The Day the Leads Stopped: A Cautionary Tale About "Ego Bidding"
"Everything is broken. Google Ads Isn’t Working! We have zero conversions today."
A client called me recently in a panic. Their Google Ads account, which had been a reliable revenue platform for months, had suddenly driven off a cliff.
The ads stopped working.
Three weeks prior, the client was saying leads were great. Today? Silence.
Zero leads from Google Ads.
I logged into the ads account, expecting to see a broken tracking tag or a disapproved credit card. Instead, I found a single setting change that had completely derailed their ad performance.
Without telling me, someone on their team had switched their high-intent search campaigns from "Maximize Conversions" to "Target Impression Share."
When I asked why, the answer was one I hear all the time:
"We wanted to get our brand out there more. We wanted to dominate the top of the page."
The result? This paid search consulting client had burned through their full budget showing ads to window shoppers, researchers, and competitors.
Within 24 hours of me recommending they switch them back to a conversion-focused strategy, the leads started converting again.
So what happened that made this clients Google Ads break?
The Problem: Confusing "Being Seen" with "Getting Paid"
The client’s goal was valid: "We want more visibility." The tactic they chose was unfortunate: "Force our ads to show up 100% of the time." This is what they effectively told the algorithm.
When you chase Target Impression Share (what I call "Ego Bidding"), you are effectively telling Google:
"I don't care if this person is likely to buy. I don't care if this click is too expensive. I just want to be seen."
Google will happily oblige. It did! Google will bid on the most expensive auctions and show your ad to people who have zero intention of buying from you today.
Want the technical breakdown? I wrote a deep-dive on exactly how the algorithm treats these two bid strategies differently. [Read the Guide: The "Visibility" Trap: Why Target Impression Share Kills Conversions]
My Philosophy: Every Dollar Needs a Job
In the premium Google ads accounts I consult to, every ad campaign must have a clear assignment. You cannot ask one campaign to be both a direct-response revenue driver AND a brand awareness billboard.
If you want to "get your brand out there": Go where the eyeballs are cheap. I use YouTube and Demand Gen campaigns to create awareness at a fraction of the cost.
If you want to "capture leads": Keep your Search campaigns focused on Maximize Conversions or Target ROAS. This allows Google’s smart bidding to ignore "window shoppers" and save your budget for the people holding a credit card.
The "Fix" Was Simple (For an PPC Expert, Like Me)
Bonus points I get to brag about it on my PPC blog.
All that said, for this specific client, the fix was instant. I reverted the bid strategy to align with their actual business goal: Profitability.
But here is the scary part: They didn't know the reason they were loosing money. If they hadn't called me, they would have spent the next three months paying a premium for the wrong thing and wondering while their sales team starved and conversions were down
Is your account optimizing for Ego or Profit? If your leads have dropped but your spend is the same, or if you are obsessed with "being #1" on the page, you might be falling into the same trap.
I don't want to manage your ads for years; I want to fix your system in a week.
Remember this:
Confusion is a billable hour.
The industry profits when you feel helpless inside your own ads account.
Ads that work make money. Ads that don’t lose it.
