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Pay-per-click advertising is one of the most powerful tools available for driving business growth. It puts you in front of potential customers at the exact moment they're searching for what you offer. Costs are scalable, you can ramp campaigns up or down with little notice, and the data you get is invaluable.
But here's the thing: PPC also gives you plenty of opportunities to waste money.
I've managed hundreds of campaigns over the years, and I can tell you this: the same mistakes come up again and again. Different businesses, different industries, but the same fundamental errors that kill results and drain budgets.
The frustrating part? Most of these pitfalls are completely avoidable. You just need to know what to watch out for.
So let's talk about the eight most common PPC mistakes I see, and more importantly, how you can avoid them before they cost you money.
1. Not Giving the Algorithm Enough Time to Learn
This is the killer. The mistake that ends more PPC campaigns than any other.
Someone launches a Google Ads campaign, runs it for three weeks, sees mediocre results, and pulls the plug. "PPC doesn't work for us," they say. Except they never gave it a proper chance.
Here's what actually happens: Google's algorithm needs time and data to optimise. It watches how people interact with your ads, which keywords drive conversions, what audiences respond best, and adjusts accordingly. This doesn't happen in a fortnight.
Best practice is 90 days. That's the realistic timeframe for a campaign to properly optimise. It breaks down into a learning phase (where Google is gathering data and testing different approaches) and an optimisation phase (where it's applying what it learned to improve performance).
During the first few weeks, your results will be all over the place. Some days look brilliant. Others look terrible. This is completely normal. The algorithm is testing, learning, working out what resonates with your specific audience and business.
Google also needs a minimum amount of data to work with. During this learning period, you need at least 10 clicks per day to gather enough signals for efficient campaign operation. Without sufficient data, the algorithm simply can't optimise effectively.
How to avoid this pitfall: Commit to at least 90 days before making any major decisions about campaign viability. Set expectations internally that early results won't be representative of long-term performance. Budget for the full learning period, and resist the urge to make dramatic changes during the first month. If you can't afford to run for 90 days at a minimum viable budget, you can't afford to run PPC yet.
2. Targeting Keywords That Are Too Broad
There's always a temptation to cast the net as wide as possible and drive as much traffic as you can to your website. More traffic equals more potential customers, right?
Not necessarily.
Broad keywords come with two significant risks. First is budget efficiency. The larger the auction pools you enter, the more competition you face. More competition usually means less traffic coming at a higher price. You're fighting against bigger budgets and more established players, all bidding on the same broad terms.
Second is relevance. It might feel like a success to attract large volumes of users, but if only a small percentage of them are likely to convert, you're wasting a significant portion of your spend. Your conversion rate is just as important as your cost per click, and keywords that are too broad can absolutely tank your conversion performance.
Let's say you're a commercial glazing company. Bidding on "windows" sounds sensible, right? Except now you're showing up for people searching for:
- Double glazing for homes
- Window cleaning services
- Microsoft Windows support
- Window blinds and curtains
None of these people want what you're selling, but you're paying for every click.
How to avoid this pitfall: Start specific, then expand gradually. Focus on long-tail keywords that clearly indicate commercial intent and relevance to your specific offering. Use match types intelligently—exact and phrase match give you more control than broad match. Monitor your search terms report religiously to see what queries are actually triggering your ads. If you're showing up for irrelevant searches, tighten your targeting or add negative keywords.
3. Ignoring Search Intent
Compelling, informative content does tremendous work for your site's long-term performance by building authority and encouraging referrals. That's brilliant for organic SEO.
But when you're paying for users to visit your site, intent becomes critical. Are you comfortable spending money on users who are only looking to learn, with no intention of purchasing or becoming a lead?
There's a massive difference between someone searching "how do double glazed windows work" and someone searching "commercial glazing installers Cambridge." The first person is researching. The second person is looking to buy. Guess which one you want clicking your ads?
I've seen businesses waste thousands targeting informational queries because they assumed educational content would eventually convert. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn't. And in the meantime, you're paying for traffic that was never particularly likely to convert in the first place.
