With Australian businesses spending anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000 monthly on Google Ads and average costs per click ranging from $2-4 AUD, every dollar wasted is money straight out of your pocket. Here’s how to spot whether your money’s being spent wisely – and what to demand from your agency.
Are You Just Throwing Money at Google Search?
Here’s what we’ve observed across hundreds of Australian businesses: many are only scratching the surface of what Google Ads can do. Whether it’s you managing campaigns yourself or working with an agency, the tendency is to focus heavily on Google Search ads without considering the bigger picture of how people actually buy.
The Customer Journey Reality Check
Think about how you last bought something expensive. Did you see one ad and immediately purchase? Of course not. You probably:
- Saw several ads over weeks or months
- Visited websites multiple times
- Compared options
- Maybe even called or visited a store
Yet many approaches focus only on the final click, that last Google Search before someone buys. Whether you’re managing this yourself or working with an agency, it’s easy to miss everyone who’s still researching, comparing, or just becoming aware of your business.
What a Strategic Approach Should Include
A proper Google Ads strategy, whether you’re implementing it yourself or working with an agency, isn’t just search ads. It’s a multi-channel system that captures people at different stages:
- Awareness stage: Display ads and YouTube ads to get on people’s radar
- Consideration stage: Remarketing to people who’ve visited your website
- Decision stage: Search ads for people ready to buy
If you’re only running search campaigns (or your agency is), you’re missing 80% of your potential customers. The key question becomes: “What’s our strategy for people who aren’t ready to buy yet?”
The Quality Score Reality: Why Your Ads Cost More Than Your Competitors’
Ever wonder why some businesses pay $2 per click while others pay $20 for the same keyword? It’s not just about bidding more money, it’s about Google’s Quality Score.
The Simple Truth About Quality Score
Google rewards businesses that create relevant, useful ads. If your ad matches what people are searching for, Google charges you less. If it doesn’t, you pay a premium.
Here’s what separates effective approaches from those that burn through budgets:
Effective approaches: Run tightly themed ad groups with specific landing pages Budget-burning approaches: Throw everything into one campaign and send everyone to the homepage
What to Look For
Whether you’re managing campaigns yourself or reviewing what’s being done on your behalf, check your Google Ads account for the Quality Score column. Anything below 7 is costing you money.
The approach should include:
- Creating separate ad groups for different products/services
- Writing ads that actually mention the keywords people search for
- Sending people to relevant landing pages, not just your homepage
- Regularly adding negative keywords to stop irrelevant searches
If this isn’t happening, you’re essentially subsidising Google’s profits with your advertising budget.
The Hidden Cost of Broad Targeting
One of the biggest money drains in Google Ads is trying to be everything to everyone. Many businesses cast the widest possible net, hoping to catch any potential customer, but this broad targeting approach often leads to expensive clicks from people who will never buy.
The Shotgun vs. Sniper Approach
Think about it this way: would you rather spend $100 to reach 1,000 random people, or $100 to reach 100 people who are genuinely interested in what you offer? The answer seems obvious, yet many Google Ads campaigns take the shotgun approach.
Understanding Search Intent
Not all searches are created equal. Someone searching for “cheap plumber” has very different intent from someone searching for “emergency plumber near me.” The first person is price shopping and might not be ready to commit. The second person has a burst pipe and needs help immediately.
Here’s what smart targeting looks like:
High-Intent Keywords
- “Emergency [service] near me”
- “Best [product] for [specific use case]”
- “[Service] cost in [location]”
- “[Buy product] online Australia”
Lower-Intent Keywords (Often Expensive)
- “What is [service]”
- “How to [do something yourself]”
- “Free [service]”
- “DIY [solution]”
The Geographic Reality Check
For Australian businesses, location targeting needs to reflect the reality of how customers actually behave. A café in West End doesn’t need to advertise to people on the Gold Coast, they’re not driving an hour for a coffee. Yet many campaigns target far broader areas than make business sense.
Think About Your Real Catchment
Before setting your geographic targeting, ask yourself:
- How far do customers actually travel for your service?
- Where do your current customers come from?
- Are there natural boundaries (the Brisbane River, major highways, suburb clusters) that define your market?
The Realistic Approach
Instead of targeting broadly and hoping for the best:
- Start with your core area: Where do 80% of your customers come from?
- Add adjacent areas gradually: Test one suburb or region at a time
- Consider drive-time, not just distance: Getting from Chermside to Springwood takes longer than the kilometres suggest
- Factor in competition: You might be the only specialist in Ipswich but facing 20 competitors in the CBD
Cost vs. Opportunity Balance
Brisbane CBD clicks cost more for certain services because there’s more competition, but there are also more potential customers. The question isn’t whether to target these areas, but how much you should spend relative to easier markets.
A smart approach for a Brisbane business might be:
- Bid aggressively in your local area (say, inner north) where you’re known
- Bid moderately in adjacent areas (outer north, or across the river) where you can compete
- Bid conservatively (or not at all) in areas like the Gold Coast where you’re unknown and less likely to convert due to distance
Audience Layering for Better Results
Instead of hoping the right people see your ads, you can layer audiences to improve targeting:
- Demographics: Age, income, parental status
- Interests: What they’re passionate about
- Behaviours: Recent purchase behaviour, device usage
- Life events: Moving house, getting married, starting a business
The key is starting narrow and expanding based on performance data, not starting broad and hoping for the best.
