Google Ads

Ten days, six match-type changes in one real account: exact-match keywords leaking money through close variants, phrase keywords spraying into vendor queries, and a cleanup that nearly killed the best lead source. What exact, phrase, and broad match actually do to spend.

A $200/day search campaign spent $350 in one day and nothing was broken. Why Google Ads overdelivery is by design, the two spending limits Google actually enforces, and the bid-ceiling change that triggered this real incident.

In one real campaign, 68% of spend ($441 of $648) went to queries hidden inside the "Other search terms" row. What that row actually is, why the hidden share gets so large, and what still works against queries you can't see.