How to avoid this pitfall: Ensure user behaviour and intent are considered when building your ads and selecting keywords. Are people looking for information, or are they looking to take action? Your campaigns should focus heavily on commercial and transactional intent—searches that indicate someone is ready to engage or buy. Save the informational content for your organic SEO strategy where you're not paying per click.
4. Not Utilising Negative Keywords
A lot of attention gets paid to selecting the right keywords to target, but identifying which keywords to exclude is equally important. Maybe more important.
Negative keywords help reduce wasted spend from users searching around your product rather than for something you actually offer. Without them, you'll burn through budget on completely irrelevant clicks.
Common examples include:
- Searches for "jobs" or "careers" (unless you're actually recruiting)
- "Free" or "cheap" alternatives (if you're premium)
- "DIY" or "how to" searches (if you sell done-for-you services)
- Specific models or services you don't provide
- Competitor brand names (unless you're specifically targeting them)
I've seen a luxury hotel waste a fortune appearing for "cheap hotels," "budget accommodation," and even "hotel jobs." Every single one of those clicks was money down the drain.
The worst part? These irrelevant clicks don't just waste money. They also mess with your campaign data. Google sees people clicking your ads and immediately bouncing, which signals poor relevance. Your Quality Score drops, your CPCs increase, and suddenly your entire campaign performance suffers.
How to avoid this pitfall: Build a comprehensive negative keyword list before launching. Think about all the ways someone might search for something related to your business but completely wrong for what you offer. Review your search terms report weekly for the first month, then fortnightly after that. Add new negative keywords whenever you spot irrelevant traffic. This is ongoing work, not a one-time task.
5. Misaligned Landing Pages
Every additional step a user takes on a website is another opportunity for them to drop off without converting. This makes it essential that their journey is as streamlined as possible.
Yet I regularly see campaigns where the ad promises a specific solution, someone clicks through excited to learn more, and they land on a generic homepage with no clear next step. Confused, they leave. You've just paid for a click that had zero chance of converting.
A homepage is rarely the most effective conversion tool, particularly when there's additional pressure from paid campaigns where every click costs money. Homepages are designed to serve multiple audiences with multiple goals. Landing pages should be laser-focused on one thing.
If your ad is about dog grooming in Suffolk, the landing page needs to be about dog grooming services in Suffolk. Not your homepage. Not a generic services page. A dedicated landing page that continues the conversation your ad started.
How to avoid this pitfall: Landing pages should be aligned to specific ad groups, ensuring users arrive as close to the final conversion point as possible. The landing page should:
- Match the messaging and language from your ad
- Have a clear, singular call-to-action
- Remove navigation that might distract visitors
- Provide exactly what the ad promised
- Be optimised for the device most traffic comes from
Yes, this takes more work upfront. But the conversion rate difference between a generic homepage and a proper landing page can easily be 3-5x. That's the difference between PPC being viable or not.
6. Poor Ad Focus and Messaging
Ads should clearly communicate the benefit of clicking through. They need to be concise, fit within platform limitations, and include clear calls to action that guide users forward.
Sounds simple, right? Yet ads often underperform when they focus on the wrong information or fail to align with the search queries that triggered them in the first place.
I've seen ads that spend all their character count talking about company history and credentials when the person searching just wants to know if you can solve their problem. I've seen ads that are so vague they could apply to any business in any industry. I've seen ads with no call-to-action at all, leaving the user to guess what happens if they click.
Your ad has one job: convince someone that clicking through is worth their time. Every word needs to earn its place.
How to avoid this pitfall: Write ads that speak directly to the search query. If someone's searching for "emergency windscreen repair Cambridge," your ad should mention emergency service, windscreen repair, and Cambridge. Not your company's 30-year history or your commitment to excellence.
Include specific benefits, not vague statements. "24/7 emergency response" beats "quality service." "Free quote" beats "professional approach." Give people a concrete reason to click.
