Not all problems are obvious. Some silently drain your budget and erode conversions. Two of the biggest culprits are irrelevant search traffic and poor user experience.

Key Points:

• Negative keywords act as filters, ensuring your ads don't show for irrelevant or low-intent searches;
• Use negatives at account, campaign, and ad group levels to refine targeting with precision;
• Review the Search Terms Report weekly to find and block irrelevant queries before they burn spend;
• UX pitfalls like slow-loading pages, too many CTAs, or forms with excessive fields can tank conversion rates, even if traffic quality is high;
• Message mismatch - where the ad promises something the landing page doesn't deliver - creates friction and distrust;
• Tools like PageSpeed Insights, Hotjar, or Microsoft Clarity reveal issues that analytics alone can't show;
• Ongoing optimization - adding negatives, testing UX, and monitoring user behavior - keeps performance sharp.