Account Right Now
Log into Google Ads and run through this checklist:
- Check your Search Terms report for irrelevant queries
- Look at your keyword match types — how many are broad?
- Go to Campaign Settings → Networks — are Search Partners and Display Network checked?
- Check Conversions in the left menu — are calls and forms tracked?
What you find in these four places will tell you most of what you need to know about where your budget is going.
Use Our Free Tool
Not sure where to start? Our free Ad Spend Leakage Estimator asks five questions about your Google Ads setup and calculates your estimated monthly waste in dollars — plus shows you exactly which leaks apply to your account.
Try it free at thewebsilo.com/free-tools/ad-spend-estimator/
No signup required to see your results.
