How-To Manage Search Ads Spend [Step-By-Step Walkthrough]
Table of Contents
Once you input your billing info into Google Ads, Google looks for every opportunity to charge you for ad spend. It is your job, as the person managing the ad account, to control Google’s insatiable thirst for ad spend.
How do you control where Google spends? This comes down to a variety of settings spread across campaign types at both the campaign level and the ad group level.
In this article, we analyze every setting of a search campaign that impacts ad spend (where your money goes). Each setting will be categorized into one of three buckets:
High Impact on Spend
Medium Impact on Spend
Low Impact on Spend
After reading this blog, you will have a better idea of what could be causing your ads to overspend and deliver poor results. This blog provides a full breakdown so you can start getting your account in better shape.
Get our master spreadsheet covering settings, across Google, Bing, Meta, Twitter, and TikTok Ads
High-impact settings should be your top priority to review and adjust for better cost control. High-impact settings account for 80% of where waste is found.
Campaign-Level
Budget
Location
Bidding Strategy
Network
Budget
How you could be overspending: Scaling campaigns too quickly can cause Google or Microsoft to overspend, wasting your budget on unprofitable ads. Increase your budget slowly and only after seeing positive results, like a high-performing keyword or location.
Our Suggestion: Start new campaigns at $30-100/day and increase by 20% every two weeks if profitable.
Location
How you could be overspending: Targeting broad areas, such as a whole continent, can waste money. Exclude low-performing areas to save budget.
Our Suggestion: Start by targeting the locations your most profitable customers come from, then expand to different locations. Expand your location settings over time if the volume of traffic isn't meeting your goals for a given geographic location.
Bidding Strategy
How you could be overspending: Using the wrong bidding strategies wastes money. For revenue-focused businesses, avoid Maximize Clicks and Target Impression Share for non-brand campaigns, as they prioritize visibility over conversions.
Our Suggestion: Use Max Conversion Value or Max Conversions for non-brand campaigns. For brand campaigns, choose manual CPC or Target Impression Share.
Network
How you could be overspending: Ads on Google Search Partners or the Display Network often have low conversion rates. Disable these options to avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks.
Our Suggestion: Turn off Google Search Partners and Display Network in search campaigns.
Ad Group-Level
Keywords
Keyword Match Type
Keywords
How you could be overspending: Overspending happens when bidding too high on broad or competitive keywords. Use relevant keywords and add negatives to avoid irrelevant clicks.
Our Suggestion: Focus on high-intent, relevant keywords. Add converting terms from search term reports to your campaigns.
Keyword Match Type
How you could be overspending: Using broad match or phrase match without refining your keyword list can trigger ads for irrelevant searches, wasting your budget.
Our Suggestion: Stick to exact match. If traffic is too low, add more relevant keywords only if this is still insufficient expand to phrase match.
Need help with your Google Ads? Why not contact us?
Certain settings don’t burn through your budget as fast but still make a noticeable difference. Paying attention to these can help fine-tune your campaign and keep your spending in check. We classify these as MEDIUM, and they're useful to ensure you're making the most use of your money. These are especially useful when you have a mature account, that is already a well-oiled machine.
Campaign Level
Location Presence or Interest
Broad Match Keywords
Audience Segments
Brand Exclusions
Ad Scheduling
Languages
Location Presence or Interest
How you could be overspending: If "Interest or Presence" is enabled, your ads might show outside your target area. This wastes budget on people not in your location.
Our Suggestion: Always use "Location Presence" instead of "Interest or Presence."
Broad Match Keywords
How you could be overspending: Broad match allows ads to appear for irrelevant searches, leading to wasted spend.
Our Suggestion: Avoid broad match. Use exact match, and if traffic is still insufficient, test phrase match with relevant keywords.
Brand Exclusions
How you could be overspending: Without excluding competitor brand names or related terms, your ads could show alongside competitors, leading to wasted clicks.
Our Suggestion: Turn on brand exclusions to avoid showing ads near competitor content. If you use negative keywords effectively, brand exclusions may not be necessary.
Ad Scheduling
How you could be overspending: Running your ads 24/7 without analyzing when your audience is most active can lead to wasted impressions and clicks during low-performance hours.
Our Suggestion: Use Google Ads’ reporting tools to identify high-conversion time slots, and set your ad schedule to target those hours
Ad Group Level
None
Need help with your Google Ads? Why not contact us?
LOW impact settings have minimal effect on your overall spend but can still help improve your campaign’s performance. Left unchecked, these settings can become major sources of wasted ad spend over time.
Campaign Level
None
Ad Group Level
Audience Segments
Audience Exclusions
Age
Gender
Household Income
Audience Segments
How you could be overspending: Targeting large, generic audience groups like "All Users" or "In-market for travel" can waste money by reaching irrelevant people.
Our Suggestion: Focus on audiences that work well for your business and use your own data to create custom audiences.
Audience Exclusions
How you could be overspending: Not excluding irrelevant audiences is a major cause of overspending, especially in automated campaigns like Performance Max.
Our Suggestion: Exclude audiences that don’t convert. For campaigns focused on new customers, exclude past converters.
Age
How you could be overspending: If certain age groups don’t convert well, bidding equally on all groups wastes money.
Our Suggestion: Start with equal bids and adjust over time to prioritize top-performing age groups.
Gender
How you could be overspending: Performance often varies by gender. Ignoring this can lead to wasted spend.
Our Suggestion: Adjust bids to favor the gender that performs best for your business.
Household Income
How you could be overspending: Specific income segments may perform poorly. Overbidding on these groups wastes budget.
Our Suggestion: Adjust bids to focus on high-performing income segments for better ROI.
Overspending on Google and Microsoft Ads can be avoided with careful planning and adjustments. By following these strategies—from refining your targeting and keyword match types to optimizing bids and excluding irrelevant audiences—you can ensure your ad spend delivers maximum value. Start small, analyze performance data, and make informed changes to improve efficiency. Remember, effective advertising isn’t just about spending money; it’s about spending it wisely.
