When you’re new to Google Ads and you need leads fast, it can feel like the odds are stacked against you. And honestly, they kind of are.
Google Ads isn’t simple, and Google knows it. So to help new advertisers get off the ground, they switch on a bunch of “helpful” settings in the background. Settings that are supposed to make things easier for you.
The problem is they don’t work very well. The good news is that if you know where to look, it takes a couple of seconds to turn them off.
Below I’ll show you where to find 5 of these default settings, what each one does, and how to shut it off. By the end, your ads will be working for you instead of against you.
Let’s get started.
1. Search Partners and the Display Network
This fix is the fastest one on the list, and it might be the most important.
When you create a new search campaign, Google turns on two extra settings by default: Search Partners and the Display Network. Most people have no idea what these do, so let me explain.
Search Partners
Here’s how Google describes it:
“The Google Search Network lets your ads appear on Google search sites and partner websites.”
Pretty vague. I won’t do a full deep dive here, but the short version is that plenty of websites use Google’s search technology to power their own site search. That could be almost any kind of site. So your ads can start popping up on Ask.com, or inside the search results on Walmart.com.
There are a few problems with that. You have no control over where your ads show. And you’re much more exposed to bot and spam clicks. Those clicks are cheap, but who cares when the quality is garbage.
The Display Network
This is the worse of the two.
Display ads are basically the old banner ads that have been on the internet forever. Google takes your text-based search ad, turns it into a banner or image ad, and shows it across millions of random websites and apps.
Think about what that means. You built a search campaign because you want to reach people actively searching for your service. But the Display Network slaps your ad on a weather app or next to a news article someone’s reading. These people aren’t searching for you. They’re not in buying mode. They just stumbled onto your ad.
For local lead gen, this traffic is almost always garbage. It brings in a pile of cheap clicks, mostly accidental taps on mobile. Those clicks rarely convert, and you pay for every one of them.
The fix
Go into your campaign settings, scroll down to the networks section, and you’ll see two boxes. One for Search Partners and one for the Display Network. Uncheck both.
I keep the Display Network off for every local lead gen campaign I run, no exceptions. Search Partners is a little more forgiving, and some people leave it on as a test. But if you’re new or working with a small budget, turn it off too. You want every dollar going toward people actually searching for what you offer.
2. Automatically Applied Recommendations
This one’s sneaky. It hands Google the keys to your account and lets it make changes for you.
Here’s how it works. Google looks at your account and builds a list of “recommendations.” You can see them in the recommendations tab of your dashboard. It’ll suggest new keywords, new assets, different settings, and so on. Some of those ideas are fine. Not all of them.
When auto apply is on, Google makes those changes automatically whether you like it or not. I’ve logged into client accounts and found Google had switched every keyword to broad match or flipped the Display Network back on. Next day, the search terms report is full of junk.
Remember, Google doesn’t make money unless people click your ads. So a lot of these “recommendations” are built to get you more clicks, and clicks don’t always equal leads.
That doesn’t mean every recommendation is bad. Some are useful. But you should be the one deciding what gets applied.
The fix
Go to the recommendations tab, click auto apply settings, open the drop-down menus, and deselect every checkbox. This keeps you in control and stops Google from making expensive changes behind your back.
3. Automatically Created Assets
Another default that causes chaos, and a lot of advertisers have no clue it’s on.
Here’s what it does. Google scans your landing page and website, generates its own headlines, descriptions, and assets, and mixes them in with the ones you wrote.
On the surface that sounds helpful. Google is writing extra copy for you, for free. But I’d never hand over control of my messaging. The headlines Google writes are often generic, off brand, or flat out inaccurate. I’ve seen it grab a random phrase off a landing page and turn it into a headline that made no sense.
When someone clicks an ad expecting one thing and lands on a page about something else, they hit the back button. That’s wasted money.
Message match matters a lot in search campaigns, especially local lead gen. The words in your ad need to line up with what the person searched and what’s on your landing page. When Google starts writing the copy, that alignment falls apart, and you can’t predict what it’s going to say.
The fix
Go into the assets section, click more, then account-level automated assets. Click more again, then advanced settings. Open the drop-down menus and turn all of them off.
Whenever we onboard a new account, this is one of the first settings I check.
4. Location targeting set to “presence or interest”
This is one of the biggest budget leaks I see, and it comes down to one little option buried in your location settings.
When most people set location targeting, they type in their city or zip codes and move on. But underneath there’s a setting called “location options,” and by default Google targets “presence or interest.”
That sounds harmless. It isn’t. Presence or interest means Google shows your ad to people physically in your area and people who are merely interested in your area.
Say you’re a roofer in Calgary. With this default on, your ad can show to someone sitting in another province who searched something about Calgary once. Or a tourist planning a trip. Or someone who used to live there and is just curious. None of those people are hiring you to fix a roof, but you pay when they click.
This setting slowly bleeds your budget dry, and if you aren’t reviewing location performance, you probably won’t even notice.
The fix
Go into your campaign settings, open the location settings, click location options, and change it from “presence or interest” to “presence.” Now Google only shows your ad to people who are actually in the area you serve. The people who can actually become customers.
5. Ads running 24/7
This one’s simple, but the impact is bigger than most people think.
By default, your ads run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That means someone browsing at 2AM can see your ad, click it, and try calling the number on your landing page. Believe it or not, people do this.
For local service businesses, most conversions come in as phone calls. If your ads run when nobody’s around to answer, you’re paying for leads and letting them slip away.
Some people argue you should run ads around the clock and catch leads whenever they come in. That can work, but only if you have someone answering calls 24/7 or a system that books appointments automatically. Most local businesses don’t. Most are a small team or just the owner working normal hours.
The fix
Go into your ad schedule settings and set your ads to run during your actual business hours. If you’re open 9 to 5, run 9 to 5. If you take calls a bit earlier or later, adjust to match.
You want your ads live during the hours you can actually pick up the phone and turn that call into a customer. This keeps your budget focused on the times that produce real, workable leads, and it stops you from paying for calls that never convert.
Want help with your Google Ads?
If you would rather someone else ran them, here is Google Ads management for local service businesses. If you are an agency, we also run white label PPC under your brand.
Prefer to run them yourself? Join Practical PPC, my Google Ads course for local lead generation.