Why Your Google Ads Keep Bringing In the Wrong Enquiries

The short answer: Wrong enquiries from Google Ads usually come from settings, not bad luck. Four of them do most of the damage: missing or badly written negative keywords, Performance Max serving on inventory your exclusions cannot reach, your own brand searches counted as new demand, and location targeting that includes people merely interested in your area. Read the search terms report first to see what people actually typed, then fix those four in that order. Judge the result a month later on qualified enquiries, not on cost per click.

Start with what people actually typed

Before changing a setting, open the search terms report. It shows how your ads performed when real searches triggered them, which is rarely the same as the keyword list you wrote. Google's documentation notes that terms without enough query activity are omitted to keep with its data privacy standards, so treat the report as a large sample rather than a complete log.

Read a full month, sort by cost, and mark three patterns: searches for work you do not want, searches for free information or jobs, and searches that include your own business name. Those exact words are your starting negative list.

Negative keywords are less automatic than they look

A negative keyword stops your ad showing for searches containing that term. The rules differ from the keywords you bid on, and that is where most wasted spend hides.

Google's guidance on negative keywords states that negative keywords do not match to close variants, so your ad might still show on close variations of the term. Casing and misspellings are handled automatically, but synonyms and singular or plural versions have to be added separately. Blocking "repair course" does not block "repair courses".

Match types also behave differently. A broad negative blocks a search only when it contains all of your terms in any order, a phrase negative when it contains them in that order, and an exact negative only that search with no extra words. Broad negatives catch the most, so check them against real search terms first.

If a term is wrong for your whole business rather than one campaign, put it in the account settings. Google's account-level negative keywords are a single list that applies across search and shopping inventory in Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns, with a limit of 1,000 terms per account.

Performance Max hears more than you can exclude

Performance Max runs across several Google surfaces at once. You can add negative keywords to a Performance Max campaign and through the account list, but Google is explicit about the boundary: Performance Max negative keywords apply to Search and Shopping inventory only.

So a negative list does not control which YouTube videos, Display placements or Gmail promotions your ad appears beside. If the enquiries are poor and the search terms look clean, the problem is on inventory your negatives never touched. Check the placement and asset reports before adding negatives that cannot apply.

Your own name is not new demand

People who already know your business search for you. When a broad campaign picks up those searches, it takes credit for enquiries you would have received anyway, and its reported cost per enquiry looks better than it deserves.

Google's brand exclusions can be added to any new or existing Performance Max or Search campaign and block ads on searches for your brand name, common misspellings and related subsidiary brands. Excluding them from a prospecting campaign gives you a truer number for what new demand costs.

This is a judgment call. Some businesses bid on their own name because competitors do. The point is knowing which enquiries are new and which are your existing reputation.

Location targeting is probably wider than you think

Take a commercial plumbing company in Edmonton that works within two hours of the city. Its campaign targets Alberta, and enquiries keep arriving from Vancouver and Toronto.

The likely cause is the location option. Google's advanced location options describe "Presence or interest" as the default and recommended setting, reaching people likely to be in or regularly present in the targeted location as well as people who have shown interest in it. Interest can come from the terms used in a search, a recent visit, or content the person viewed about the area. Google also notes that 100 percent accuracy is not guaranteed.

If you can only serve people who are physically nearby, "Presence" is usually the honest setting. It shows ads to people likely to be located, or regularly located, in the places you target. Expect volume to fall. That is the point.

On Meta, the form type decides the lead quality

Meta's default instant form is built for volume. Its instant form types documentation describes "More volume" as the default, designed to generate a larger number of leads by making submission quick on a mobile device.

The "Higher intent" option adds inline context under the contact fields saying your business may follow up, and a review screen where the person confirms their information. Meta says these features help prevent submissions from people who are only marginally interested. One trade-off: a higher intent form is delivered only to the Facebook and Instagram feeds on mobile devices, and will not appear on desktop.

What this will not fix

None of these settings improve a weak offer, a slow response or a landing page that does not say where you work. They stop you paying for the wrong audience. Whether that audience becomes customers is decided after the click.

Checklist for this week

1. Export 30 days of search terms and sort by cost. Mark every term you would not want a call from.
2. Add negatives in the right place. Campaign level for one campaign, account level for terms wrong across the business. Add plurals and synonyms separately.
3. Check negative match types against real search terms before saving broad negatives.
4. Open your Performance Max placement and asset reports and see where impressions actually happened.
5. Decide on brand exclusions for prospecting campaigns, then re-read your cost per enquiry.
6. Change location options to Presence if you only serve people physically in your area, and confirm the targeted regions match where you travel.
7. Review your Meta form type and consider Higher intent if your team chases leads who do not remember enquiring.
8. Write down today's enquiry numbers, qualified and total, so you can compare in a month.

Where Lumin fits

We assess and plan paid advertising on Google Ads and Meta, and we measure enquiries rather than clicks.

• Review of your campaigns, audience, budget and the path from ad to enquiry, including the settings above.
• Setup of messaging, landing pages and a check that conversions track correctly.
• Comparison of platform numbers against the enquiries your team actually received, then refinement.

We do not guarantee leads, sales or a return on ad spend. See Paid advertising or book a discovery call.