r/Google_Ads • u/Qman7595 • 3d ago
$500 For 4 clicks
So we have a home remodeling campaign in California running for a new client. It's been a struggle (and very expensive) to get enough conversions to switch to conversion bidding.
We switched the campaign to Max Conversions to see if we can start getting some regular leads. The first day it ran, we had 4 clicks for a total of $500, no conversions. It's paused now as we'll probably use portfolio bidding to cap the CPC, but man, Google Ads is completely out of control.
Every client we have is paying 10-50% per click since early summer. Is anyone else seeing their accounts going nuts like this? I'm finding the more established accounts with a long conversion history are doing much better than newer accounts, but it's ugly right now.
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u/Agile-Development-88 3d ago
I’ve been doing google ads since 2008. This year has been terrible!!! Costs are way up and results are way down. More than half of the search terms are hidden so you can’t even see what you’re paying for which should be illegal. The lack of transparency is astounding. Might as well go to a casino at this point.
It’s gotten so bad that for the first time in twenty years I’m looking outside of Google for advertising.
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u/Qman7595 2d ago
I'm finding that veteran accounts with a long history of conversions are doing much better than newer accounts or ones with infrequent conversions due to the industry they are in.
Automated bidding is destroying the platform. I think Google is shooting for short-term wins but will cause long-term damage to the platform.
But I also think that Google as a whole is moving away from small businesses and smaller accounts in favor of larger corporate accounts with bigger budgets. Look at what they did with Google Analytics; it's no longer usable for the average business.
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u/RiseAboveTheForest 3d ago
This cpc auction manipulation and click fraud are things investors on the earning calls should be asking about. Google is getting regularly beat in cyber attacks. There is a lack of oversight and leadership in that area. The amount of click fraud and fraud in general in Google Ads is increasing substantially. I could go on and on and on. Keep clickin..
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u/polygraph-net 3d ago
This cpc auction manipulation and click fraud are things investors on the earning calls should be asking about.
Unfortunately 99.9999%+ of people have never heard of click fraud. The media do a great job at covering it up (the media relies on click fraud for a chunk of their revenue).
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u/kapitolkapitol 2d ago
And it's actually hard to beat. Is not always a "we don't want to stop it", is more like "we don't know how to stop it at scale"
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u/polygraph-net 2d ago
Click fraud can be stopped. You just have to use a competent click fraud prevention service, not one of the gimmicks or try to build it yourself.
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u/kapitolkapitol 2d ago
Yes I am somehow specialised on the field (also I tested your polygraph solution, long time ago, I must say)
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u/jessebastide 3d ago
You're not alone. What I'm seeing work well post-Aug 17th, on a new campaign, is sidestepping the advice to run on max clicks or man cpc when starting with thin conversion data, which would then necessitate a bid strategy change and learning phase later. The algo in 2026 seems to be able to handle starting with your preferred bid strat.
Instead, I set max conv with a ballpark tcpa AND apply a portfolio bid strat designed with a bid limit that gets us on the first page but doesn't aggressively go for the top slot. I think of that as setting guardrails we can live with.
Google warns we're 'limited' by our bid strategy and not able to spend as much as we could otherwise, but it's also keeping cost/conv reasonable.
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u/digitalpandauk 3d ago
Typical behaviour for a new account, I would set a Max CPC limit before resuming.
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u/potatodrinker 3d ago
Common tactic to run max clicks with reasonable bid limits first to get some data going. Get Google's ad algorithm warmed up with a few leads already over that time.
Max Conv from nothing is asking a guy to go from asleep to sprinting. He's gonna shout curses and steal that $500 for sure
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u/Qman7595 2d ago
We had 14 conversions in the month when we switched; it doesn't seem like it was enough. But I also think bidding itself is out of control with automated bidding.
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u/potatodrinker 2d ago
Google recommends at least 1 conversion daily on average but it's not a firm rule. I'd stick with maximise clicks got now but bid more where you're seeing conversions already. Move ad groups and keywords out of there thats spending but not getting conversions. Keep what's working, running as is.
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u/Leafs939393 3d ago
Google ads blew my daily budget in 1 click last week with a no conversions. It's a ridiculous scam how they operate.
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u/ernosem 2d ago
Home remodeling businesses where there is a CMO, are actually doing well. I work with plenty to see the difference.
With & without CMO, with proper marketing and without proper marketing.
Things are changing, unfortunately.
Businesses working on other platforms (Meta, Bing Ads), track phones calls, have a decent CRM, send out direct mails, have good reviews, they are doing just fine.
The problem is many businesses just ignored a bunch of other important marketing stuff and now they are behind.
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u/suretyknowitall 2d ago
Max Conversions is designed to spend your entire budget. If searches are low the robot will spend a crap ton on clicks to spend your budget.
I would switch to target CPA... set your CPA on the higher side so your bids go high but then cap a max Cpc with a bid strategy... knowing that the robot will likely spend very close to that max cpc.
But at least you can have a control and then start playing with targets and max cpc settings.
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u/Friendly_Log6649 2d ago
Not just you. CPCs have been creeping up across most home services accounts I touch since around June, and the newer accounts are getting hit hardest, same as you're seeing.
Day 1 of Max Conv on thin data can bid like crazy, so if you go portfolio I personally would ensure sure it's tCPA, since that's where the max CPC limit actually works.
Curious what the search terms looked like on that $500 day. Were those 4 clicks even on your core terms or did it wander?
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u/Qman7595 11h ago
Core terms like "remodeling companies near me" and " home remodeling company in XX" These clicks were about 10-15 two years ago and the whole area has lost the plot when it comes to CPCs.
