Why Your Google Ads Are Bringing in Junk (And How to Fix It)
If you’re running a business in Brisbane—whether you’re a plumber in Coorparoo or a lawyer in the CBD—you’ve likely felt the frustration of paying for Google Ads that seem to work on paper but don’t put money in the bank.
You check your dashboard, and it says you got 20 "leads" last week. But when you look at your phone logs or your CRM, the reality is grim: five were wrong numbers, ten were people looking for something you don't do, four were tyre kickers asking for the cheapest price, and maybe—just maybe—one turned into a paying customer.
Most marketing agencies will tell you to just "spend more" or "be patient." I’m telling you that’s rubbish. The reason your ads are failing isn't necessarily your budget; it’s because Google is flying blind.
To get better results, you need to stop telling Google when someone clicks or calls, and start telling Google when someone actually pays you money. This is what the industry calls "offline conversion tracking," but for you, it’s simply "profit tracking."
The Massive Mistake: Treating All Enquiries the Same
Most small business owners make the mistake of setting up their ads to count every single phone call or form submission as a "win."
Imagine you’re a landscaper. A person clicks your ad and fills out a form asking for a free quote on a $20,000 deck. Another person clicks the same ad and calls to ask if you sell bags of mulch (which you don't).
Currently, Google sees both of those as equal successes. It thinks, "Great! I got them two leads!" Because Google’s robots want to make you happy, they will go out and find ten more people looking for bags of mulch because those people are "easier" and "cheaper" to find than the guy wanting a $20k deck.
By not tracking what happens after the phone rings, you are literally training Google to send you junk. You are essentially wasting money on ads while you sleep because the system is optimised for quantity, not quality.
Mistake #1: Ignoring the "Google Click ID"
Here is the only technical bit you need to understand: Every time someone clicks your ad, Google attaches a long string of gibberish code to the URL. It’s like a digital fingerprint.
If you want to close the loop and get more big-ticket sales, your website needs to "catch" that fingerprint and save it when the person sends an enquiry.
I’ve seen dozens of Brisbane businesses—from pest controllers to boutique builders—who have great websites but lose this fingerprint the second the customer hits 'submit.' If you don't save that ID, you can't tell Google later on, "Hey, remember that guy from Tuesday? He just signed a $5,000 contract. Go find me more people like him."
Mistake #2: Relying on the 'Thank You' Page
For years, the standard advice was to track people who landed on a "Thank You" page after filling out a form. This is now a recipe for bad data.
People refresh pages, they bookmark them, or sometimes the page doesn't even load properly. More importantly, a "Thank You" page hit doesn't mean they are a good customer; it just means they filled out a form.
We’ve found that data is often lying when you rely on these old-school methods. If you want to scale your business, you need to move the goalposts. Instead of the goal being "someone saw my thank you page," the goal should be "my salesperson marked this lead as qualified" or "the invoice was paid."
Mistake #3: Waiting Too Long to Upload Your Sales Data
Google’s system learns in real-time. If you wait three months to tell Google which leads turned into money, the trail has gone cold. The system has already spent your budget chasing the wrong people.
Ideally, you should be telling Google about your sales once a week. If you’re a high-volume business, like a local locksmith or a busy mechanic, you should be doing it daily.
When we work with clients in suburbs like North Lakes or Chermside, we often find that simply speeding up the feedback loop—telling Google faster who the "good" customers are—can drop the cost per actual sale by 30% in just a few weeks.
How to Actually Set This Up (Without Losing Your Mind)
You don't need to be a computer genius to get this right, but you do need a process. Here is the simple path to making this work for your business:
1. Capture the ID: Make sure your website forms are set up to grab that Google fingerprint (GCLID) and store it in your database or email notification. 2. Track the Status: In your spreadsheet or CRM (like HubSpot, Salesforce, or even just a Google Sheet), mark which leads are "Qualified," "Quote Sent," and "Sale Closed." 3. Feed the Beast: Periodically upload that list back into Google Ads. You don't need to upload their names or private info—just that fingerprint ID and what they were worth to you.
This tells Google: "Stop looking for people who just browse. Start looking for people who open their wallets."
The Reality of Costs and Timelines
Let’s talk straight about the investment.
Cost: Setting this up usually requires a few hours of work from a professional who knows how to handle website forms and Google Ads. It’s not a $50 fix, but it’s also not a $10,000 project. Think of it as a one-time "plumbing" job for your marketing. If you do it yourself and get it wrong, you’ll end up with double-counted conversions and even worse data.
Timeline: You won't see a change overnight. Google needs about 2-4 weeks of data to start noticing the patterns. However, by the second month, you should see the quality of your phone calls improving. You’ll notice fewer people asking for things you don’t do and more people asking for your premium services.
What’s a Waste of Money?
Don't bother with expensive "automated tracking" software that costs $500 a month if you’re a small business. For most local Brisbane businesses, a simple manual upload or a basic integration is all you need.
Also, don't try to track every single cent if your sales process is complex. Just telling Google "this person is a lead" vs "this person is a customer" is enough to get 80% of the results. Don't let perfection get in the way of making more money.
If you’re using complex campaigns like Performance Max, getting this data right is even more critical. If you feed bad data into a smart system, it just spends your money faster on the wrong things. You need to ensure your campaign structure actually sells by giving it the right signals.
What Should You Do First?
Check your current Google Ads account. If every single "conversion" is just a "Contact Us" form or a "Button Click," you are leaving money on the table. You are essentially paying Google to find people who like to fill out forms, not people who like to buy services.
Start by asking your web person: "Are we capturing the Google Click ID in our lead forms?" If the answer is "What’s that?", you need a new web person or a specialist marketing partner.
We Can Help You Close the Loop
At Local Marketing Group, we specialise in helping Brisbane business owners stop guessing and start growing. We don't care about "clicks" or "impressions"—we care about how many extra jobs you booked this month because of our work.
If you're tired of getting junk leads and want your ads to actually drive profit, let's have a chat. We’ve done this for tradies, professional services, and local shops across Queensland, and we can do it for you too.
Ready to get more actual customers? Contact us at Local Marketing Group and let’s fix your tracking so you can stop wasting money.