7 Google Ads Mistakes Costing Melbourne Businesses Money

We audit a lot of Google Ads accounts for Melbourne businesses. The same problems come up again and again — and they are rarely exotic. Here are the seven that cost the most money.

1. Conversions are not tracked properly

By far the most common and most expensive problem. If calls and form submissions are not tracked, Google's automated bidding has nothing to optimise toward, and neither do you. Accounts running without conversion tracking are guessing.

Fix it first, before touching anything else. Set up call tracking, form conversions and GA4 linking, and let two weeks of data accumulate before drawing conclusions.

2. Broad match with no negative keywords

Broad match plus an empty negative keyword list means paying for searches containing "free", "DIY", "jobs", "salary", "course" and "how to". We regularly find 20–40% of spend going to searches that could never convert.

Review your search terms report weekly and add negatives aggressively.

3. Sending all traffic to the homepage

Someone searching for a specific service lands on a homepage listing eight services and has to hunt for what they came for. Each extra step drops conversion rate.

Match the landing page to the ad. If the ad is about emergency plumbing, the page should be about emergency plumbing — with the phone number in the first screen.

4. Geo-targeting set too wide

"Melbourne" as a target can include people across the whole metro area and beyond. If you service the inner north, paying for clicks from Frankston is waste.

Also check the location option setting — the default has historically included people merely showing interest in your area, not only those physically in it.

5. Ignoring the search terms report

The keywords you bid on and the searches you actually appear for are two different lists. The search terms report shows the second one. It is the highest-value fifteen minutes in the whole platform, and most accounts have never had it opened.

6. Running ads outside business hours with no plan

If nobody answers the phone at 10pm and your ads point to a phone number, you are paying for calls that ring out. Either restrict ad scheduling to hours you can answer, or make sure the after-hours experience is a form that gets replied to first thing.

7. Judging performance on the wrong metric

Click-through rate and impressions feel like progress. Neither pays wages. The number that matters is cost per qualified enquiry — and after that, what share of those enquiries turn into work.

A campaign with a lower CTR and a lower cost per booked job beats a campaign with great CTR every time.

A sensible order to fix them

Conversion tracking first. Then negatives and the search terms report. Then landing pages. Then geo-targeting and scheduling. Most accounts see meaningful improvement from the first three alone.

If you would like us to audit your account, get in touch — we will tell you what we would change before you commit to anything.