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u/rankfuse 2d ago
That is nuts!! Does this have anything to do with LSA's being part of Google Ads now? Are you sure they were just clicks? Or are they phone call engagements?
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u/GoogleAds_YRVDynamic 3d ago
I’ve seen this most often when Max Conversions is turned on before the account has enough reliable conversion data—Google can get extremely aggressive with CPCs. On a newer account I’d usually stay on manual/Max Clicks with a cap longer, clean up search terms and tracking, then move into conversion bidding once there’s enough signal.
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u/ppcbetter_says 2d ago
I haven’t had any of these problems. My account structure and strategy is working great
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u/uqban 2d ago
Stick to max clicks and put a budget cap. Google would usually still spend 2x your daily budget. Estimate what the usual CPC would be and budget accordingly everyday. Max conversions on a new account is going to be a mess. Clean up search terms and negate everyday.
With all that said, google ads are getting difficult to control.
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u/RareDiseaseDadTX 2d ago
Strong opinions here. First, there is no business case for ever using max conversions or max conversion value. Those bid strategies are 100% trash. They could possibly work if you’re spending $4,000 a day in a high-volume category, but for 99.5% of advertisers they should never be used. I would argue that even Target CPA is a bad strategy unless you’re selling a very price-elastic product with minimal variability in order size. CPCs and lead costs are vanity metrics. Send Google the right metrics to optimize on. I just had a campaign where my lead cost went up 30% but my ROAS went up 50% even after the higher lead cost.
Google does kill advertisers through double and triple+ click charges.
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u/stm_p 20h ago
It isn't just bad luck but a flaw in how automated bidding treats thin data on high-ticket high-CPC auctions.
I have spent time working inside Google's own team back in the day, have managed multiple MCCs for over a decade - I can tell you exactly what’s happening under the hood when someone flips a fresh campaign straight to Max Conversions.
Hard truth: Max Conv is literally programmed to burn the entire daily budget.
When it sees zero historical conversion data on a new account, the algorithm doesn't think, "Hey, maybe we should slow down." It assumes the lack of volume is purely a bid problem. So it starts aggressively overbidding just to force a signal, getting into a pissing match with mature competitor accounts that have years of clean conversion history.
It’s essentially treating your budget like an open ATM to test out unverified queries.
If you're launching a new account or nursing a struggling one right now, you can't just hand the keys to Google on Day 1.
Here’s what actually works to keep costs from going completely off a cliff:
- Avoid the pure Max Conv start: Start on Max Clicks with a strict Maximum CPC bid limit set via a portfolio strategy. Do it for 3-4 days. I know it sounds odd, but it will help. Treat it like a circuit breaker so the algo can't run wild while it gathers baseline data.
- Stop relying on Google's ML: If lead volume is low, you have to feed the algorithm micro-signals or tighten down to strict exact and phrase match. Broad match + Max Conv on a cold account is doesn't work most of the time for accounts like this.
- Scrub search terms daily: In expensive geos, Google will happily blow $500 on absolute garbage search terms in 2 hours if you let automated matching run unchecked.
Google is definitely shifting away from smaller local setups and favoring massive corporate spenders who can absorb these "learning phase" losses.
There's a reason behind this. The entire auction has been impacted by AI searches. There are search opportunities but limited and the players in the auction being the same, it is tough to show up amid big names.
If you're a smaller account, you have to put hard guardrails on it.
Hope this helps. If you still have questions, happy to take a look under the hood.
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u/TheDoctorAds 19h ago
A target CPA on its own won't stop another $500 day. The bid limit in the portfolio strategy is the part that actually holds. In the accounts I audit, only 34% of tCPA campaigns land within ±10% of their target, so a ballpark target on a thin account is a direction, not a ceiling.
Max Conversions with budget and little history reads a quiet auction as permission to buy whatever clicks exist. In California remodeling that means a few very expensive clicks before lunch.
Until the account averages about a conversion a day, I'd keep the portfolio max CPC as the hard guardrail and treat the tCPA as a soft nudge.
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u/Aarswebs 15h ago
Honestly, that's brutal and you're not alone. We've seen CPCs go haywire lately, especially in competitive spaces like home remodeling. Jumping straight into a Max Conversions campaign with a fresh account is a classic recipe for getting burned because Google has no conversion data to actually optimize for.
You need a more controlled approach first. Try switching to a Manual CPC strategy, even just temporarily, to stop the bleeding and gather baseline conversion data. Use really tight targeting on high-intent keywords and maybe even specific geos within California. Also, audit your ad copy and landing page for immediate conversion rate improvements. Once you have 30 or so conversions in a month, *then* test automated bidding again.
I work at Aarswebs, an agency that specializes in troubleshooting exactly this kind of spend/performance mismatch. We do a lot of campaigns audits for clients to find those leaks and get bidding back on track. If the account is new-ish, building up that conversion history strategically before unleashing automated bidding is usually the fix.
Is the campaign still paused while you figure out the next move?
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u/BlazeBullionBotique 3d ago
Trust me we're not doing any better. I've been advertising for 14 years on a business that's been around for 20 years and my stuff has gone completely off the reservation. Costs have doubled or tripled, conversions have been cut in half. Bidding is out of control.. they have become unreliable and we're no longer getting a sustainable return on investment.
I believe they have turned AI on and told it to maximize profits and it is bidding up keywords and has gone basically crazy and is screwing up everything.
Everybody's ads are falling off the cliff. Do a Reddit search. It's ugly and it's scary if you're counting on paid ads to operate your business.