I recently sat down to perform an “off the cuff” audit for a local roofing contractor. I’ve seen some bad campaigns in my time, but what I found in this account was truly shocking.
The numbers were a nightmare:
Imagine paying nearly €1,000 for a single phone call that might not even turn into a job. That isn’t marketing—it’s a business-killer.
Here is exactly how this campaign went so wrong, and the red flags you need to look for in your own Google Ads account.
When I looked at the keywords, I couldn’t believe it. The previous manager had only set up four keywords. They were incredibly vague, like “roofers.”
The Result: Because the keywords were so broad, the roofer was paying for “competitor clicks.” People were searching for other local companies by name, clicking this guy’s ad, and he was footing the bill—sometimes to the tune of €25 to €29 per click.
In this account, “Maximize Conversions” was turned on with no target cost set. This essentially tells Google, “Spend whatever you want, I don’t care about the price.”
Google did exactly that. They charged the client nearly €30.00 for a single click on generic terms like “roofer cork.” Without a manual cap or a strict target, Google’s AI will spend your entire budget as fast as possible, regardless of your ROI.
This contractor targets both Cork and Kerry.
The Mistake: The ads were all lumped into one campaign. The Fix: You should always have separate campaigns for separate counties. A homeowner in Kerry wants to see a “Kerry Roofer,” not a generic ad that might be based two hours away. By lumping them together, your click-through rate (CTR) drops, and your costs go up.
The “expert” running these ads put roof repairs, chimney work, and guttering all into one single ad group.
Why this fails: If someone searches for “Emergency Chimney Repair,” they should see an ad about chimneys that takes them to a page about chimneys. In this case, they saw a generic roofing ad and were sent straight to a generic homepage. Sending paid traffic to a homepage is the fastest way to waste money. You need dedicated landing pages that match the user’s intent.
Google doesn’t always show you every search term. In this audit, I found that while the “visible” spend was high, there was another €11,000 in spend that was difficult to track through the basic search term report.
If you aren’t digging deep into the “Search Terms” report and excluding negative keywords every single week, you are hemorrhaging cash.
This roofer wasted €19,000—money that could have been used to buy a new van, hire a crew, or grow his business properly. Instead, it went straight into Google’s pocket because of a lazy, “set-it-and-forget-it” setup.
At The Roofing Marketing Experts, we do things differently:
Are you worried your ads are underperforming? Don’t wait until you’ve wasted €19k to find out. I will personally audit your Google Ads account and tell you exactly where the waste is.
Contact The Roofing Marketing Experts today for a brutally honest review. 👉 Visit our Website
