The problem
You are spending on ads.
Nobody can tell you what they returned.
Running ads without knowing whether they convert is not marketing. It is a subscription.
What it looks like
Does this sound familiar?
The monthly charge goes out. The dashboard shows impressions and clicks and a cost-per-click. Somebody has told you these numbers are good.
But you cannot answer the only question that matters — how many customers did that produce, and what did each one cost.
When you have asked, you were shown a chart rather than given a number.
Why it happens
This is not a judgement on your work.
Two failures account for most of it, and they compound.
First, broad match. Google is permitted to show your ad for searches loosely related to your keywords, which means an emergency plumber pays for people researching how to fix a tap themselves. The clicks are real. The buyers are not.
Second, no conversion tracking. If the account cannot see which clicks became enquiries, it cannot optimise toward them — and neither can you. Google's automated bidding is optimising toward a goal nobody defined, which usually means clicks for their own sake.
What it costs
Nobody sends you a bill for this.
Unlike the rest of this list, this one has an invoice. You can see exactly what you spend.
What you cannot see is the split — how much bought genuine buyers and how much bought irrelevant clicks. In accounts we look at, a meaningful share of spend is going to searches the owner would reject on sight.
The second cost is worse than the money: without tracking, you cannot tell whether to spend more or stop. So most people keep paying the same amount indefinitely, because that is the safest guess available.
What we do about it
The work, in order.
Conversion tracking first, always
Nothing else is worth doing until the account can see which clicks became enquiries. This is a few hours of work and it makes every other number trustworthy.
Read the search terms report
The actual phrases people typed. This is where the waste is visible, and it is usually visible immediately.
Cut before adding
Negative keywords, tighter match types, excluded placements. The first month is normally about spending less, not more.
Then scale what works
Once a cost per enquiry is known and stable, increasing budget becomes a decision rather than a gamble.
How long it takes
An honest timeline.
Not sure this is your problem?
Eight questions, about two minutes. You get the answer on screen — no email needed to see it.