5 Things I Wish I Knew About Google Ads Before I Started All Those Years Ago
1. Your Keywords Are Useless Without Understanding Search Intent
How You Look Trying To Understand Search Intent
Everyone talks about bidding on the “right” keywords but keywords alone won’t save your campaign if you don’t understand why people are searching for them.
What I Should Have Known:
The same keyword can mean wildly different things depending on intent. Someone searching for “best laptops” may want reviews while “buy laptop” signals purchase intent. Focusing on intent over volume is how you avoid wasting your budget on clicks that will never convert.
What You Should Do:
Segment keywords by intent and keep match types to exact and phrase match. Broad match in 2025 can be a dangerous game.
2. Google's Recommendations Are NOT Your Friend
This Really How It Be With Google Sometimes
Most of their recommendations are designed to make THEM money and not necessarily to make YOU profitable. “Raise your CPC bids!” they said. “Increase your daily budget!” they said. I fell for it.
What I Should Have Known:
Blindly following Google’s suggestions will lead to overspending. Things like pMax & broad match keywords work best when Google already has a lot of data on your account and their machine learning algorithms understand what repeatably works in order for you to get the conversions required to stay profitable.
What You Should Do:
Trust your own data & intuition over their advice. Use automation sparingly until you have enough conversion data to make it work effectively.
3. The Search Terms Report IS Your Friend
So Wholesome
Early on, I thought a robust negative keywords list was a 'good to have' rather than a 'must have'. Huge mistake. Once I started digging on a daily basis into the search terms report, I realised my ads were showing for completely irrelevant searches and that’s where a good chunk of my budget was going.
What I Should Have Known:
The search terms report will expose where your budget is being wasted, especially at the start of a campaign.
What You Should Do:
Check your search terms report daily. Look for irrelevant queries and add them as negatives immediately. Adding negative keywords regularly is critical for refining your targeting and improving quality scores.
4. Ad Copy Matters More Than You Think
I Need You Hypnotising Your Audience Like So
I used to spend 80% of my time obsessing over keywords and 20% on ad copy. Turns out, good ad copy can make or break your campaign even if you have good targeting and a solid offer.
What I Should Have Known:
A strong ad doesn’t just say what you’re offering, it addresses the why and the pain point. The idea of 'testing' ads and using data to guide copy decisions is very important.
What You Should Do:
The emotional aspect in ad copy is often overlooked by beginner marketers. Depending on the niche, this can be really important. Make sure to always have a clear CTA and keep a close eye on the analytics to see which copy variations outperform the others. Without stating the obvious, spend more on those that perform.
5. The Quality Score Triangle
Alright An Actually Serious And Important Image For Once
Quality Score is the probably backbone of your Google Ads success. The higher your score, the less you pay for clicks. The lower your score, the more Google will punish your wallet.
What I Should Have Known:
CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience are all connected. You can’t fix one without addressing the others. A poor landing page WILL kill your conversion rate, no matter how good your ads and offer might be.
What You Should Do:
Use ad copy that aligns perfectly with your landing page content - consistency boosts relevance and quality scores. Monitor your quality scores regularly and troubleshoot any score below 7.
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