Avoid These Common Google Ads Mistakes (and Set Your Campaigns Up for Success)

Getting your campaign structure right in Google Ads is one of the most important steps to ensure your ads are relevant, effective, and profitable. Yet, many businesses fall into the same traps, wasting budget, lowering performance, and missing out on potential sales.

Let’s break down some of the most common mistakes (and what to do instead):

Mistake #1: Using Broad Keyword Match Initially

Google will prompt you to set your keywords to broad match, you need to turn this off during the campaign set up. What a lot of people don’t realise is that broad match keywords will show your ads to ANYTHING related to your chosen keyword. Often words are so loosely related that you will not get many conversions.

What to do instead:
Start with a few keywords that are exact or phrase match grouped together into Ad Groups then expand further once you’ve nailed these keywords.

Mistake #2 Using Too Many Keywords

I’ve taken over and audited a few accounts recently with literally hundreds of keywords per ad group. It might seem like a good idea to throw in any possible related keyword but that’s not the case. If you have 100+ keywords only a few keywords (and any broad match) will be hogging all the budget and your actual best match keyword might not be getting any spend at all.

What to do instead:
Start with 5-10 very closely related keywords in each ad group and grow from there.

Mistake #3 Not Using Any Negative Keywords

A negative keyword in Google Ads is a word or phrase you add to your campaigns to prevent your ads from showing when that term is part of a user’s search.

Every campaign should include negative keywords, and these will vary depending on your brand and what you sell. If you’re not regularly reviewing the search terms report and updating your negative keyword list, you risk wasting budget on irrelevant clicks hurting both performance and ROI.

Mistake #4 Not Excluding Your Own Brand Search Terms

If you don’t set your brand name as a negative keyword in your non-branded campaigns, Google may still show your ads for those brand searches. This is common, as Google recognises branded searches are likely to convert—but it can seriously distort your campaign performance. When you're just starting out, your goal is usually to attract new customers who don’t already know your brand.

What to do instead:
Avoid paying for clicks you’d likely get organically. I recommend setting up a separate branded campaign this lets you track brand-related traffic independently and manage the budget separately from your acquisition-focused campaigns.

Mistake #5 Not Having Proper Conversion Tracking Set Up

This topic is so important, I’ve dedicated an entire article to it—read it here.

If you’re investing in Google Ads (or any digital marketing), having proper tracking in place is essential. By setting up conversion tracking between your website and the ad platform, you can record when a sale or lead occurs.

Without it, you’re flying blind unable to see what’s working, what’s not, and where your budget is best spent to drive growth.

Mistake #6 Not Utilising Search Campaigns

When setting up a Google Ads campaign, you’ll notice Google heavily pushes Performance Max. While it can deliver great results for e-commerce, Search campaigns remain one of the most effective ways to drive targeted traffic.

What to do instead:
If you’re not running an e-commerce store, start with a Search campaign and be sure to untick the Display Network. Performance Max acts a lot like a broad match campaign, which isn’t ideal when precision matters.

For e-commerce businesses, the best approach is often a combination of Performance Max and Search, if your budget allows.