They didn’t go in blind. They didn’t mess about. They followed advice. They did what Google, blogs and agencies told them to do. And still, the numbers didn’t stack up.
I’ve looked inside enough accounts now to see the pattern clearly. Sometimes 30 percent of the budget is quietly wasted. Sometimes it’s closer to 50. Occasionally it’s almost all of it. Not through one big mistake, but through lots of small ones that compound over time.
Meanwhile, Google keeps getting richer. Not because small businesses are careless, but because the platform is very good at encouraging spend without ever taking responsibility for profit.
Why This Hurts Small and Medium Businesses the Most
If you’re a large brand with deep pockets, inefficiency hurts but it doesn’t kill you. For small and medium sized businesses, every pound matters. Cash flow matters. One bad month can undo several good ones.
Google Ads is often sold as something you can just turn on. Set a budget. Pick some keywords. Let Google optimise. The problem is that this assumes you can afford to learn the hard way. Most businesses can’t.
Where Most Google Ads Campaigns Go Wrong
When results aren’t there, most business owners assume the problem lives inside the Google Ads account.
So they start changing things. Keywords get paused. Bids get lowered. Match types get switched. Performance Max gets turned on because it promises scale.
In most of the accounts I audit, the ads themselves aren’t the real issue. They’re doing their job. They’re bringing relevant people to the site.
The problem is what happens next…
The Few Seconds That Decide Whether Your Budget Was Wasted
Once someone clicks your ad, Google’s job is done.
From that moment on, it’s your website, your offer and your process doing the work.
Most small business websites convert at around two to three percent. That means roughly ninety seven out of every hundred people you pay for leave without enquiring, calling or buying.
If you’re paying four or five pounds per click, the maths gets ugly very quickly.
I’ve seen the same traffic convert three, four, even five times better simply by fixing the post-click experience. Same ads. Same keywords. Same spend.
If this sounds familiar, it’s usually because the landing page is doing very little to support the click. This is something I’ve broken down in more detail in our guide on what makes a PPC landing page actually convert.
Why Google Keeps Making Money Even When You Don’t
Google’s interface is built to keep you spending.
There’s always another recommendation waiting. Increase your budget. Expand reach. Switch to broad match. Try a different campaign type.
None of these are automatically bad ideas. Used properly, some of them work very well. Used blindly, they just speed up the losses.
This is especially true when key settings are left unchecked. I see the same budget drains over and over again, which is why I’ve written about PPC settings that quietly bleed spend without most businesses realising.
Why Some Competitors Can Afford Clicks You Can’t
You’ll often see competitors paying far more per click and wonder how they’re still standing.
It’s rarely because they have deeper pockets. It’s because they understand customer value.
Most small businesses judge Google Ads on immediate results. If someone clicks and doesn’t convert straight away, the click is written off as wasted.
In reality, that click may be the start of a longer journey. Brand searches. Follow-ups. Repeat purchases. Referrals.
If you only look at last-click data, you miss all of that. That’s why so many businesses think their ads aren’t converting, when in reality they’re just measuring the wrong thing. I’ve covered this exact issue in more detail in why Google Ads often look broken when they aren’t.
Conversion Thinking Beats Constant Tweaking
The biggest difference I see between struggling accounts and profitable ones isn’t clever optimisation.
It’s conversion thinking.
That means capturing enquiries instead of relying on one-shot sales. Following up with people who didn’t convert. Making forms and checkouts easier to complete. Giving people a reason to take the next step.
If your website isn’t doing any heavy lifting, your ads never had a chance.
What Actually Changes Things
The answer is rarely another rebuild. It’s rarely more keywords. And it’s almost never handing more control to automation and hoping it sorts itself out.
It starts with honesty.
Where is money leaking? What percentage of visitors do nothing? What happens after someone leaves? What is one customer really worth?
This is exactly how we approach Google Ads management at Rankfresh. We focus on the economics behind the click before scaling spend, not after the budget has already gone.
When those questions are answered properly, Google Ads stops feeling random. It becomes predictable. And that’s when it finally starts to work.
