Sometimes Yes. Here's How to Tell Which It Is for You
Plenty of contractors say Google Ads are a scam, and some of them are right about their own account. We are not going to defend the channel. We will give you a test that tells you which side you are on.
Google Ads Waste of Money: When It Is Real
WordStream and LocaliQ's Google Ads performance study (251,236 audits of 15,666 accounts, 2025 data, published February 2026) found the average account wastes $1,127.54 a month on spend that did not convert, out of an average of $3,127 a month. That is about a third (our arithmetic). Waste is common. It is not guaranteed.
It is a real waste when: the ads book few jobs, the jobs leave little after parts and the sub, or part of the budget buys nothing at all. All three can be seen in numbers.
When They Are Working and Nobody Can See It
Jobs come in and are not tied to the ads. The ad account shows clicks, you see a busy phone, and the bank balance moves, but nothing connects them. You feel nothing is working because nothing is visible.
| A failing month | A working month nobody measured | |
|---|---|---|
| Spend | $4,000 | $4,000 |
| Jobs you can tie to the ads | 6 booked, 4 paid | 0 tied (but 14 callers said "Google") |
| Left before ads | $2,400 | Unknown |
| Left after ads | -$1,600 | Unknown |
| What it means | A real loss | No verdict yet. Measure. |
All figures above are examples. The second column does not say the ads worked. It says you cannot judge.
The Test
- Get the four numbers for the last three months: spend, jobs booked from the ads, money collected, and what was left after parts and the sub.
- Subtract the spend. Positive: the ads paid. Negative: they did not.
- If you cannot get the jobs, you are in the second column. Start measuring.
Put your numbers in the free grader, Did Your Ads Actually Work? It says in plain words if the month paid and how many jobs you needed to break even.
Three Months, Three Verdicts
Examples, with made-up numbers. A shop spent $4,000 each month. A paid job left $600 before ads.
| Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid jobs tied to ads | 5 | 8 | 12 |
| Left before ads | $3,000 | $4,800 | $7,200 |
| Left after $4,000 of ads | -$1,000 | $800 | $3,200 |
| Verdict | A loss | Paid, barely | Paid well |
A single month would have said "waste" or "great". The three together say the shop is climbing and has not yet earned a verdict.
The Waste You Can See
Inside a month, some campaigns book jobs and some book none. On the Statistics screen the spend of a platform that brought no job in the range is called Spend with no lead. That is the part of the budget that already books nothing, and you can see which part. It is a fact about your money. It is not a fix. How to change the campaign is a decision for you or your ads person.
What Google Says About Feeding It Jobs
Google publishes one number about this. Switching from lead-count bidding to value bidding raised median conversion value 14% at similar return on ad spend (Google internal data, global, March 2021). That is Google's claim about its own bidder, so weigh it as such. The idea behind it is simple: the bidder buys more of what you tell it is good. Tell it a call is good and it buys calls. Tell it a paid job is good and it learns which clicks pay. You can do this by hand or with a switch, as in the import tutorial.
Questions Owners Ask
Is It the Keywords?
It might be. Keywords are an ads craft question we do not advise on. First find out if the ads are failing or unmeasured. That tells you if keywords are even the question.
Can I Tell Without Any Software?
Yes. Four numbers and a spreadsheet, as in the guide.
What If I Run Local Services Ads?
Keep it separate and measure it the same way: its spend, its jobs, what they left.
What Not to Do
- Do not stop the ads because a month was quiet.
- Do not keep them because the clicks look good.
- Do not trust a verdict that has no job count in it, including ours.
For the full method, read Is My Marketing Working? and Cost Per Booked Job, Explained. Improving the ad itself, its words and keywords, is a separate craft. What we help with is seeing which places and sources made money and which lost it.