More leads isn’t always good news. If your sales team is chasing time-wasters, students, job seekers and people who never answer the phone, your Google Ads account has a lead quality problem, not a lead volume problem.
The good news is that lead quality is usually fixable. Here are the seven areas I check first on any lead generation account.
1. Fix your conversion tracking first
Smart Bidding optimises towards whatever you tell it is a conversion. If that includes page views, button clicks, duplicate form submissions or 10-second calls, Google will happily find you more of them.
Check that:
- Only genuine enquiries are set as primary conversions
- Form submissions fire once, on a thank-you page or confirmed submit event
- Call conversions have a sensible minimum duration (60 seconds or more is a good starting point)
- Enhanced conversions are switched on to improve match rates
Until tracking is right, every other optimisation is built on sand.
2. Audit your search terms weekly
Broad match has improved, but on lead generation accounts it still needs firm guardrails. Open the search terms report and look for:
- Job and career searches (“jobs”, “salary”, “apprenticeship”)
- DIY and informational intent (“how to”, “free”, “template”)
- Competitor or brand names you don’t want to bid on
- Services you don’t offer, or locations you don’t serve
Build these into shared negative keyword lists so every campaign benefits.
3. Feed real outcomes back with offline conversions
This is the single biggest lever for lead quality. By importing which leads became qualified opportunities or customers (from your CRM, or even a spreadsheet), you give Smart Bidding the signal it needs to favour the searches that bring in revenue.
Even a simple setup helps: mark leads as qualified or won and upload them back to Google Ads using the GCLID or enhanced conversions for leads. Then set the qualified stage as the primary conversion.
4. Add friction in the right places
The easiest form to fill in attracts the least committed people. A little friction can raise quality dramatically:
- Ask for a phone number and a postcode or company name
- Add a budget, timeline or service-type dropdown
- Be clear about pricing ranges or minimums on the landing page
You may get slightly fewer leads, but a higher percentage will be worth calling.
5. Make your ads qualify the click
Your ad copy should attract the right people and put off the wrong ones. Mention starting prices, minimum project sizes, the areas you cover or who the service is for. “Commercial cleaning for offices from £500/month” will draw a very different click from “Cheap cleaning services”.
6. Tighten location targeting
By default, Google Ads can show your ads to people “interested in” your target location, not just people who are physically there. For local service businesses, switch to Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations, and review the locations report for areas that send poor leads.
7. Be cautious with Performance Max and Display
Performance Max can deliver strong lead volume, but without good conversion signals it often finds cheap, low-intent leads through Display and Discover placements. If you run it, make sure offline conversions are in place, use brand exclusions where sensible, and compare lead-to-customer rates against your Search campaigns, not just cost per lead.
The bottom line
Lead quality problems almost always come back to signals: what you track, what you tell Google is valuable, and who your targeting and messaging attract. Fix those, and cost per customer usually falls even if cost per lead rises.
If you’d like help improving the quality of your leads, get in touch or read more about Google Ads management.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my Google Ads leads poor quality?
The most common causes are broad keyword targeting that matches irrelevant searches, conversion tracking that counts low-value actions, and Smart Bidding optimising for lead volume without any feedback on which leads became customers.
Do offline conversion imports really improve lead quality?
Yes. Telling Google which leads turned into qualified opportunities or sales lets Smart Bidding favour the searches and audiences that produce real customers, rather than anyone who fills in a form.