Google Ads
Common Google Ads Mistakes
By Adedon · Updated 2026-08-14
What are the most common Google Ads mistakes?
Common Google Ads mistakes include optimizing to the wrong conversions, never reading search terms, letting Performance Max run without brand controls, mixing brand success with non-brand failure, chasing optimization score, and handing the account to a vendor who owns the login. These mistakes are operational. They do not require a secret bidding trick to avoid.
Conversion soup
Five primary conversions, including ‘engaged session,’ will make bidding look like a slot machine. Clean primaries. This mistake alone explains many ‘Google stopped working’ stories.
Set and forget broad match
Broad match without negatives and without trustworthy conversions is a firehose. The mistake is not using broad; it is using it as a nap.
PMax as a substitute for thinking
One Performance Max campaign with default assets and a revenue goal that includes brand is a common agency-shaped object. It can print a ROAS screenshot. It may not grow the business.
Ignoring the website
Ads cannot repair a page that hides price, loads slowly, or contradicts the query. Media teams that refuse to talk about the page are only managing the auction.
Hostage accounts and recommendation theater
If you cannot export change history or own the customer ID, you do not have a Google Ads program. If weekly work is ‘we raised the optimization score,’ you have theater. Adedon will not autonomously mutate budgets to chase a score.
Frequently asked questions
Is using Display Expansion a mistake?+−
It is a mistake if you thought you bought Search only. It can be a test if you intended discovery inventory and can read it separately.
Should I pause everything that is not converting this week?+−
Not on low volume. You will pause learning. Use rules that include spend thresholds and query quality, not a single quiet Tuesday.
What’s the first mistake to fix?+−
Own the account, fix primary conversions, open search terms. In that order.
Related services
Google Ads Management
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Campaign Optimization
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