Most underperforming ad accounts are not badly optimised. They are optimised toward the wrong thing. If the platform is rewarded for clicks, it will deliver clicks, including from everyone who was never going to buy.
Fix the measurement before the campaigns
Conversion tracking that fires on a form load, a page visit, or any button click teaches the algorithm that noise is success. Track the events that correlate with revenue: a qualified enquiry, a booked call, a closed deal. If your sales cycle allows it, send offline conversion data back into the platform so it learns what a good lead actually looks like.
Structure for control, not for tidiness
Separate campaigns by intent, not by internal org chart. Someone searching for your brand, someone comparing providers, and someone researching a problem are three different conversations at three different values. Merging them hands your budget to whichever gets the most volume, which is rarely the most profitable.
Negative keywords are the real optimisation
In most accounts, a meaningful share of spend goes to searches that were never going to convert: job seekers, students, free-tool hunters, competitors. Reviewing search terms weekly and excluding what does not belong usually recovers more budget than any bid adjustment.
The landing page is part of the campaign
Send traffic to a page that matches the promise of the ad. One offer, one action, proof nearby, and a form that asks only for what you need to qualify. Every extra field costs completions; every field that helps you disqualify saves sales time. Find the balance deliberately rather than by default.
Give it room to learn
Automated bidding needs consistent signal and enough conversions to work with. Changing budgets, targets and creative every few days keeps an account permanently in a learning phase. Decide your test, run it long enough to mean something, then act.
Done properly, the account stops reporting cheaper clicks and starts reporting cheaper customers. Those are not the same number, and only one of them shows up in your revenue.
