Solved: High Cost Per Click in Google Ads Maximize Conversions

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I've had a look at the issue you're facing with your Google Ads budget being wiped out. It's a really common and frustrating problem, especialy when you're told to trust the automated bidding systems. The good news is, it's entirely fixable. It's not about just capping the bids; it's about fundamentally changing the instructions you're giving to Google so it stops wasting your money and starts finding you actual customers.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on this. The short of it is, you've handed the keys to a learner driver with a Ferrari engine and no map. We need to take back the wheel, at least for a while, to teach the system what a good customer actually looks like for you.

We'll need to look at why 'Maximize Conversions' is betraying you...

Right, let's get one thing straight. "Maximize Conversions" isn't magic. It's a powerful algorithm, but it's an algorithm that runs on data. And if you feed it garbage data, you're going to get garbage results, which is exactly what's happening when you see those £20 clicks that lead nowhere. Think of the algorithm as a new employee. If you give them a vague instruction like "go get us more business" without any specifics, they're going to run around doing all sorts of things, most of them unproductive and expensive. That's what Google is doing right now.

When you enable Maximize Conversions, especially on an account without a tonne of historical conversion data, it enters what's called a "learning phase". But a better name for it would be the "burning your money to learn phase". During this period, the algorithm will intentionally make some wildy expensive bids on different types of searches to see what might convert. It's exploring. It might bid £20 on a very broad, competitive search term because it theorises that *maybe* a high-value customer is lurking there. When that click doesn't convert (which it usually doesn't), the algorithm learns a tiny lesson, and you're left with an empty budget for the day. You're essentialy paying for Google's education with your own cash.

This is a common myth pushed by Google's own reps - that you can just switch on smart bidding and let it do the work. It's a lie. Smart bidding only works when it's built on a solid foundation of three things:

1. Accurate Conversion Tracking: It needs to know, without a doubt, what a 'conversion' is. Is it a form fill? A phone call? A sale? If your tracking is off, you're teaching it the wrong lessons.
2. Sufficient Conversion Data: It needs a healthy number of conversions (I'd say at least 30-50 over a 30-day period) to have enough data to make informed decisions. Without this, it's just guessing.
3. Relevant Traffic: This is the big one for you. The data it learns from must come from highly relevant clicks. If your initial traffic is from broad, unqualified searches, the algorithm assumes those are the types of people you want, and it goes off to find more of them, often at a very high cost.

Your £20 clicks are a symptom of a deeper problem, likely a combination of not enough focused data and keywords that are far too broad. The algorithm doesn't understand the nuance of your business yet, so it's making expensive bets. Our first job is to stop the bleeding by taking away its ability to be so reckless.

I'd say you need to take back control of your keywords...

This is almost certainly the root cause of your problem. You are likely using "Broad Match" keywords. This keyword match type is Google's default because it makes them the most money, not you. It gives Google's algorithm maximum freedom to match your ad against any search query it deems even vaguely related to your keyword. This is where the irrelevant, expensive clicks come from.

You need to get familiar with the three main match types, because they are your primary tool for controlling costs and improving relevance.

• Broad Match: The keyword is `electrician services`. Google might show your ad for searches like "how to become an electrical engineer", "salary for plumber in London", or "local hardware store". It's a disaster for budget control.
• "Phrase Match": You write your keyword in quotes, like `"electrician services"`. Google will show your ad for searches that include that phrase, or close variations. For example, "local electrician services near me", "best electrician services for new homes", or "emergency electrician services cost". This is much, much better. You're telling Google the search *must* be about electrician services.
• [Exact Match]: You write your keyword in square brackets, like `[electrician services]`. Google will only show your ad for that exact search, or very, very close variations like "electrician service". This gives you the most control but the lowest volume.

For almost every client campaign we manage, we avoid Broad Match entirely at the beginning. We build campaigns using a combination of Phrase and Exact match keywords. It means less traffic initially, but the traffic we do get is far more qualified, leading to a higher conversion rate and a much lower cost per lead. This level of control is crucial for driving down costs. I remember one Google Ads campaign for a software client where we were able to acquire 3,543 users at just £0.96 per user. Achieving that kind of efficiency is impossible if you're letting the algorithm bid on irrelevant, broad searches.

