Avatar photo Alex Thompson
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Feb 3, 2025

Can you read the writing on the walls? PPC—specifically Google Ads—is changing. Users are up, prices are rising, and the competition is more intense than ever. And ultimately, agencies need to get comfortable with either spending more for the same results or get strategic with how they spend their limited budget.

Enter the skill of ad spend monitoring.

With proper ad spend monitoring, you can track your budget more effectively, understand how that budget translates into actual sales, and uncover insights that help you optimize for a stronger, more competitive ROI.

Let’s look at seven strategies to do it properly.

The Importance of Vigilant Ad Spend Monitoring

Before jumping in, why should you care? Why is monitoring your ad spend more important now than ever?

Two reasons:

  1. Rising competition
  2. “Average” results are easier to achieve

Why Monitor Ad Spend: Rising Competition

Google Ads is more competitive than ever, and keeping a close eye on your ad budget is critical. More businesses are using Google Ads, and automation has made it easier for beginners to run ads without much experience. This means there are more advertisers fighting for the same audience, driving up costs and making it harder to stand out.

In recent years, the cost per lead has increased by about 25% across various industries, making it even more expensive to acquire new customers. (Source)

Additionally, the average cost per click (CPC) for search ads has steadily increased across a variety of industries:

IndustryCPC 2019 (USD)CPC 2023 (USD)Difference (%)
Finance & Insurance3.444.0116.57
Health & Medical2.624.1859.54
Home Goods2.946.55122.79
Legal6.759.2136.44
Technology3.84.518.42
Consumer Services6.4825
Education2.4325

Source: 2019 Data / Source: 2023 Data

With more advertisers entering the space and costs rising, marketing agencies must be strategic about how they spend their Google Ads budget. Regularly tracking ad performance ensures that budgets aren’t wasted and that clients get the best results in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Why Monitor Ad Spend: “Average” Is Easy

PPC professionals are noticing some concerning trends in the industry. Here’s a blurb from one reddit post that gets at the heart of the issue:

“You no longer need to hire an expensive agency or a highly experienced specialist to run campaigns that deliver average results. The platforms have effectively democratized ‘good enough’ performance through their automated systems.”

With all the pushing toward automation, it’s now easier than ever to build and run ads that perform “good enough”. Not great, mind you. But well enough to generate some leads, even if you’re not a PPC pro.

This is good for business owners at first—it’s easy to get your name out there and get your feet in the door. However, as businesses expand and growth goals get more aggressive, those “good enough” results from these automated systems just don’t cut it. And spending more yields diminishing returns.

If you want real growth power from PPC (28X ROI, 12.4X ROAS, 336% increase in leads), you need to be strategic with your budget and monitor your ad spend religiously.

Now, let’s get into the seven strategies for how to effectively monitor ad spend and achieve a stronger ROAS in this brave new world of PPC.

1. Set Clear Objectives & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Chart showing meaningful KPIs vs Vanity Metrics. Meaningful KPIs include leads, cost per acquisition, quote/sales value, quotable leads, return on ad spend, and customer lifetime value. Vanity metrics include impressions, clicks, click through rate, page views, quality score, and cost per click.Before jumping into any other ad spend monitoring method, first determine whether your objectives and KPIs are actually meaningful. And that means steering away from “vanity metrics” and toward meaningful KPIs.

When taken out of context, vanity metrics can be misleading. A 50% increase in clicks doesn’t mean a 50% increase in revenue (what about spam? what about low-conversion leads?). Similarly, a drop in vanity metrics isn’t always a bad thing: Screenshot of LinkedIn post talking about how vanity metrics are not reliable measures of success in PPC and can make ad spend monitoring more difficult.

Rather than measuring success with vanity metrics like clicks and impressions, use KPIs that tell the real story, like quotable leads, quote/sales value, and return on ad spend (ROAS).

By reporting on these meaningful metrics and monitoring your ad spend based on those results, you can get a clearer idea of how far your budget is actually going.

For example, in WhatConverts you can see which sources are driving quotable leadsImage of a Source and Keyword by Quotable Leads report in WhatConverts

Or even how much revenue each keyword generates. Image of a Sales Value by Keyword report in WhatConverts.

Then, just compare those results to your ad spend for each to get a data-driven story of your marketing ROI.

2. Follow Proper Ad Hygiene to Spot Budget Leaks

One of the best ways to monitor ad spend in Google is to perform regular “hygiene” checks. Sometimes, the biggest source of wasted ad spend is multiple small leaks, not just a single big one. Think of it as death by a thousand cuts.

For example, improperly set up sitelinks (e.g., leading to an unaligned landing page, ineffective copy, all leading to the same page, etc.) can lead to small budget leaks that add up over time.

