A snapshot of INEX's Google Ads account configuration as reviewed during the April 2026 audit kickoff meeting. The account reflects a manually managed, conservatively scoped setup that has produced limited results despite reasonable structural hygiene.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total spend (May 2025 – Mar 2026) | $3,835 |
| Daily budget (approximate) | ~$120–$150 |
| Daily clicks | ~20–30 |
| Conversion tracking | Ineffective (any site click) |
| Bid strategy | Manual Max CPC |
INEX uses manual Max CPC bidding. Automated strategies (Max Conversions, Max Clicks) were tested previously and produced no meaningful improvement, leading Michael to revert to manual control.
The practical consequence is that Google's smart bidding algorithms have no valid conversion signal to optimize against — a problem compounded by the broken conversion tracking setup (see below).
Key CPC observations from the account:
- "X control LPR" — ~$3/click; flagged as too generic but cannot be negated without excluding valid prospects
- "Visitor management" — ~$5/click; Michael noted this may not justify the cost
- "HOA gate security" — highest-spend keyword; core target term
Ads are sent to topic-specific landing pages rather than the homepage — a sound practice. For example, campground-related keywords route to the campground access page. Michael consolidated to a smaller keyword set over time, reasoning that fewer keywords with tighter negative control outperforms a sprawling keyword list.
The account maintains a negative keyword list of 518 terms, including:
- Exact-match exclusions for irrelevant product categories
- Narrow-match exclusions for consumer/residential queries
- Ongoing manual additions as new irrelevant search terms surface
This is one of the stronger elements of the account. The large list reflects sustained attention to traffic quality over the 11-month run.
Top-performing geographies by traffic volume: Florida, Texas, California.
Mobile bids are suppressed based on the assumption that INEX's buyers — HOA board members, campground owners, parking industry professionals — research and evaluate vendors on desktop. Account data confirmed this: traffic skews heavily toward desktop/laptop, with tablets secondary and mobile minimal.
This is the account's most significant structural problem. Conversions are currently configured to fire on any click to the INEX website, not on meaningful actions. The actual desired conversion — a contact form submission routed to Salesforce — is not tracked.
This means:
- Google has no signal to optimize automated bidding strategies
- There is no way to measure true ROI from the campaign
- Reported "conversions" in the account are meaningless
The contact form and a secondary "get in touch" form both feed Salesforce. Neither is instrumented as a conversion event. Fixing this is a prerequisite for any bid strategy improvement.
Audiences are not configured. No remarketing lists, no in-market audiences, no customer match segments are applied to the campaigns. This is a gap — particularly given that retargeting is a logical complement to the low-volume, high-intent traffic the account does generate.
Impression share is below 10% across the measured date ranges, indicating INEX is winning a very small fraction of eligible auctions. This is consistent with the low daily click volume and suggests either budget constraints, low Quality Scores, or both.