The Geographic Money Trap
Australia’s a big country, and advertising costs vary dramatically by location. Sydney and Melbourne clicks can cost 2-3 times more than regional areas, even for local businesses. Understanding these geographic cost variations is crucial.
What Should Be Understood
There should be clear understanding of:
- Where your profitable customers actually come from
- How far people will travel for your service
- Whether shipping costs affect your geographic targeting
The Strategic Approach
Instead of bidding the same amount everywhere, smart campaign management:
- Bids more in your highest-converting areas
- Reduces bids in expensive metros if you’re not competitive there
- Excludes areas you don’t service
- Creates separate campaigns for different regions if needed
The Mobile vs Desktop Money Leak
Here’s something that catches many businesses off guard: your customers behave completely differently on mobile vs desktop. Yet many approaches treat them the same way.
The Hidden Pattern
For many Australian service businesses, we see this pattern:
- Desktop: Higher conversion rates, people ready to buy
- Mobile: More browsing, price shopping, information gathering
If campaigns are bidding the same amount for both device types, you’re probably overpaying for clicks that don’t convert as well.
What to Look For
Ask to see performance split by device. If mobile converts at half the rate of desktop, your mobile bids should be adjusted accordingly.
This isn’t about avoiding mobile – it’s about paying appropriately for the value each device brings.
The Remarketing Goldmine Most Agencies Ignore
Here’s a stat that should wake you up: only 2-3% of website visitors buy on their first visit. The other 97% leave, and many businesses never re-engage with them. This represents a massive missed opportunity.
The Missed Opportunity
If you’re only running search ads (or that’s all that’s being run on your behalf), you’re ignoring the 97% of people who visited your website but didn’t buy. That’s like having a shop where 97 out of 100 customers leave without buying, and you never follow up.
What Remarketing Actually Does
Remarketing campaigns show ads to people who’ve already visited your website. These people are worth their weight in gold because they’re already interested in what you do.
The Strategic Remarketing Approach
There should be different remarketing campaigns for:
- People who visited your homepage (general awareness)
- People who looked at specific products/services (targeted offers)
- People who started but didn’t complete a purchase (cart abandonment)
If this isn’t happening, there’s significant revenue being left on the table.
How to Evaluate Whether Your Google Ads Strategy Is Working
Unfortunately, many approaches to Google Ads lack strategic thinking. Here’s how to evaluate if your strategy is sound.
Warning Signs to Watch For
- Strategy can’t be explained in simple terms
- Reports focus on impressions and clicks, not actual business results
- Only search campaigns are running
- No mention of testing or optimisation
- No clear understanding of when ads perform best
What Effective Management Looks Like
Good Google Ads management thinks strategically. The approach should:
- Start with your business goals, not just Google’s features
- Build campaigns around how your customers actually buy
- Test different approaches and measure what works
- Regularly audit and optimise based on performance data
- Communicate results in terms you understand
The Monthly Audit That Saves Thousands
Every month, there should be a forensic examination of your account to find waste and opportunities. Without this, you’re guaranteed to be overspending.
What Should Be Reviewed Monthly
- Search terms: What phrases are triggering your ads?
- Negative keywords: What irrelevant searches are you blocking?
- Geographic performance: Where are your profitable customers?
- Time-based performance: When should you be spending more or less?
- Device performance: Are you overpaying for mobile or desktop?
The Business Impact
In our experience managing digital marketing campaigns for Australian businesses, consistent monthly audits identify an average of $500-2,000 in monthly savings opportunities. That’s $6,000-24,000 per year just from stopping waste.
Questions Every Business Owner Should Be Asking
These questions will help you evaluate if your approach is strategic and effective:
About Strategy
- “What’s our strategy for people who aren’t ready to buy yet?”
- “How are we capturing people at different stages of the buying process?”
- “What’s our remarketing strategy?”
About Performance
- “When do our ads perform best, and how are we capitalising on that?”
- “What’s our Quality Score, and how does it compare to competitors?”
- “How much are we spending on mobile vs desktop, and what’s the return?”
About Optimisation
- “What did you test last month, and what were the results?”
- “How much waste did you eliminate in the last 30 days?”
- “What geographic areas are most profitable for us?”
If you can’t answer these questions with specific data, there’s room for significant improvement in your approach.
The Bottom Line: Smart Strategy Beats Big Budgets
The businesses that win with Google Ads aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones with the smartest strategies and the most ruthless optimisation.
A recent study by Google showed that the average ROI on Google Ads is 800%, that’s $8 for every $1 spent. But this only applies when your campaigns are properly structured and continuously optimised.
What This Means for You
Whether you’re managing ads yourself or working with an agency, success comes down to:
- Understanding your customer journey, not just final conversions
- Focusing on relevant, high-quality ads that Google rewards
- Spending more when your customers are active and ready to buy
- Capturing and re-engaging people who don’t buy immediately
- Continuously testing and optimising based on real data
At Ronin, we’ve built our entire Google Ads management approach around these principles. We don’t just manage your ads – we act as your strategic partner, constantly finding ways to reduce waste while improving results.
Ready to Stop Wasting Money on Google Ads?
If you’re tired of throwing money at Google without knowing if it’s working, or if your current agency can’t answer the questions in this article, it might be time for a change.
Our team specialises in taking over underperforming Google Ads accounts and turning them into profit machines. We’ll audit your current setup, show you exactly where money’s being wasted, and create a strategy that actually matches how your customers buy.
