The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.
Counting a conversion twice, or not at all
Bidding uses your primary conversion actions, the ones reported in the Conversions column, so a mistake there reaches every bid. Two actions counting one sale make each sale look half its cost; an action that stopped recording tells bidding the campaigns stopped converting. Check this first, because every other line reads it.
Where to look: the Status column on Goals › Conversions › Summary, then your campaigns segmented by conversion action over the last 30 days. The conversion tracking guide has each step and the test. The not-converting guide tells a tracking fault from a campaign that isn’t converting, and the value-based bidding guide covers what each conversion is worth.
Paying for searches that never convert
Your keywords match searches you didn’t write. The search terms report shows the actual searches that triggered your ads, with what each cost and whether it converted, and the ones that don’t fit what you sell are money spent on nothing.
Where to look: Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms, filtered to terms with cost and no conversions over the last 30 days. The wasted search terms guide shows how to add them as negative keywords without blocking your own.
Leaving search partners on without checking them
When you create a Search campaign, Google includes its search partners by default, and its own page says their clicks may not always reflect highly targeted traffic. In some campaigns they pay; in others they convert far below Google Search.
Where to look: your campaigns segmented by Network (with search partners), comparing cost per conversion on each. The search partners guide says when to turn them off.
Reaching people interested in your area, not only people in it
A campaign’s location option starts as people in, regularly in, or who’ve shown interest in your locations, and Google marks it recommended. It suits a hotel, whose customers search from somewhere else. For a business that serves the people nearby, it pays for clicks from people elsewhere who searched about the area.
Where to look: the campaign’s Settings tab, under Locations, then Location options; and where the clicks came from, on the Matched locations tab of Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. The location targeting guide has the setting, exclusions, and the report that shows spend from outside your targets.
Never reading what auto-apply changed
Auto-apply saves time: Google applies the recommendations you opted into, regularly and without asking again. The list can include adding keywords and broad match keywords, adjusting target CPA and ROAS, and including search partners and Display expansion. The mistake isn’t turning it on; it’s never reading what it applied, so a change nobody chose goes unnoticed when the numbers move.
- Go to Campaigns › Recommendations and select Auto-apply settings.
- Read what’s ticked. The History tab says what was applied and when.
- Keep the ones that fit how you run the account. Untick one only where you’d rather decide it yourself each time, and select Save.
The optimization score guide covers what auto-apply can and can’t change, and what the score those recommendations raise measures.
Changing a bid strategy before it settles
After a change to an automated bid strategy, its status reads Learning while it calibrates, and Google says that can take a few conversion cycles, typically one or two. A target changed every few days starts over each time and never settles.
Where to look: the bid strategy’s status, where hovering over Learning says what reset it, and Campaigns › Change history. The learning phase guide has the rest.
Sending clicks to a page that doesn't work
Google disapproves an ad whose destination doesn’t function, under its Destination not working policy, and a page that loads in your browser can still fail for Google’s crawler. Until it’s fixed, the ad doesn’t run. A page that redirects is worth finding too: to another site, Google’s destination requirements disapprove it, and within yours every click makes a round trip to the old address first.
Where to look: the Status and policy details of your ads and assets, and the landing pages they send clicks to. The destination guide shows how to open each as Google does, and the landing page guide covers what to check on a page that loads.
Running ads without sitelinks and callouts
Sitelinks and callouts cost nothing to add and make the ad bigger on the page. Google recommends at least 4 sitelinks at the account level, and needs 2 before any show.
Where to look: the Associations view under Campaigns › Assets, filtered by asset type. The sitelinks and callouts guide has examples that work, and the image extensions guide covers image, call, lead form and location assets.
Two campaigns buying the same searches
Your own keywords don’t bid against each other. When two campaigns can match one search, Google picks which serves it, preferring an exact-match keyword identical to the search, so a search can land in a campaign you didn’t mean for it, and Performance Max can take brand searches no exact keyword covers.
Where to look: the search terms report across campaigns, sorted by search term, for a search two campaigns both paid for. The brand exclusions guide covers Performance Max.
Holding back a campaign that meets its target
A campaign converting at or better than its target, and missing searches for want of budget, is turning away sales that would pay. Its Search lost IS (budget) column is the share of the time its ads didn’t show because of its budget.
Where to look: your campaigns with Search lost IS (budget) added to the columns, beside their cost per conversion or return. The limited by budget guide says when raising the budget pays, and the impression share guide which searches missed on rank are worth winning back.
What it looks like when Goldbeater finds them
Goldbeater looks for all ten every day, and whenever you ask, among the rest of the problems on its list. Where one costs money it estimates how much a month, and where a setting fixes it, it drafts the change. Nothing reaches your account until a person approves it and presses Apply, and an applied change can be undone.
Sofas — Phrase reaches people interested in its locations, and spent $149 on people outside them
Sofas — Phrase
Its location option reaches people in, or interested in, its locations, and $149 of its spend in the last 30 days, 7.5%, went to people outside Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
- Spent outside its targets
- $149
- Share of its spend
- 7.5%
- Clicks
- 35
- Cost, 30 days
- $1,990
The last 30 days
| Figure | Outside its targets | Inside its targets |
|---|---|---|
| Spend | $149 | $1,841 |
| Conversions | 1 | 26 |
| Cost per conversion | $149 | $71 |
Outside its targets
Inside its targets
| Michigan, United States | 18 | $76 | 0 |
| Florida, United States | 11 | $47 | 1 |
| Ohio, United States | 3 | $14 | 0 |
| California, United States | 3 | $12 | 0 |
A campaign that targets places, whose location option is Presence or interest, Google's default, so its ads also show to people outside those places who search for them or show interest in them. For a business that serves people where they are, that's spend on people who aren't there, and the finding says how much went outside in the last 30 days. Goldbeater drafts Presence: people in, or regularly in, your locations.
Show its ads only to people in its locations, not people interested in them, unless you mean to reach people planning to travel there. It's the change below.
- Show ads only to people in your target locations, not people interested in themCampaignSofas — Phrase
It reaches your account when you approve it in the change set and press Apply. An applied change can be undone.
This is “Ads shown to people interested in your locations, not only people in them” on a sample account. See what it finds in your own account and what the fix is worth, and ask your AI analyst about any finding.
Start the 7-day trialFor the whole account, line by line, the audit checklist has every check Goldbeater runs and where to find each in Google Ads. Once these ten are ruled out, the optimization guide sets out what to read each day, each week and each month.
Questions
- Where should I start?
- With conversions. Bidding reads them, and so does every judgment of what’s working, so a conversion counted twice or not at all makes the rest of the list wrong.
- Should I turn off auto-apply recommendations?
- Not by default. Read what it’s set to apply and what its History tab says it applied; keep the types that fit your goals, and untick only the ones you’d rather decide yourself.
- Is Presence or interest ever the right location option?
- Yes, where your customers search from somewhere else: a hotel, a venue, a destination. Google recommends it; for a business that serves the people nearby, Presence keeps the clicks local.