Your immediate action plan for keywords should be this:

1. Pause all Broad Match keywords. Just stop them. You can create new ones later if you must, but for now, turn them off.
2. Review your existing keywords. Re-create them as Phrase Match and Exact Match versions.
3. Dive into your Search Terms Report. This is the most important report in your entire Google Ads account. It shows you the *actual* search queries people typed into Google that triggered your ad. Go to 'Keywords' -> 'Search terms' in your account. You will probably be shocked at what you find. Look for anything that is clearly not relevant to your business.
4. Build a Negative Keyword List. For every irrelevant search term you find, add it as a negative keyword. This tells Google to *never* show your ad for that search again. If you're a commercial electrician, you might add "apprentice", "training", "salary", "diy" as negatives. This single activity can save you 20-30% of your budget overnight.

Here’s a simple flowchart that visualises the ongoing process you should be following. This isn't a one-time fix; it's a weekly discipline.

You probably should switch your bidding strategy (for now)...

Alongside fixing your keywords, you need to change your bidding strategy. As we've established, Maximize Conversions is too unpredictable for an account that isn't fully optimised. You need to switch to a strategy that gives you back control over the maximum amount you're willing to pay for a click.

My recomendation would be to switch to Manual CPC. Yes, it's old-fashioned, but it's effective for this exact situation. With Manual CPC, you set the maximum bid at the ad group or keyword level. If you know your typical good clicks cost £3-£6, you could set a max bid of, say, £7. This makes it impossible for Google to go and spend £20 on a single click. It puts a hard ceiling on the cost.

You can tick the box for 'Enable Enhanced CPC', which gives Google a little bit of leeway to bid slightly higher or lower if it thinks a conversion is more or less likely, but the core control remains with you. The goal here isn't to stay on Manual CPC forever. The goal is to use it for a few weeks, maybe a month or two, to achieve two things:

1. Stop wasting money immediately.
2. Gather clean, relevant conversion data. By combining Manual CPC with your new, tighter keyword strategy, the conversions you do get will be from highly qualified searchers. You'll be teaching the algorithm what a *good* conversion looks like, rather than a random, expensive one.

Once you've gathered a good number of conversions (again, aiming for that 30-50 per month threshold), you can then think about moving back to an automated strategy. But I wouldn't jump straight back to Maximize Conversions. I would move to Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). With this strategy, you tell Google the maximum amount you're willing to pay for a conversion. For example, "Google, I want you to get me leads, and I am not willing to pay more than £50 per lead". The algorithm will then manage the bids for you to try and hit that average cost. It's still automated, but it's automation with guardrails. You're giving it a clear goal and a budget constraint, which is far more effective than the "spend whatever it takes" approach of Maximize Conversions.

How do you know when your account is ready for each bidding strategy? It's all about conversion volume. An account with very little data needs manual control, while an account with lots of data can benefit from automation.

You'll need to understand your numbers before you can grow...

Now we get to the most important part of this entire discussion. The part that most advertisers ignore. The real question isn't "Why did that click cost £20?". The real question is, "If that £20 click turned into a customer, would it have been profitable?" If you can't answer that, you'll always be flying blind and terrified of high click costs.

You need to stop thinking about cheap clicks and start thinking about affordable customers. To do this, you must calculate your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). This is the total profit you can expect to make from an average customer over the entire duration of your relationship. When you know this number, everything else becomes clear.

Here’s how you calculate it. You only need three numbers:

• Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's the average amount a customer pays you per month (or per year)?
• Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue? If you sell a service for £1000 and it costs you £200 in direct costs to deliver, your gross margin is 80%.
• Monthly Churn Rate %: What percentage of your customers do you lose each month? If you have 100 customers and lose 4 this month, your churn rate is 4%.

The formula is simple: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's imagine you run a subscription cleaning service. ARPA = £200/month Gross Margin = 70% Monthly Churn Rate = 5%

LTV = (£200 * 0.70) / 0.05 LTV = £140 / 0.05 LTV = £2,800

This means every new customer you acquire is worth £2,800 in profit to your business. Now we can work backwards to figure out what you can afford to pay for a lead.

A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you're willing to spend up to a third of a customer's lifetime value to acquire them. In our example, you could afford to spend up to £2,800 / 3 = £933 to acquire a single new customer. That's your maximum CAC.

