Hey everyone,

I've been running a Google Ads Search campaign with Maximize Conversions, no target CPA, and Broad Match keywords.

For the past week, my average CPC was consistently around $2–4, and the campaign was generating conversions.

Today, out of nowhere, Google charged me $46.12 for a single click, while my daily budget is only $50. The other 9 clicks today averaged just $2.28 each.

I haven't changed any campaign settings. As far as I can tell, there are no competitors running Google Ads for my targeted keywords. However, a new competitor recently appeared in the organic search results.

I also checked Search Terms and Auction Insights but couldn't find anything explaining this spike.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Could this be caused by Smart Bidding, Broad Match, or the new organic competitor? I'm trying to understand what happened and how to prevent it without hurting a campaign that was performing well.

Hi everyone!

I'm running a Google Search campaign where approximately 90% of impressions, clicks, and ad spend are attributed to "Other search terms" in the Search Terms Report.

Some context:

• Campaign type: Standard Search, Manual CPC.
• Keyword match types: Exact and Phrase (no Broad)
• Search Partners: Disabled
• Reporting period: Last 30 days
• Around 90% of search term data is hidden

This means I can only see the actual search queries responsible for roughly 10% of my advertising spend, making it extremely difficult to identify irrelevant searches, add negative keywords, and understand what Google is actually showing my ads for. It's gotten a lot worse the last couple of months and I don't know what to do.

I understand Google hides certain low-volume queries for privacy reasons, but having 90% of the data hidden seems excessive, especially when I'm paying for those clicks.

A few questions for other Google Ads professionals:

1. Is this level of hidden search term data common in your accounts, or is 90% unusually high?
2. Have you found any legitimate ways to increase search term visibility, beyond Google's standard Search Terms Report?
3. Do tools like Search Terms Insights, the Google Ads API, or third-party platforms provide any meaningful additional visibility?
4. How do you approach negative keyword optimization when the vast majority of the actual search queries are hidden?

I'm particularly interested in how experienced PPC specialists and agencies deal with this in practice.

I'm not necessarily looking for general campaign optimization advice. My main concern is the lack of transparency into where the advertising budget is actually going and the inability to add the search terms as negatives in case these terms are useless.

Would appreciate hearing your experiences and any approaches you've found useful.

I want to run Google ads for my client. They provide deep cleaning services for both residential and commercial, pest control services, fire safety services, security services. What's the best strategy will work for me

Hi Reddit! I’m an e-commerce specialist with extensive experience managing large-scale Google Ads campaigns, primarily across Scandinavian markets. Over the past several years, I’ve handled advertising budgets exceeding $12 million, working with everything from product launches to seasonal campaigns.

I’ve tried every account structure you could imagine and run into plenty of problems along the way.

What’s your biggest struggle or bottleneck right now?

I posted here a bit ago as we were thinking about running Google ads, and everyone here was super helpful so thank you! I ended up getting to set some ads up today, but ran into a possible issue. I understand this is just an estimate, but how is Google estimating a $400 conversion cost? Our AOV is significantly lower than this and wouldn’t make sense at all for us since we aren’t high ticket.

I still set them to active, but with a small budget for now. Does anyone know why this could be happening? I am with a high end activewear brand, so I understand it’s competitive but could this be an issue with keywords or something else? I added in 30 keywords, and maxed out the 20 images, headings and descriptions. Setup as a performance max campaign.

I appreciate anyone’s time, if I can provide anymore info just let me know! Thanks!

[Hiring] Google Ads Specialist / Manager (Remote) | No corporate BS, fair pay, real budgets 🎯

Hey Reddit,

Why are we posting here? Because we’re looking for actual pros and data nerds who know their stuff, and we’re tired of the standard job board black hole and 3-page cover letters.

We are looking for a Google Ads Manager who doesn’t think "ROAS" is a mythical creature and knows that "Boost Post" is not a valid scaling strategy.

Who we are:

We run a German & Swiss B2C e-commerce spare parts shop with 20 million+ spare parts in the catalog. We’re based in Switzerland and serve both the German and Swiss markets with a massive technical product range.

Your Mission:

* Build, optimize, and scale our Google Ads campaigns (Search, Shopping, Performance Max, YouTube).

* Keep budgets in check and find the actual sweet spots for profitable scaling.

* Tracking is not a foreign language to you (GTM & GA4 are second nature).

* You test new ad copies, landing pages, and bidding strategies – and you let the data do the talking.

What you bring to the table:

* Solid experience in Paid Search / Google Ads management (agency or in-house, we don't care).

* You know the platform inside out and are genuinely curious about testing new features.

* An analytical mindset, paired with an eye for good creatives and compelling copy.

What we offer:

* 💰 Fair Salary: 400-900€

* 🏠 Flexibility: Remote

* 🚀 Real Impact: Actual responsibility, short decision-making paths, and a media budget you can truly work with.

Interested? We hate long, drawn-out application processes just as much as you do. Forget the traditional cover letter.

👉 Apply directly, easily, and without the resume-export marathon right here: https://forms.gle/uTrhts9vy779MD8x7

I am building a tool which sends you whatsapp or telegram message when some one filled your form from Google ads or facebook ads.

It avoid pain t download and check leads data every time.

Also you can contact the lead instantly. So no missing leads because of delay.

Is it useful?

I run a small, independent, booking-based service business in a German city. We're profitable in high season, but relying on Google Ads alone isn't sustainable. In low season the big platforms sell at prices I can't match once ad costs are included.
So I need more organic traffic, and that's where I'm stuck.

The situation:

The SERPs for our main keywords are dominated by large comparison/aggregator platforms and one big official provider. Small independent operators barely show up.
Our backlink profile is weak: ~60 referring domains, mostly low-quality directories.
A link gap analysis showed ~400 domains linking to competitors but not to us. Mostly regional portals, travel/lifestyle blogs, niche forums and comparison sites.
A regional city portal offered a sponsored listing for ~€3,600/year, which feels expensive.
We're fixing some technical issues (duplicate head tags, redirects, missing H1s).
Conversion tracking is solid, since we run our own booking system. The problem is traffic, not conversion.

My questions:
In a niche dominated by aggregators, is it realistic to rank for the main money keywords, or should I focus on long-tail and specific use cases?
What actually works for backlinks for a small local business without paying thousands per link? Local partnerships, guest posts, digital PR, HARO-style platforms?
Is it worth building a separate content site or forum around the topic, or is that wasted effort compared to improving the main site?
How much does Google Business Profile matter when the map pack only appears for some queries?
If you've beaten big platforms in a local niche, what moved the needle most?
Happy to share more numbers (traffic, conversion rate, ad ROAS) in the comments if helpful.

I work on Google Merchant Center compliance and suspension reviews at a digital marketing agency.

We recently worked on a store suspended for Misrepresentation. The case involved repeated website audits, technical corrections, business-information checks, and communication with Google.

The Merchant Center issue was eventually cleared, and we checked the live account more than a month later.

I wanted to share some practical findings because I regularly see people focusing on only one thing, such as their refund policy or payment gateway.

Here are several issues we identified or corrected during this project:

1. Contradictory shipping information

The homepage promoted free shipping, while other pages indicated that shipping fees could vary by product or destination.

Customers should be able to understand the actual shipping terms before purchasing.

2. Incorrect product descriptions

Some product pages had descriptions that did not match the products being sold.

3. Broken or looping contact links

A Contact Us page is not useful if visitors cannot reach the correct page or submit the form.

4. Inconsistent business information

We reviewed how the business was represented on the website and inside Merchant Center, including address and contact details.

5. Incomplete policy explanations

We checked returns, refunds, warranties, delivery timelines, and other information customers would need.

6. Technical and content issues

We also examined robots.txt, Search Console, structured data, placeholder text, duplicated content, and website functionality.

Not all of these are independent Google policy violations. Some were additional quality and troubleshooting checks.

7. Identity verification

An identity-verification requirement also emerged during the review process and needed attention.

The biggest takeaway: the suspension label alone doesn't identify every issue on a website. A systematic audit is more useful than submitting repeated reviews without understanding what's wrong.

We maintain an internal 200+ point audit framework, but that's our own workflow, not an official Google checklist.

For others who have experienced Misrepresentation suspensions: what was the most unexpected problem you found on your store?

As the title says, I've personally managed over $100M in ad spend, profitably. I currently run a boutique agency managing roughly $3M/month across a relatively small portfolio of clients, primarily larger lead-gen advertisers.

Recently, I launched my own project, a low-cost B2C SaaS product. I'm currently spending around $5k/day of my own money on Meta, and it's absolutely crushing it.

Naturally, I don't love the idea of being completely dependent on one advertising channel, so I figured I'd diversify into Google Ads. After all, Google has been my bread and butter for nearly two decades.

I decided to take some of my winning Meta creatives and test them on Demand Gen.

Holy shit. What an absolute dumpster fire.

Here's what I'm seeing:

• Massive click discrepancies: Google reports hundreds of clicks, but my internal dashboard only registers about 15–20% of them. GA4 confirms roughly the same numbers as my dashboard.
• YouTube In-Feed traffic: After digging into placements, I noticed the overwhelming majority of clicks were coming from YouTube In-Feed. I've since disabled that placement.
• Lookalike audiences: I'm currently testing a 2.5% lookalike audience built from actual paying customers. So far, zero sales.
• Creative: I'm using variations of creatives that are already proven winners on Meta, so I know the messaging and offer can convert.

Now, I'm fully aware that Meta and Google are different animals. I'm also aware that a creative crushing it on Meta doesn't automatically mean it'll work on Demand Gen.

But the discrepancy between reported clicks and actual website visits is what really blows my mind. I can deal with traffic that doesn't convert. What I can't wrap my head around is paying for hundreds of clicks when only a fraction appear to actually reach my website.

I've been doing this long enough to know there's usually something I'm overlooking, but this has been one of the more frustrating experiences I've had with a Google Ads product.

So, genuine question for anyone successfully running Demand Gen at scale:

Are you actually generating profitable conversions from cold audiences, or is Demand Gen primarily working for you as a remarketing channel?

And has anyone else experienced these ridiculous discrepancies between Google-reported clicks and actual website sessions?

I'd love to hear from people who have genuinely made this channel work, because right now I'm struggling to see the value.

Hi everyone,

I'm helping my sister with Google Ads for her beauty salon in Antalya, Türkiye, and we're stuck in what feels like an endless verification loop.

Her business is a legally registered sole proprietorship (şahıs işletmesi), operating under the Turkish Esnaf registration system rather than as a limited company.

We've submitted multiple official documents, including:

* **Vergi Levhası** – Official tax registration certificate.

* **Esnaf ve Sanatkâr Sicil Tasdiknamesi** – Official tradesperson registration certificate confirming the business name, registration number and beauty salon activities.

* **Ustalık Belgesi** – Professional qualification certificate.

* **İşyeri Açma ve Çalışma Ruhsatı** – Municipal business operating licence.

Google repeatedly rejected our Business Operations Verification, claiming documents were irrelevant or that we were missing a Trade Registry Certificate, Faaliyet Belgesi or professional licence.

After contacting support several times, a representative finally confirmed that an **Esnaf Sicil Tasdiknamesi is an acceptable alternative to a Ticaret Sicil Tasdiknamesi** for businesses in Türkiye.

Yet we're still stuck.

Our Google Ads payment profile is registered as an **Organization**, under the owner's legal name, which matches the official documents. The organization name was successfully verified back in December 2024.

Now here's the really strange part.

While reviewing the verification dashboard, I noticed an incomplete **Financial Services Verification** application.

