Watching a client's Google Ads campaign tank because they ignored search terms

They let it run for a month without checking the search term report, and over 40% of their budget went to completely unrelated terms like 'free software download'. I know because I had to audit the wreckage. Has anyone else had to pull a campaign back from the brink like this?

4 comments

4 Comments

kimfisher25d agoTop Commenter

That "horror movie" line from leehall is exactly the problem, framing it like some scary mystery. It's not. It's basic maintenance. If you run ads, checking where your money goes is part of the job, not optional babysitting. Letting it burn for a month is just neglect. The tools are right there. You can't blame the algorithm for doing what it's told with no direction.

pat_stone15h ago

Kimfisher calling it basic maintenance is right... but that's the whole scary part. People set it and forget it because the platform makes it look easy, like you just flip a switch. They don't get that the "automation" is just a dumb tool waiting for you to tell it what it did wrong. It's like giving a kid your credit card and a shopping app, then being shocked at the bill. The real problem is how these systems are sold as set-it-and-forget-it when they're actually set-it-and-check-it-every-week.

leehall25d ago

Man, that search term report is like a horror movie you have to watch every week. Saw a local bakery spending big on "industrial dough mixers" because they sold mixing bowls once. Their whole brand was about handmade small batches, but the algorithm just saw "mix" and went wild. How do you even explain that waste to a client without sounding like you're blaming them for not babysitting the data?

marydavis25d ago

Totally feel that bakery pain. Had a client selling fancy artisanal cheese who kept paying for clicks from people searching "cheese whiz" and "spray cheese." Their whole vibe was like, aged cheddar in a cave, and the bot just heard "cheese" and went feral. Took weeks to clean up that mess.