Google Ads: 5 settings that burn your budget
Overly broad bidding, default extensions, hidden display network: five Google Ads settings to audit urgently.
In short:
- The display network enabled by default on search campaigns absorbs up to 20% of budget.
- Broad queries without negative keywords dilute relevance.
- A quarterly search terms audit is enough to fix most of it.
Google Ads accounts rarely lose money on strategy. They lose it on default settings never questioned.
The 5 settings to check
- Display network ticked on search campaigns
- Automatic keyword broadening
- Automatic placements without exclusions
- Smart bidding without a reliable conversion goal
- Automatically generated extensions
The quick audit method
One hour per quarter: search terms report, sort by spend, exclude everything that does not match intent. Tracking must be reliable upstream, see our useful GA4 reports.
“Wasted budget does not scream. It silently drains into off-target clicks.” Marc Keller