Let's say your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads from your website into a paying customer (a 10% lead-to-customer rate). This means you can afford to pay up to £933 / 10 = £93.30 for a single lead. That's your Target CPA.

Suddenly, that £20 click doesn't seem so scary, does it? If you're getting, say, a 5% conversion rate on your landing page, it means you need 20 clicks to get one lead. If your Target CPA is £93.30, you can afford to pay up to £93.30 / 20 = £4.66 per click. But if that expensive £20 click had a much higher chance of converting, it might still have been worth it. This maths frees you from the tyranny of cheap clicks and allows you to bid confidently to acquire high-value customers.

Use this calculator below to plug in your own numbers and see what your LTV and Target CPA look like. This will be the most valuable exercise you do for your marketing all year.

We'll need to look at your offer and landing page...

Finally, we have to talk about what happens after the click. An expensive click isn't just about the bid; it's also a reflection of your Quality Score. This is a metric Google uses to rate the relevance and quality of your keywords, ads, and landing page. A low Quality Score means Google thinks your ad is a poor match for the searcher, so it charges you *more* per click to show it. A high Quality Score gets you a discount. One of the biggest components of Quality Score is the "Landing Page Experience".

This is where so many campaigns fall apart. You can have the perfect keywords and bidding strategy, but if you send that valuable traffic to a page that doesn't convert, you're just burning money. And the number one reason landing pages don't convert is a weak, high-friction offer.

The standard "Contact Us" or "Request a Quote" form is a terrible offer. It provides zero immediate value to the visitor and asks them to do all the work. It's high-friction and low-value. To get people to convert, especialy from expensive, high-intent traffic, you need to give them a moment of undeniable value. You need to solve a small part of their problem for free to earn the right to solve the whole thing.

What does a better offer look like? It depends on your business, but here are some ideas:

• For a service business (like an accountant or agency): Instead of "Contact Us", offer a "Free 15-Minute Strategy Session" or a "Free SEO Audit" that provides instant, automated feedback. We do this ourselves - our free consultation is a way to demonstrate expertise and provide value upfront. It works.
• For a SaaS company: Don't hide behind a "Request a Demo" button. Offer a free trial (no credit card) or a freemium plan. Let the product do the selling. For instance, we worked with a medical job matching SaaS client and helped reduce their cost per user acquisition from £100 all the way down to £7 using a combination of Google and Meta Ads.
• For a high-ticket product: Offer a free guide, a checklist, a calculator, or a webinar that helps them make a better buying decision. "Download our free guide: 10 Things to Check Before Buying X" is much more compelling than "Request a Brochure".

Your ad copy and your landing page copy need to speak directly to the pain point of your ideal customer, and your offer needs to be the immediate, low-risk solution to a part of that pain. Here's a quick example of how to reframe your messaging from being about you, to being about them.

The difference is night and day. The "After" versions identify a pain, agitate it slightly, and then present a clear, valuable, and low-risk bridge to the solution. This approach will not only increase your landing page conversion rate (which lowers your CPA) but it will also improve your Quality Score, which will start to bring down those crazy high click costs over time.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot to take in, but fixing a bleeding ad account requires a systematic approach. You can't just tinker with one setting and hope for the best. You need to fix the foundations. I've detailed my main recommendations for you in the table below as a clear action plan.

As you can see, getting paid ads right involves a lot more than just picking some keywords and setting a budget. It's a blend of technical setup, financial understanding, and marketing psychology. It can be a bit of a minefield, and it's easy to get lost or make costly mistakes that set you back months.

Getting an expert pair of eyes on your account can often accelerate this whole process dramaticly. We've worked on dozens of accounts in situations just like yours, from B2B software companies where we've cut CPAs from £100 down to £7, to e-commerce stores where we've generated over 1000% returns on ad spend. The patterns are often the same, and knowing where to look first is half the battle.

If you'd like to go through your account together on a call, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a direct look at your campaigns, search terms, and landing pages and give you a more personalised, actionable plan to turn things around. Sometimes just 20 minutes of focused advice is enough to get you firmly on the right path.

Feel free to book a time that works for you if you think that would be helpful.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh