Hey, Alex here 👋

As we're headed towards the end of the year, it's time to start looking back at 2025 — into what we could've done better, and what we learned from this (busy) year.

So in this week's issue, we'll be looking at the results from 31 Google Ads account audits we ran for clients and potential clients. In particular, we'll be highlighting 14 of the most common mistakes we found...

And how these cost some brands thousands in wasted ad spend.

Introduction: Analyzing The Results

Before I share the results, here's a quick "guide" on how to interpret the data.

Next to each item, I’ll list how many accounts were flagged with that particular issue, compared to the total (10/31 = 10 out of 31 accounts reported this issue).

This should give an idea of how common it is.

Let's dive in.

Conversion Tracking

No new vs. returning customer data (24/31)

By far, the most common missed opportunity. Probably because it’s not easy to set up.

In short, you can track orders separately from new customers vs. returning customers. This is valuable information because new customers are worth more to your business.

This is one of the most common reasons why advertisers say "when I increase my spend, I don't see any additional sales on my Shopify reports."

If most of your sales are from existing customers, that's sort of expected.

No server-side tracking (21/31)

Server-side tracking is a must in today's privacy-conscious online world.

While I believe not all accounts will see a significant improvement from server-side tracking, it's a best practice that must be adopted sooner rather than later.

• It treats PII (Personally Identifiable Information) data more securely.

• You can track more conversions (+5-15%).

If you're just getting started with Google Ads, it's not a must. But as you start scaling, it becomes essential.

No enhanced conversions. (9/31)

While less common, this was still surprising. Enhanced conversions can help increase conversion tracking accuracy and is a relatively simple thing to install.

In some accounts, we've seen +5-10% conversions reported from this one simple fix.

All you have to do is send (encrypted) data such as emails (recommended) and/or phone numbers to capture more customer details, allowing Google to better track conversions to their source.

Conversions imported from GA4 (4/31).

Rare, but IMO a big no-no. Conversions imported from GA4 report significantly fewer conversions compared to the GTAG.

In one account, we were able to increase the total volume of conversions tracked by +30% simply by changing tracking from GA4 to GACT (Google Ads Conversion Tag).

Customer Audiences

Not using customer audiences (10/31)

For some reason, people overlook audiences on Google Ads and forget to upload/connect them to Google.

They think audiences are something that's more important for channels such as Meta or TikTok Ads.

But they can definitely have a big impact on your account, and have multiple uses: add them under observation for smart bidding signals, add them as signals to Performance Max campaigns, exclusions, etc.

Account Settings

Auto-apply recommendations enabled (8/31).

I’ve seen some crazy horror stories from Google’s auto changes.

• New (irrelevant) keywords added.

• Enabling broad match.

• Display expansion enabled.

When you're not aware of what's being done in your account it's very easy to get in trouble.

Auto-created assets (14/31)

More common than the above, probably because it’s hidden away under multiple menus. In one account, I found an auto-created sitelink for a product that had been discontinued, but the client didn't delete the page.

No (relevant) negative keyword lists (7/31).

One of the most common mistakes I see in accounts is when advertisers try to become negative-keyword maniacs and individually exclude hundreds of keywords per campaign and/or ad group.

This is a huge time-waste and can easily do more harm than good. After a while, you'll lose track of what has been excluded or not. In some accounts, I've found keywords that were excluded at the campaign level when they should've been excluded at the ad group level... which ended up blocking very relevant search terms from triggering ads.

Negative keyword lists are a great way to keep yourself organized, especially if you're practical when adding negative keywords.

In all accounts we manage, we have negative keyword lists we exclude proactively — even before we look at the search terms report.

• Jobs (hiring, job, employment, internship, ...)

• Universal (free, cheap, samples, coupons, ...)

• Curse / swear words (I don't really need to share examples here...)

These are just some examples from dozens of lists we have built over time.

Campaign Settings

Asset optimization turned ON (15/31)

Very similar to the above. When left ON, Google will automatically create assets for you and can even drive traffic to random landing pages.

In one e-com account, an online grocery store, the ad combination with the highest volume of impressions said “We’re Hiring”...

For an eCommerce store, that definitely won't help improve ROAS.

Obviously, the client wasn’t happy when they figured they had been running this ad for 4 months.

No brand exclusions (15/31)

You should always be able to separate brand and non-branded keywords.

Performance Max campaigns will double down on branded keywords and eat up your margins if left unmonitored.

Google Merchant Center

No promotions enabled (12/31)

I was actually surprised when I collected this data and had to double-check this. But it checks out.

When you run a promotion, add it under the “Promotions” tab in GMC. It's not enough to just rely on before/after prices so that Google picks this up automatically.

It’s an easy way to make your ads stand out.

No custom labels (10/31)

Super easy way to organize your ads in different “categories”, so you can then analyze performance separately and structure your account accordingly.

It's one of our favorite attributes you can customize when running Google Shopping ads.

Incorrect Google Product Categories (9/31)

In fact, we found this in more than 9 accounts, but some of them were only on less than 1-2% of the products.

Google can sometimes mislabel your products (rare, but still happens), which can have an indirect impact on performance.

Bid Strategies

Branded campaigns using max conversions or tCPA (8/31)

While not super common, it’s an incredibly easy way to improve branded campaign performance.

These smart bidding strategies can sometimes unnecessarily (and agressively) overbid for your branded keywords.

In one account, a client paid $103 for one single click… where most days, the avg. CPC was $2.50.

In most accounts, when we change branded search campaigns to manual CPC, we can typically see a +50% decrease in CPC and significantly higher ROAS.

Your Turn

Did you find any of these issues in your account(s)?

Sometimes, simple mistakes can be costly. And even if these are small mistakes, they can snowball over time and add up to an unnecessary expense.

Time to review your accounts!

When You’re Ready

• Free Google Ads Audit → If your eCom brand does $50k+/mo, I’ll personally review your account and send you a step-by-step list on how to fix your account.

• Google Ads Audit Checklist → Download your free checklist, pinned on my X bio.

• Follow me on X → I share daily insights on scaling with Google Ads: @almeidalexandr