If your Google Ads Search campaign is not delivering the expected results, we encourage you to review these 10 settings in your account with Dolnai and see how your performance improves.
Keep in mind that changes made in Google Ads often require time to determine whether they were truly successful. Patience is frequently key to allowing the algorithm time to work and capture the conversions you want. Make adjustments in stages to test whether or not they have improved performance—except for obvious errors, which should be fixed as soon as possible.
What to review: Go to Goals > Conversions> Summary . Make sure that only actions with real business value (sales, qualified leads) are configured as Primary. Primary conversions are the signals Google uses to look for more events like them.
If you have multiple primary conversions and each holds a different value for your business, indicate those values and try using Maximize Conversion Value or tROAS. Example: phone calls, form fills, bookings, etc. The closer it is to a final sale, the higher its value should be.
The risk: If you measure social media clicks, page views, or duplicate conversions as primary, the AI will optimize to bring you cheap, useless traffic. Be cautious with the "Get directions" conversion as well; Google might count users who were simply walking nearby as having visited your location.
What to review: In Settings > Locations > Location options, make sure to select: "Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations".
The risk: By default, Google selects "Presence or interest: People in, regularly in, or who've shown interest in your targeted locations", which can cause your ads to show to users in other countries or regions outside your coverage area.
Use the GEO Map section in Dolnai to review location performance and ensure you aren't showing up in irrelevant countries. Analyze a representative time frame to draw solid conclusions. Exclude locations that aren't yielding results, even if you initially thought they would perform well—focus on real performance.
What to review: Uncheck the boxes for the Google Display Network and Search Partners inside your Search campaign settings.
The risk: Google will spend part of your budget on low-value banners across websites or mobile apps just to exhaust your daily budget.
What to review: If you use Target CPA or Target ROAS, verify that the campaign reaches a minimum of 30 conversions per month. If the campaign is brand new or has a low budget, start with Maximize Clicks or Maximize Conversions (without a target) to gather data.
The risk: A bidding target that is too aggressive without sufficient data volume will freeze ad delivery or cause costs to spike. If you notice your campaign isn't spending, your bid is likely unrealistic.
Don't rush to switch to tCPA or tROAS if you lack sufficient volume. Be cautious about enabling these strategies simply because competitors might serve as benchmarks for Google.
What to review: Analyze which match type dominates your campaign (Exact, Phrase, or Broad). If you use Broad Match, ensure the campaign has a high conversion volume and a strict negative keyword system in place. If you decide to enable AI Max for Search, broad match needs to already be performing well in your campaign.
The risk: Using broad match on new accounts or campaigns with low volume will attract searches that are completely irrelevant to your business.
Be careful with launching a broad match campaign before accumulating enough conversions. It is common to opt for broad match in low-volume or niche B2B markets, but choosing broad match in these scenarios will lead to capturing irrelevant searches. Forget old account structures that duplicated campaigns by match type.
What to review: Go to Search Terms and apply a filter for spend without conversions. Review the actual queries that triggered your ads and add junk terms as negative keywords. Use Dolnai's Cloud Words and N-gram features to add negative keywords directly from the platform.
The risk: Failing to maintain an active negative keyword list is the fastest way to waste budget on wrong search intents.
Choose carefully how you add negative keywords, their match type (broad, phrase, or exact), and whether you apply them at the account level (2,000 limit), list level (5,000 limit), or campaign level. When managing multiple campaigns or launching new ones, using lists will be the most convenient approach.
What to review: Check whether keywords containing your brand name are mixed with generic terms inside the same campaign. Dolnai's Brand Query Controller section will alert you if this happens.
The risk: Brand searches distort performance metrics due to inflated CTRs and conversion rates, masking the fact that generic new-customer acquisition isn't working.
Do not use negative keywords for brand terms; use Brand Exclusions at the campaign level instead. This ensures Google accounts for different variations and misspellings automatically.
What to review: Verify that each ad group has at least one Responsive Search Ad with an Ad Strength of "Good" or "Excellent", ensuring headlines include the ad group's keywords. Unless you are running explicit tests, avoid having more than one ad per ad group.
The risk: Generic ads that do not match user queries lower your Quality Score, which increases your Cost Per Click (CPC) and prevents you from appearing in top positions. Remember that mentioning trademarked competitor brands is generally prohibited (with few exceptions).
Improve your ads using RSA Optimization in Dolnai, which suggests ad copy based on text that has already converted in your account.
What to review: Ensure you have at least these assets active: Sitelinks, Callouts, Structured Snippets, and Image Assets.
The risk: Neglecting ad assets reduces the visual footprint of your ad on the Google results page, degrading your Click-Through Rate (CTR) compared to competitors.
Having sufficient assets improves your overall ad quality. Create plenty of relevant assets, which can be applied at the account, campaign, or ad group level.
What to review: Ensure the destination URL directly matches the user's search query (e.g., if the ad promises "Red Running Shoes", the landing page should directly feature that catalog) and that the page loads in under 3 seconds.
The risk: Sending users to your homepage or a slow-loading landing page destroys conversion rates and harms the landing page user experience.
Avoid cluttered landing pages that distract the user. Your goal is to get them to convert—do not redirect them to social media channels or unrelated products and services.
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