Something’s Wrong with Google Ads – And It’s Not Just You

The last few weeks have been rough for anyone trying to get leads through Google Ads. Accounts that used to run smoothly are now acting strange and unpredictable. Here are some of the things we’ve seen:

• Ads for "truck accident lawyer" stopped showing up completely.
• Advertisers in many industries had zero ads showing for days.
• Clicks that normally cost around $30 jumped to $365 each.
• An account that usually spent $200 a day suddenly spent $2,500 in just one hour – without getting more leads.

It would be easy to say these things happen because of rookie mistakes. But each of the examples above is from an account managed by an experienced, skilled PPC expert.

Take a look at the graph below. You’ll see a huge spike in the cost per conversion on a campaign that was otherwise steady. There were no changes made to the campaign. No new competitors showed up. Yet, costs went through the roof.

Normally, I’ve been able to keep my clients safe from this kind of thing by setting some basic rules for Google’s AI to follow, like:

• A daily budget
• A maximum cost per click
• A target cost per action (CPA)
• Exact match keywords
• Negative keywords, and so on

But on this account, the ads wouldn't show at all with the guardrails in place. And I’m not alone. Other people are seeing the same thing.

I don’t have insider info, but I do talk to a lot of people in this space. Most of us feel that Google’s automated bidding system is making strange, costly mistakes. It’s kind of like the early days of ChatGPT, when it gave people silly advice, like putting glue on pizza or eating a rock a day.

Don't get me wrong, I love new tech as much as the next geek. But using a “move fast and break things” approach (thanks, Mark Zuckerberg) when people’s businesses are at stake is irresponsible.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

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