Top 4 B2B Lead-Gen Google Ads Mistakes

Having managed millions in ad spend for our clients each year, I’ve had the opportunity to audit hundreds of Google Ads campaigns for B2B companies. The patterns become clear after a while – there are several common mistakes that can dramatically reduce the effectiveness of your lead generation efforts.

If you’re not seeing the results you expect from your Google Ads campaigns, you might be making one (or more) of these critical errors. Let’s break down the top four B2B lead generation mistakes I consistently see when auditing new accounts, and more importantly, how you can fix them.

Mistake #1: Poor Branded Controls or Segmentation

Some ad agencies absolutely love branded traffic – and it’s not hard to see why. Branded traffic almost always converts well, makes your ROI look fantastic, and helps everyone feel like marketing rock stars.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: branded traffic was probably going to convert anyway.

These are users who already know your company and are actively searching for you by name. Our number one job as marketers isn’t to capture people who were already heading to your website – it’s to find new prospects who weren’t going to convert and bring them into your funnel.

How to Fix it:

1. Create separate campaigns for branded and non-branded traffic. This gives you complete control over how much you’re spending on each and allows you to analyze performance separately.
2. Allocate budget strategically. While you should definitely have a branded campaign (to prevent competitors from stealing your traffic), the majority of your budget should go toward non-branded campaigns that expand your reach.
3. Track and analyze branded vs. non-branded performance separately. This prevents branded traffic from masking the true performance of your acquisition efforts.
4. Consider reducing branded bids. If you’re already ranking well organically for your brand terms, you might not need to bid as aggressively on them.

Remember, if someone is already searching for your brand name, they’re likely to find you even without ads. The real value of Google Ads lies in reaching people who don’t yet know about your solution.

Mistake #2: Inaccurate Conversion Tracking That Doesn’t Align with Business Goals

This is a deceptively serious problem that I see constantly. Whether it’s duplicate conversion tracking, tracking actions that aren’t actually meaningful conversions, or giving equal weight to vastly different user actions – poor conversion tracking can completely derail your campaigns.

For example, many B2B companies treat newsletter sign-ups the same as lead generation form completions. But let’s be honest – these actions represent vastly different levels of purchase intent and shouldn’t be weighted equally in your optimization strategy.

With Google’s newer AI models taking on more control over campaign optimization, having accurate conversion data is more important than ever. When your conversion tracking is misaligned with your actual business goals, these algorithms will optimize for the wrong behaviors, driving loads of “conversions” that don’t actually benefit your business.

How to Fix it:

1. Audit your conversion actions. Take a hard look at what you’re currently tracking as conversions and ask yourself: “Does this action truly indicate someone is likely to become a customer?”
2. Implement value-based conversion tracking. Assign different values to different conversion actions based on their importance to your business. A demo request might be worth $100, while a whitepaper download might only be worth $10.
3. Remove duplicate or meaningless conversion tracking. Clean up your account by removing any conversion actions that are either duplicates or don’t actually matter to your business.
4. Set up proper attribution models. Make sure you’re attributing conversions correctly across the user journey, especially for longer B2B sales cycles.
5. Regularly review conversion quality. Work with your sales team to understand if the leads coming through are actually qualified, and adjust your tracking accordingly.
   

The goal isn’t to track every possible user interaction, but to focus on the actions that truly matter for your business success.

Mistake #3: Pmax Campaigns Gone Wild

Performance Max (Pmax) campaigns are the hot new thing in Google Ads, and for good reason – they can be powerful tools when used correctly. However, I’m seeing too many B2B companies jumping on the Pmax bandwagon when it’s not actually the right fit for their business model.

Here’s the thing: Pmax campaigns work best for businesses with shorter sales cycles and clear conversion actions. If your average sales cycle is greater than 60 days (as is common in B2B), there are likely more appropriate campaign types for you.

Another issue with Pmax campaigns is that they have a tendency to leak in branded traffic, which goes back to our first point about proper segmentation. When you can’t properly control and segment traffic sources, you lose visibility into what’s actually driving results.

How to Fix it:

1. Evaluate if Pmax is right for your business. If you have a complex B2B offering with a long sales cycle, consider sticking with more targeted campaign types like Search or even Display with careful audience targeting.
   
2. If using Pmax, exclude your brand terms. While you can’t directly control all aspects of Pmax targeting, you can add your brand terms as negative keywords to help prevent cannibalization.
   
3. Create separate asset groups for different products/services. This helps maintain some level of segmentation within the Pmax campaign structure.
   
4. Set realistic expectations. Pmax campaigns often need more time to optimize, especially for complex B2B offerings. Don’t expect overnight success.
   
5. Monitor search term reports carefully. While limited, these reports can give you some insight into what searches are triggering your Pmax ads.

Remember, just because a campaign type is new or lauded by some folks in the industry doesn’t mean it’s the best option for your specific business needs.

Mistake #4: Insufficient Campaign Budgets or Over-Segmentation

I frequently see B2B companies setting campaign budgets that are simply too low to achieve meaningful results, or over-segmenting their campaigns to the point where each individual campaign can barely get enough data to optimize properly.

Let’s say you have a campaign with a budget of $40 per day, but your average cost per click is around $30. That means you’re only getting one quality click per day, with maybe a few lower-quality clicks scattered in. That’s simply not enough data for Google’s algorithms to optimize effectively, and it’s certainly not enough traffic to generate a meaningful number of leads.

This problem often stems from a desire to have precise control over budgets for different business lines or product categories. While this intention is good, the execution can severely hamper your campaign performance.

How to Fix it:

1. Ensure campaigns have sufficient budget for statistical significance. As a rule of thumb, aim for at least 10-15 clicks per day for campaigns you want to optimize.
   
2. Consider your conversion rates. If your landing page converts at 5%, and you want one lead per day, you need at least 20 clicks daily – so budget accordingly.
   
3. Consolidate similar campaigns. Rather than having many small campaigns, consider combining related offerings into larger campaigns with shared learning.
   
4. Use ad groups for granular control. You can still maintain targeting precision by using different ad groups within a single campaign, while giving the overall campaign enough budget to perform.
   
5. Implement proper campaign portfolio bidding strategies. This allows you to optimize across campaigns while still maintaining some budget control.

Budget constraints are real for every business, but spreading your budget too thin across too many campaigns is often counterproductive. It’s better to run fewer campaigns well than many campaigns poorly.

Taking Your B2B Google Ads to the Next Level

Avoiding these four critical mistakes will put you ahead of most B2B advertisers on Google, but it’s just the beginning. To truly maximize your lead generation efforts, you’ll need to constantly test, learn, and optimize your approach.

The B2B landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, and the companies that succeed will be those that take a strategic, data-driven approach to their paid search campaigns.

If you’re struggling with your Google Ads performance or want a professional review of your current setup, reach out for a free audit. We’ve helped numerous B2B companies transform their digital advertising from a cost center to a predictable source of qualified leads.

Remember, the goal isn’t just to get clicks or even conversions – it’s to drive real business growth through qualified leads that turn into paying customers. Keep your focus on that ultimate objective, and you’ll make smarter decisions in your Google Ads campaigns.