5 Most Common Google Ads Issues We Uncover in Audits

At Marzipan, our B2B PPC specialists are always auditing Google Ads accounts. Whether it's a prospective client or an existing one looking for optimization, the same five problems come up time and again - and they're silently sabotaging campaign performance.

1. Conversion Tracking Not Set Up Properly

This is the most fundamental - and most common - issue we find. Without accurate conversion tracking, you're flying blind. You can't optimize what you can't measure, and Google's algorithms can't learn without conversion data.

Common tracking problems include:

• Missing or incorrectly installed conversion pixels
• Offline conversions (phone calls, form submissions routed to CRM) not being imported back
• No distinction between micro-conversions (newsletter signups) and macro-conversions (demo requests)
• Duplicate conversion counting inflating results

The fix: Install conversion tracking through Google Tag Manager, map all your micro and macro conversions, and integrate your CRM to import offline conversion data back into Google Ads.

2. Unoptimized Landing Pages

You can write the perfect ad, bid on the perfect keyword, and target the perfect audience - but if your landing page doesn't convert, none of it matters. Load times exceeding 3 seconds kill conversion rates, and we see this constantly.

Common landing page issues:

• Sending paid traffic to the homepage instead of a dedicated landing page
• Message mismatch - the ad promises one thing, the landing page says another
• Cluttered pages with too many CTAs competing for attention
• Slow load times, especially on mobile
• Forms that ask for too much information too early

Build PPC-specific landing pages, align messaging between ads and headlines, and run regular speed audits. The investment in landing page optimization consistently delivers the highest ROI of any PPC improvement.

3. Keywords Too Broad

Broad match keywords generate irrelevant traffic and inflate your cost-per-click. We regularly see accounts where 40–60% of search queries triggering ads are completely irrelevant to the business.

The solution is a tiered match-type strategy:

• Exact and phrase match for your core, high-intent terms
• Broad match modifier for controlled exploration of new queries
• Twice-weekly negative keyword refinement based on search term reports
• Regular search term audits to catch wasteful queries early

“We regularly see accounts where 40–60% of search queries triggering ads are completely irrelevant to the business. Proper match-type strategy and negative keywords fix this immediately.”

Thomas Thornton, Marzipan

4. New Campaign Types Not Being Trialled

Google Ads has evolved far beyond text ads in search results. Performance Max, Discovery, and Video campaigns can reach your audience across YouTube, Gmail, Display, and more. Yet many accounts are still running search-only strategies from 2019.

Our recommendation: prototype small-budget campaigns with newer formats and compare performance against your search baselines. You might be surprised - some of our clients' best-performing campaigns are Performance Max, which they would never have tried without our encouragement.

5. Using PPC Just for One-Off Campaigns

Seasonal or campaign-only PPC creates two problems: visibility gaps when campaigns aren't running, and slow algorithm learning because Google's AI never has enough data to optimize properly.

The fix is maintaining always-on generic campaigns for top-of-funnel keywords with modest but continuous budgets. This ensures your brand maintains visibility between promotional pushes and gives Google's algorithms enough consistent data to optimize effectively.

The Audit Advantage

Every one of these issues is fixable - and fixing them typically delivers immediate, measurable improvements in campaign performance. If it's been a while since someone took a fresh look at your Google Ads account, a structured audit is the fastest path to better results.