5 Signs Your Google Ads Budget Is Leaking
Profitability 3 min read

5 Signs Your Google Ads Budget Is Leaking

In 30 secondsAlmost every commerce manager checks the ROAS Google Ads reports each week. Almost nobody checks whether that ROAS is real. There are five clear signs of a budget leak: more than 20% of spend in broad match without negatives configured, Google Ads and Shopify ROAS that don't add up (a symptom of double attribution), ad groups with more than ten keywords competing for the same budget, no search terms reviewed in the last month, and branded campaigns sharing a budget with non-branded campaigns. With three or more signs active, there's a real leak: budget that goes out and doesn't come back as sales. The direct way to measure the magnitude is to cross-reference your Google Ads ROAS with your store's real revenue over the same period. If the gap exceeds 10-15%, your attribution is lying and you're optimizing on incorrect data.

Most commerce managers check their Google Ads ROAS every week. It's the number that appears in the agency report, the one presented in meetings and the one that justifies continued investment.

The problem is that this number is the ROAS Google Ads calculates using its own attribution rules. Not the one your store actually generates. And the gap can be enormous.

The 5 signs you have a leak

  • More than 20% of spend in broad match without negatives: you're paying for searches that have nothing to do with your product
  • Your Google Ads ROAS and your Shopify ROAS don't add up: double attribution, someone is claiming conversions that aren't theirs
  • Ad groups with more than 10 keywords: they compete against each other for the same budget
  • You haven't reviewed Search Terms in the last month: you're funding searches you'll never see
  • Branded and non-branded campaigns share a budget: the branded one always wins, the non-branded one never scales

Three or more signs present means you have an active leak. Not hypothetical: budget that goes out and doesn't come back as real sales.

How to gauge the size of the problem

The most direct way: cross-reference your Google Ads ROAS with your store's real revenue over the same period. If the gap exceeds 10-15%, something isn't working in your attribution.

If you don't have that cross-referencing capability right now, it's the first problem to solve. Without a single source of truth, you're optimizing on data that lies.

What to do with each sign

Sign 1 — Broad match: review your search terms from the last 30 days. Add every irrelevant search you find as a negative. Consider moving your main keywords to phrase or exact match.

Sign 2 — ROAS doesn't add up: connect Google Ads with your store's real data. If there's more than a 15% gap, start investigating which channel is auto-attributing conversions that don't belong to it.

Sign 3 — Groups with too many keywords: regroup by theme. A group should have between 3 and 7 keywords with the same search intent.

Sign 4 — No Search Terms review: schedule a monthly review. With high budgets, make it biweekly.

Sign 5 — Shared budget: separate branded and non-branded campaigns. Assign different budgets and measure them separately.

How to detect the 5 signs without reviewing by hand

Reviewing the 5 signs manually takes 3-4 hours on a medium-sized account. Nexprix's free Google Ads audit detects all 5 (and another 295) in under 5 minutes, with read-only permissions and available for accounts in Spain and LATAM. If you prefer the step-by-step manual guide, here's the complete methodology.

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Frequently asked questions

What is double attribution in Google Ads?

It happens when a customer clicks on a Google Ads ad and also on a Meta Ads ad before buying. Both platforms attribute the full sale to themselves. The result: the aggregate ROAS you see adds up to more sales than actually happened.

Is it normal for the Google Ads ROAS and the Shopify ROAS not to match?

There will always be some gap due to different attribution windows. A gap of up to 10-15% is reasonable. If it exceeds that range, there's an attribution problem worth investigating.

How often should I review Search Terms?

Monthly at minimum. For accounts spending more than €5,000/month, we recommend a biweekly review.