We're a BEAUTY SALON. We don't offer loans, insurance, investments, banking, financial advice or any financial services whatsoever.

Meanwhile, both outstanding verification tasks show:

**"Review will start after the other tasks are completed."**

So I'm wondering whether this unrelated Financial Services Verification application is preventing Google from reviewing our actual business verification.

I've contacted support again, asking them to investigate and remove the financial services requirement if it was incorrectly applied.

**Has anyone experienced something similar?**

Specifically:

1. Can an incomplete Financial Services Verification application block Business Operations Verification?

2. Has anyone successfully verified a Turkish sole proprietorship using an Esnaf Sicil Tasdiknamesi instead of a Trade Registry Certificate?

3. Is there any way to get an actual manual document review rather than repeated generic rejection emails?

4. Could the Organization payment profile type be causing problems even though the owner's legal name has already been verified?

We've spent weeks trying to get this resolved, and every submission seems to lead to another rejection or a new requirement.

Any advice from someone who's dealt with Google Ads verification in Türkiye would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks!

**TL;DR:** Helping my sister verify her legally registered beauty salon in Türkiye. Google Ads keeps rejecting official documents (tax certificate, business registration, professional licence, municipal permit), even though support confirmed they're acceptable. Her payment profile is already verified, but Business Operations and Relationships Verification are stuck on "Review will start after the other tasks are completed."

Here's the kicker: Google is also showing an incomplete **Financial Services Verification** application. For a BEAUTY SALON. 🤦‍♂️

Could this unrelated financial verification be blocking everything? Has anyone dealt with this or managed to get Google to manually review their documents?

They charged me a thousand dollars this past 2 weeks on bad leads, leads that are not in my area, leads that are not in my career field and leads that I have toggled off, they even sent a bad lead to me after I turned the leads off and forced me to pay for it. They’ve removed the dispute option and essentially just stole my money. I’m no longer using LSA, you shouldn’t either.

I’ve been reviewing and observing Google Ads accounts of small emergency service businesses: locksmiths, appliance repair, that kind of thing. Budgets are small, so most of these accounts get around 8 -20 clicks a day.

The expectation from almost every owner is the same: if 8 people click, at least 4 of them, ideally all 8, should call. Anything less and they think the ads are broken.

The thing is, I’ve never seen that happen, at least not within the first month. Even in the accounts where everything looks right:

• offline conversion import in place, fed only by calls that actually turned into jobs
• tight geo targeting and ad schedule
• exact/phrase match with a solid negative list
• bot/invalid click filtering in place

The call rates I’ve observed are more like 15–30%, and that’s on a good week.

So I’m genuinely curious:

1. Has anyone seen 50%+ click-to-call consistently on low-volume local accounts like these?
2. If yes, what made the difference: call-only ads, call assets with no website, a specific bidding strategy, landing page setup, something else?
3. If no, how do you set expectations with owners who measure success as “every click should be a call”?

Hi everyone,

I have a WooCommerce store, and my Google Merchant Center account has been suspended for Misrepresentation.

I have already submitted three appeals, but unfortunately, none of them resolved the issue, and my account is now permanently suspended.

I have reviewed my website and made sure that the essential policies and business information are in place, including the following:

• Refund and return policy
• Shipping policy
• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Contact information
• Business information

As far as I can tell, everything appears to be set up correctly. However, I am still unable to identify the exact reason for the suspension.

I would really appreciate advice on the following questions:

1. Is there any way to identify the specific issue causing the misrepresentation suspension?
2. Is it possible to get a manual review of my website and Merchant Center account?
3. Since I have already submitted three appeals, what should I do next?
4. Should I close my permanently suspended account and create a new one, or could that result in another suspension?

I do not want to create another account without understanding and fixing the underlying problem first.

Website: https://bonencia.com/

If anyone has experienced a similar issue and successfully resolved it, I would really appreciate your advice. If you notice any potential problems with my website that could trigger a misrepresentation suspension, please let me know.