5 Google Ads Automations You Need To Turn Off Today

Are you aware that when you set your Google Ads account up – you’ve accepted a variety of different automated settings – all of which are wasting your cash?

Whether your account was set up by an agency – or you personally set it up, there’s sure to be some of the following left on in your account, so read on….

Automation 1 – Your campaigns are showing in thousands of irrelevant places

When creating your campaign – even if you select the initial option to appear only on the Search Network (Google.com, Google.co.uk, etc) Google will automatically add in the Display Network and its Search Network Partners.

These will result in your ad appearing tens of thousands of times in irrelevant places – spam websites, forums, blogs, holding pages, etc. I cannot express firmly enough how important it is to turn this option off as it is wasting a HUGE amount of your cash!

As you can see above, when creating a Search campaign the Search Partners and Display Network boxes are ticked by default

BUDGET IMPACT – HIGH (Could be wasting up to 90/95% of spend)

Automation 2 – Bids are being automatically set for you

By default, Google will manage your bids automatically for you to ensure it gets the best for your budget. This means it will ensure it spends your budget every day, with no care for the return you are achieving.

In most cases, small business advertisers should NOT be accepting automated bidding options and instead be opting to manually enter a bid they wish to pay.

Google does not have sufficient data on your objectives, on the type of leads you want, on the level of return you wish to achieve.. to manage your bids effectively.

This example shows automated bidding being used with a target conversion cost applied

So- you should opt to manually manage the bids by selecting Change Bid Strategy.

Starting out and don’t know what to bid? Use a keyword research tool such as Google’s own Keyword Planner or Spyfu to get an estimate and use that.

BUDGET IMPACT – HIGH (Could be wasting up to 70/75% of spend)

Automation 3 – Sitelinks are being automatically created for you

Sitelinks within your adverts are meant to increase Click Through Rate, demonstrate your Unique Selling Proposition and direct prospects to relevant parts of your website.

If you have not turned this off (most accounts we audit have these on, even those managed by agencies) then Google will be automatically spidering your website and creating site links to random pages. Prospects will be sent to these irrelevant pages and most of the time you won’t even realise it!

Dynamic Sitelinks can waste a LOT of cash!

Another major issue is your landing pages – you’ve probably spent some time optimising your main landing pages for visitors and to bring in more leads – however the Site linked pages Google is sending people to are unlikely to convert visitors.

BUDGET IMPACT – MEDIUM (Could be wasting up to 20/30% of spend)

Automation 4 – Ads are being automatically created and applied for you

Yes, Google has even started creating its own ads using its automation software. If you haven’t turned this option off, it will send you its suggestions and then auto-apply them. Your carefully crafted ads will no longer be shown!

In some regulated industries such as health / finance etc, this could prove very costly if key information is not included within the ads.

BUDGET IMPACT – MEDIUM (Could be wasting up to 50/60% of spend)

Automation 5 – Using Smart Campaigns

In my opinion “Smart” anything is bad news for advertisers right now. We totally understand its purpose – Google is trying to make it easier for Small Business advertisers to start using Google Ads.

Often set up by Google’s support staff for the small business owner – these campaigns will be a combination of Search Ads and Display Ads and will also include the creation of matching landing pages.

Nearly every factor of the campaign will be automated – from the ad text to where the ad shows based on the goal set. Goals chosen will typically be difficult to relate back to hard cash – website visits, clicks on a Google Map location etc.

In our experience, most Small Businesses haven’t correctly set their goals to begin with and don’t have the experience to know which keywords will bring in leads and sales.

Smart campaigns cannot be optimised effectively to avoid wasted spend – as it’s presumed that Google’s automation will be doing this for the advertiser.

BUDGET IMPACT – HIGH (Could be wasting up to 90/95% of spend)

Comments or thoughts on the above? Please let us know below!

Want to learn more about how Google Ads can bring in leads fast for your business? Join the Google Ads Success Program (GASP!) today or send us a chat message below, we’d love to help!