And always include a clear call-to-action. Tell people what to do next: Get a quote, Book a consultation, Call now, View our work. Don't leave them guessing.
7. Incorrect or Broken Conversion Tracking
Whilst seeing leads and sales roll in is encouraging, proper conversion tracking is essential to sustain and scale success. Yet I'm constantly amazed by how many businesses run PPC campaigns without accurate tracking in place.
Without conversion tracking, you're flying blind. You might see clicks, you might see traffic in Google Analytics, but you have no idea which ads, keywords, and campaigns are actually driving results. You can't assign financial value to each action. You can't make informed decisions about where to spend more and where to cut back.
Even worse, the advertising platforms can't optimise delivery automatically. Google's algorithm wants to show your ads to people most likely to convert, but it needs conversion data to know who those people are. Without it, you're stuck with manual optimisation and guesswork.
How to avoid this pitfall: Set up conversion tracking properly from day one. Track every valuable action: sales, leads, phone calls, quote requests, form submissions, chat conversations. If it has value to your business, track it.
Use Google Ads conversion tracking, not just Google Analytics goals. The data feeds directly back into the platform, enabling automated bidding strategies and better optimisation. Import offline conversions if your sales cycle extends beyond the initial website interaction.
Test your tracking regularly. Submit a test lead, make a test purchase, verify that everything fires correctly and appears in your Google Ads dashboard. More data is rarely a bad thing when it can be fed back into the search engine to improve performance.
(Bonus) 8. Irregular Management
Once a campaign is launched, it requires ongoing oversight to remain effective. Too often, PPC accounts are left running in the background without regular reviews or adjustments.
This is lethal. PPC isn't passive income. It's not something you set up once and forget about whilst you focus on other things. Search behaviour changes. Competitors adjust their strategies. Seasonal trends kick in. Your own business offerings evolve. If your campaigns aren't evolving with all of this, they're dying.
I've seen campaigns that were performing brilliantly suddenly tank because a competitor launched an aggressive promotion and the business owner didn't notice for six weeks. By the time they realised, they'd burned through thousands of pounds at terrible conversion rates.
Optimisation is straightforward in principle: do more of what works and less of what doesn't. But it requires consistent human input to be effective.
How to avoid this pitfall: Stay on top of your campaigns with regular checkups. At minimum:
- Weekly reviews for the first month
- Fortnightly reviews after that
- Monthly deep dives into performance trends
Look at your key metrics: CTR, conversion rate, cost per conversion, Quality Score. Watch your search terms report for new opportunities and irrelevant queries. Monitor your competitors' ad copy and adjust accordingly. Keep bad habits pruned and the successes will continue to grow.
If you genuinely don't have time for this, don't run PPC yourself. Either hire someone internally or work with an agency that will do it properly. Half-managed PPC is often worse than no PPC at all.
The Common Thread
Notice the pattern? Most of these pitfalls come down to three things: impatience, inattention, and lack of strategy.
Impatience kills campaigns before they have a chance to succeed. Inattention lets them slowly bleed money without anyone noticing until it's too late. And lack of strategy means you're essentially gambling rather than investing.
By understanding these common PPC pitfalls and taking proactive steps to avoid them, you can turn paid search into a reliable, scalable source of leads and revenue. With the right strategy, attention to detail, and continuous optimisation, PPC becomes less of a gamble and more of a controllable, measurable investment.
The businesses that succeed with PPC understand it's a medium-term play that requires consistent attention. It's not magic. It's not passive. But when done properly, it can transform your growth trajectory.
Need help getting your PPC campaigns performing properly? Find out more about how Main Ambition's PPC management services can help you grow your business.
Kieran is a Paid Media Executive at Main Ambition, and has spent the last decade working in digital marketing across a range of industries, growing revenue, lowering costs and improving return on ad spend for B2B and B2C alike. He watches cricket and writes books, both of which seem to make him grumpy, but he insists that they're good fun if you try hard enough.