So, how do you plug up these small leaks? You follow a structured ad hygiene task list. Perform these tasks on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis to keep your ads in pristine health and stop them from slowly draining your budget.

FrequencyTaskWhy It’s ImportantRelevant Google Resource
DailyMonitor spend & key metrics (CPC, CTR, CPA, conversions)Ensures you catch sudden performance drops or overspending before they become costly.Monitor Spend
Check & adjust budgetsPrevents hitting daily caps too early or unintentionally overspending on certain campaigns.Adjust Budgets
Review disapproved ads or policy issuesKeeps ads running and compliant; reduces downtime from disapprovals that can halt impressions.Fix Disapproved Ads
WeeklyAnalyze top-performing & underperforming keywordsIdentifies where to increase or decrease bids/investment; refines bidding strategy.Analyze Keywords
Adjust bids & bid strategiesMaintains optimal visibility and cost-efficiency based on the latest performance data.Adjust Bids
Evaluate ad performance (headlines, descriptions, etc.)Identifies winning creatives to scale, and underperforming ones to pause or improve.Evaluate Ad Performance
MonthlyAssess overall campaign KPIs & ROIProvides a broader performance perspective; helps inform budget adjustments and strategic changes.Assess Campaign KPIs
Revisit & adjust budgets across campaignsEnsures spend aligns with shifting business priorities and ROI goals.Adjust Campaign Budgets
Conduct ad copy & creative testsFinds new messaging angles and keeps ads fresh and relevant to your target audience.Test Ad Copy
QuarterlyPerform a full account auditUncovers deeper structural issues (e.g., outdated settings, too many keywords) and identifies new growth opportunities.
Conduct competitive & market analysisKeeps you updated on industry trends, competitor activity, and changes in consumer behavior.Competitive Analysis
Review & refine audience strategies (remarketing, RLSA)Ensures your targeting strategy reflects the latest customer insights and aligns with changing user behaviors.Refine Audience Targeting

3. Implement Proper Conversion Tracking

Remember the tip about tracking the right KPIs? Well to do that, you need to make sure your conversion tracking is configured appropriately. If it isn’t, you can quickly run into attribution problems and conversion tracking disasters.

There are a few different ways to set up conversion tracking.

  1. Use Google Ads, Analytics, and Google Tag Manager
  2. Use a conversion tracking tool

Conversion Tracking Setup: Method #1

For simple conversion tracking like tracking a form submission or a single page view, setting up GTM can take around 30 minutes to an hour. This includes:

  • Creating a conversion action in Google Ads
  • Configuring the corresponding tag in GTM
  • Setting up appropriate triggers
  • Testing the implementation to ensure accuracy

For more complex scenarios, like tracking multiple conversion actions, setting up dynamic conversion values, or integrating with e-commerce platforms, the setup time will likely be closer to several hours. This additional time accounts for:

  • Configuring data layers
  • Creating custom variables
  • Thorough testing to ensure all conversions are accurately captured

It's important to note that while the initial setup can be completed relatively quickly, ongoing monitoring and occasional adjustments may be necessary to maintain accurate tracking, especially as your website or marketing strategies evolve.

Resource: (Guide from Google) Set Up Conversion Tracking for Your Website

Conversion Tracking Setup: Method #2

Conversion tracking tools make it easy to set up and maintain your conversion tracking without all the trickiness of GTM.

For example, tracking Google Ads in WhatConverts takes just four steps:

  1. Create an account
  2. Install a tracking code (made easy with a helpful plugin)
  3. Select your tracking phone numbers
  4. Connect to your Google Ads using our native integration

That’s it.

All said and done, you can start tracking calls in as little as 20 minutes (even if you're not very technical).

The Best Way to Track Calls from Google Ads There are two major challenges to Google Ads call tracking. Here's how you can fix them.
Read the Article
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4. Train the Algorithm to Target Better Leads

Google's algorithm targets users likely to convert on your ad by analyzing patterns in converted leads. To optimize the algorithm, focus on providing data on high-intent, high-value leads instead of everyone, as this allows Google to better recognize winning patterns.

Tools like WhatConverts allow you to set up Google Ads Conversion Triggers, ensuring only high-quality leads—such as those marked as quotable or tied to significant sales value—are reported back as conversions. This selective data trains the algorithm to recognize and prioritize the patterns associated with your most valuable leads.

When combined with Smart Bidding strategies, this approach becomes even more powerful. By optimizing for lead quality and sales value instead of generic conversions, you enable Google’s automated bidding to focus on clicks and searches that historically deliver the best ROI. This not only improves the efficiency of your ad spend but also ensures your budget is directed toward leads that are more likely to convert into real revenue. Visual of targeting fewer high quality leads in Google Ads vs more low quality leads.

