It’s late spring. The flowers are out, the sun’s staying up past 8, and your PPC campaigns? They’re probably over here spending money like they’ve got a trust fund.
Your campaigns should be humming by now, but if you haven’t taken a real look under the hood… you might be nurturing weeds instead of
growing revenue.
Here are some rookie mistakes still happening in June that quietly drain ad spend:
1. Broad Match Without Brakes
Broad match is like inviting everyone to your BBQ—except your real friends never show up, and now you’re broke.
If you don’t add audience signals, exclusions, and an intent-focused structure, you’re just letting Google spend your money on whoever’s in the area.
2. Letting Automation Run Wild
I get it. Automations are tempting—like a self-watering garden. But without oversight, they’ll flood the lawn or forget to water the roses.
You still need to:
- Feed the algorithm good data
- Guide the system with explicit conversions
- Check where your spending is going
Set it and forget it? Not in this economy.
3. AI Max for Search? Proceed with Caution
Google is promoting new AI-powered placements and auto-expansion tools. This sounds great… until you realize you’re showing up for weird queries or on irrelevant surfaces.
If you opt in to these beta features without understanding where you appear or how budgets are allocated, you’re paying tuition at the University of Oops.
4. Mismatch Between Bidding Strategy + Business Goals
Are you optimizing for leads but using Max Clicks? Or are you running ROAS goals when your data is still trash?
That’s not optimization—it’s confusion. Your bid strategy needs to match your campaign’s intent today, not what you hope it’ll be someday.
5. Audience Signals ≠ Actual Control
Audience signals help guide machine learning, but they don’t guarantee your ads only show to those folks. That’s like putting a sticky note on your door that says “No soliciting” and expecting results.
Use exclusions. Layer your signals. Check actual audience reports.
6. Clicks ≠ Conversions
Traffic is not the same as value.
Yes, more eyeballs are nice—but are they the right eyeballs?
This time of year, I see clients celebrating traffic spikes without checking the quality behind the clicks. Let’s reset expectations:
Success = Conversions. Not just attention.
Late Spring PPC Reminder:
– Clean up your match types
– Supervise your automations
– Don’t blindly trust AI tools
– Align bid strategies to real goals
– Use audience signals strategically
– Celebrate results, not vanity metrics
We’re not in seed-planting mode anymore. It’s June—check your garden.
