By Clark Mago
If you’re a business leader, you’ve likely felt the frustration of a seemingly endless marketing budget drain. You know Google Ads can deliver leads, but it feels like you’re pouring money into a black hole with nothing to show for it. You’re not alone. Many businesses at the $5M mark struggle with this exact problem. They have the budget to scale, but a poorly managed account leads to wasted spend, high costs, and a constant feeling of “what am I getting for my money?”
The solution isn’t to pull the plug on your campaigns; it’s to implement a consistent, monthly maintenance plan. This is what we call Google Ads Hygiene. It’s the essential set of tasks that ensures your account runs efficiently, drives down costs, and increases the quality of your leads. Think of it as a tune-up for your most important lead generation machine.
Here are 12 monthly tasks that will help you prevent budget waste and maximize your return on investment.
Bid, Budget, and Bidding Strategy Adjustments
- Review Campaign Performance: Analyze which campaigns are hitting your targets and which are underperforming. Reallocate budget from low-performing campaigns to those that are generating the most qualified leads.
- Adjust Bids: Based on performance, raise bids for keywords and ad groups that are converting well. Lower bids on those that aren’t, or pause them entirely.
- Check Bidding Strategy: Ensure your chosen bidding strategy (e.g., Target CPA, Maximize Conversions) aligns with your current goals. Sometimes, a simple switch can improve performance.
- Analyze Budget Pacing: Check if your campaigns are spending their full budget. If they are under-spending, investigate why (e.g., low bid, limited audience). If they are overspending, consider a budget increase or re-prioritize your ad groups.
Keyword and Targeting Refinements
- Add New Negative Keywords: This is a crucial step in maintaining proper Google Ads Hygiene. Review your Search Terms Report and add any irrelevant queries as negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing for searches that won’t lead to a conversion.
- Find New Keywords: Look for new, relevant keywords in the Search Terms Report that are converting well and add them to your campaigns.
- Review Audience Demographics & Targeting: Check the performance of different audiences. Exclude age groups, genders, or locations that are not converting.
- Analyze Ad Schedule & Device Performance: If you see poor performance on a specific day of the week or a particular device type (e.g., mobile), adjust your ad schedule or device bid modifiers accordingly to optimize your spend.
Ad & Landing Page Optimization
- Pause Low-Performing Ads: Run an ad performance report to see which ads are getting clicks but not conversions. Pause the underperformers and use the insights from the better-performing ads to create new variations.
- Test New Ad Copy: To keep your campaigns fresh and improve click-through rates, test new headlines and descriptions. Use A/B testing to determine which creative resonates most with your audience.
- Review Landing Page Performance: Is the traffic you’re sending to your landing pages converting? Use tools to analyze user behavior on your landing pages and make necessary changes to improve conversion rates.
- Check for Broken URLs and Ad Rejections: A simple but vital task. Make sure all your ad URLs are working and that none of your ads have been disapproved by Google. This form of Google Ads Hygiene ensures you aren’t paying for clicks that lead to dead ends.
Get a Predictable Lead Generation System
Your business deserves a marketing partner that delivers real leads, not just traffic. We help companies like yours scale efficiently with data-driven Google Ads strategies that are built on a foundation of proactive, monthly maintenance. We provide clear, numbers-driven reports and focus on KPIs that matter to your bottom line. No fluff, just results.
Ready to see how we can build a predictable lead generation system for your business?
Contact DoubleDome Digital Marketing today for a no-obligation strategy call about our Google Ads Management service.
