Smart Isn’t Always Smart: LA’s Most Costly Google Ads Automation Mistakes

Automation is supposed to make your life easier — but in Los Angeles, it’s often draining your budget faster than you realize.

Google Ads automation promises simplicity, scale, and smart decision-making. But for local businesses in LA, the reality is often wasted ad spend and leads from zip codes you don’t even serve. If your campaigns rely heavily on Smart Campaigns, Smart Bidding, or Performance Max, it’s time for a serious checkup.

Why This Matters for Los Angeles

Los Angeles isn’t just one market — it’s a collection of dozens of micro-neighborhoods, each with different buyer intent, income, and behavior. Automation often fails to account for that. Here’s what we see again and again when we audit LA Google Ads accounts:

Automation Mistake #1: Smart Campaigns That Blanket LA

What Happens: Google creates broad campaigns using your business category and shows your ads across wide, irrelevant zones.

Example: A Koreatown dentist’s ad showing in Long Beach.

Fix: Turn off Smart Campaigns. Build separate campaigns with manual location targeting.

Automation Mistake #2: Performance Max Ignoring High-Converting Channels

What Happens: Your PMax campaign delivers impressions across YouTube, Display, Gmail — and not enough on high-converting Search.

Fix: Split off Search campaigns. Use PMax only with clear asset groups and conversion goals.

Example: An LA meal prep company had 70% of impressions on Gmail and 0 purchases. After splitting campaigns, ROAS improved by 3.4x.

Automation Mistake #3: Smart Bidding Without Accurate Conversions

What Happens: Your campaign optimizes for leads — but your “conversions” are firing on form opens or page views.

Fix: Use Enhanced Conversions + offline import. Track only qualified actions (submissions, phone calls, etc.).

📉 Impact: One LA medspa was optimizing bids to low-value form opens — $75K spent before realizing. After fixing conversion tags, CPA dropped 48%.

Automation Mistake #4: Broad Match With No Negative Keywords

What Happens: Automation chooses terms that might convert, but lack intent.

Example: A Beverly Hills cosmetic clinic’s ad triggered for “cheap Botox Los Angeles” — not ideal.

Fix: Layer in negative keywords by intent: cheap, jobs, student, DIY, etc.

Automation Mistake #5: No Rules, No Overrides, No Guardrails

What Happens: Ads run 24/7, budgets overspend, or target the wrong devices.

Fix: Create automation rules:

• Pause ads outside business hours
• Limit device types (mobile vs desktop)
• Cap daily spend per campaign

LA Campaign Teardown: Real-World Example

A Venice-based yoga studio relied on a Smart Campaign.

❌ 42% of clicks came from outside LA County. ❌ CPA = $92. Lead quality = poor.

✅ After switching to manual targeting:

• CPA = $36
• Qualified leads up 2.3x
• Budget controlled via schedule + device modifiers

What Actually Works in LA

• Manual Search Campaigns with exact and phrase match
• Zip code–based geo-targeting with ad copy mentioning local areas
• Dayparting based on LA traffic patterns
• Landing pages that show local reviews, maps, or location photos

FAQ

Is automation bad for local businesses? No, but it often lacks context. Smart settings built for national brands don’t adapt to local nuance.

What’s the best automation to keep? Use automated bidding + rules — but with manual targeting, conversion tracking, and campaign control.

Can Smart Campaigns ever work in LA? Only for very general services with wide reach. But we usually recommend avoiding them.