5. Use Dayparting

Not all hours of the day yield equal performance in PPC campaigns. Dayparting, or ad scheduling, allows advertisers to control when their ads appear, ensuring budget is spent during peak conversion periods.

Steps for Effective Dayparting

  1. Analyze Historical Performance Data: Use Google Ads reports to determine when conversions are highest.
  2. Adjust Bids by Time of Day: Increase bids during high-converting hours and decrease them during off-hours.
  3. Exclude Unprofitable Hours Completely: If certain times show near-zero conversions, pause ads during those periods.

Pro Tip: Track high-value conversion times in WhatConverts to focus only on conversions that move the needle. For example, you can easily build a report that shows sales value generated by the hour for all your campaigns.

You can see this info via a line chart… Screenshot of a report in WhatConverts showing the ability to see what time of day leads converted the most. This visual is of a line graph.

Heatmap… Screenshot of a report in WhatConverts showing a heatmap of times of day leads converted.

And a variety of other visualizations.

Resource: Timeline Reporting – Did You Know?

6. Reduce Waste with Capacity-Based Ad Spend

Aligning your ad spend with your business's service capacity (capacity-based ad spend) can prevent overspending on leads that exceed your ability to serve them.

For instance, if a medical clinic can handle a specific number of procedures per week, adjusting your ad campaigns to match this capacity ensures that your budget is utilized efficiently. This approach not only maximizes ROI but also maintains service quality by preventing overbooking.

Tools like WhatConverts can assist in tailoring your ad spend to match service capacity, providing insights into lead attribution and helping you adjust spending based on actual service capabilities.

This is exactly what marketing agency Bake More Pies did with their client to earn:

  • 43% more customers year over year
  • +5% conversion rate
  • Greater trust and expansion of services with the client

WhatConverts gave them the granular data and proven attribution they needed to fine-tune their ad spend to perfectly match their client’s capacity. Check out their story below.

One PPC Shift, Massive Results: Agency Earns 42% YOY Growth With 3-Point Strategy
Read Case Study
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7. Stop Sending Leads to Low-Converting Landing Pages

The best ads in the world won't do a thing if they're directing leads to low-converting landing pages. That's why you need to be sure your landing pages:

  1. Provide a clear and compelling value proposition
  2. Align directly with your ads (e.g., "See our Work" doesn't lead to a page with images)
  3. Are mobile responsive and has a fast load time
  4. Have a conversion-focused design (no unnecessary links, no cluttered layout, etc.)
  5. Point to a strong, action-oriented CTA

But what if you can't tell what's wrong with a low-performing page? Or you want to try out a new CTA or value prop? That's where A/B testing comes in.

A/B testing allows PPC marketers to continuously improve their campaigns by experimenting with different ad elements and measuring results. You should regularly be optimizing your landing pages through A/B testing.

How to Run an Effective A/B Test

  • Test One Element at a Time: Focus on headlines, CTAs, or visuals separately.
  • Use Statistical Significance to Guide Decisions: Ensure tests run long enough to collect reliable data.
  • Scale Winning Variations Quickly: Implement successful changes across other campaigns.

If you’re a WhatConverts user, you can quickly see A/B test results across all your page variations. But rather than being stuck on vanity metrics like clicks and even CTR, you can compare pages based on what really matters—sales value and ROI.

All it takes is:

  1. Clicking on Reports
  2. Selecting the Sales Value by Landing Page report
  3. Comparing the numbers

What’s great about this report is that you can see Total Sales Value by Landing PageScreenshot of a Total Sales Value by Landing Page report in Whatconverts

Sales Value Per Lead by Landing Page Screenshot of a Sales Value Per Lead by Landing Page report in Whatconverts

Sales Value Per Quotable Lead by Landing Page Screenshot of a Sales Value Per Quotable Lead by Landing Page report in Whatconverts

Pro Tip: Be sure to compare value per quotable lead for your landing pages. For example, “/dental/dental-crowns/” has a higher total sales value than “/implants/chicago-dental-implant-costs/”. However, it has a much lower sales value per quotable lead. Putting more budget into the latter could help reduce ad spend while maximizing revenue.

Wrapping Up

Ad spend monitoring isn’t just about tracking data—it’s about making data-driven decisions that maximize profitability. By implementing these advanced strategies, PPC marketers can significantly reduce wasted spend, increase ROAS, and scale campaigns effectively.

Ready to get the most ROAS for your budget? Try a free 14-day trial of WhatConverts today!

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Avatar photo
Alex Thompson

Alex Thompson is a professional copywriter and content writer with a passion for turning complex ideas into digestible, educational content that keeps readers engaged. He specializes in content marketing, SEO, and B2B marketing.

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