> Five checks a business can run in its own Google Ads account to find wasted spend: search terms, locations, match types, landing pages and tracking. - Canonical: https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/is-google-ads-wasting-your-budget/ --- # How to check if Google Ads is wasting your budget Wasted ad spend tends to hide in five places, and each can be read in the account itself: the searches the ads really appeared for, where they were shown, how loosely the keywords match, where the click lands and whether results are being recorded. Updated 6 October 2026 ## 1. The search terms report Keywords are what you bid on. Search terms are what people actually typed. In Google Ads, open Insights and reports, then Search terms, sort by cost and read the fifty most expensive. Every term that could never lead to a sale is money spent on the wrong person: job seekers, students, people after something free, or a different product with a similar name. Add each one as a negative keyword. ## 2. The location setting Campaign settings include a location option with two choices. The default, “Presence or interest”, shows ads to people in your area and to people elsewhere who have shown interest in it. The other, “Presence”, shows them only to people who are in the area or regularly there. A business that serves a fixed area usually wants “Presence”. Then read the report of where the ads were shown, and exclude the places you do not serve. ## 3. Match types Each keyword carries a match type, which decides how far a search can stray from the keyword and still trigger the ad. - Exact match: searches with the same meaning as the keyword. - Phrase match: searches that include that meaning. - Broad match: anything Google judges to be related. Broad match is the default for new keywords and spends fastest. It works when conversion tracking is sound and negatives are kept up to date, and wastes money when neither is true. ## 4. The landing page Open the address your ad leads to on a phone, on mobile data. Type the address in, since clicking your own ad costs you a click. Three questions decide whether the page is earning its traffic. - Does the first screen repeat what the ad promised? - Does the page load within a few seconds? - Is the next step, whether a call, a form or a purchase, visible without scrolling? An ad that leads to a general home page asks the visitor to search a second time, and many will leave. ## 5. Conversion tracking Open Goals, then Conversions, and read what the account counts as a result. Each conversion should be recording, and each should be something worth paying for: an enquiry, a call or a sale. An account that counts every visit to the contact page as a conversion is telling Google’s bidding to buy visits, and it will. ## What to fix first Order the fixes by how quickly they stop the waste. Negative keywords and locations take minutes and work at once. Tracking comes next, because every later decision depends on it. Landing pages take longest and matter most: a page that is slow or off the subject loses the click however well the account is run. Our guide to [checking your website speed](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-check-your-website-speed/) covers the first of those. ## Questions people ask ### What is a negative keyword? A negative keyword stops an ad from showing when a search contains that word or phrase. Adding the word jobs as a negative, for example, stops a paid click from someone looking for work at a business like yours. ### Which match type should I use? Exact and phrase match keep an ad close to the searches you chose. Broad match reaches further and depends on Google's judgement and on reliable conversion tracking. Without reliable tracking, start narrow. ### Should ads point to the home page? Rarely. An ad makes a specific promise, and the page behind it should deliver that promise at once. A page built for the ad's subject serves the visitor better than a home page that makes them search a second time. ## Free competitor gap report An ad is only as good as the page behind it. Name up to three competitors and we measure your landing pages and site against theirs, then send you where a visitor would choose them over you. 1. Speed and technical health, side by side 2. On-page SEO and site structure 3. The content they are found for and you are not 4. Who holds the searches that matter in your market 5. A prioritised list of what to fix first [Request your free report by email](mailto:contact@hadalmedusa.com?subject=Competitor%20gap%20report%3A%20Guide%3A%20How%20to%20check%20if%20Google%20Ads%20is%20wasting%20your%20budget&body=Website%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AWhere%20you%20compete%20(area%2C%20country%20or%20countries)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0ACompetitors%20to%20compare%20against%20(up%20to%20three)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AAnything%20else%20we%20should%20know%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A) - **Address** — contact@hadalmedusa.com - **Include** — your site; up to three competitors; where you compete ## More in this series - [SEO or Google Ads: which should come first?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/seo-or-google-ads-first/) - [Why your Google Ads are not showing](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-are-my-google-ads-not-showing/) - [Google Ads clicks but no conversions: where to look](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/google-ads-clicks-but-no-conversions/) - [Google Ads impressions but no clicks: what is wrong](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/google-ads-impressions-but-no-clicks/) - [Why your Google Ads campaign is not spending its budget](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/google-ads-campaign-not-spending/) - [When Google Ads is not working: the whole topic](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/google-ads/) - [All guides](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/) - [Ad optimisation: what the service includes](https://hadalmedusa.com/services/ad-optimisation/)