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3 Google/Meta Ads mistakes I see UK SMEs make — happy to answer questions

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AdamQwestyon

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Jul 23, 2026
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Hi all, I'm Adam, founder of Qwestyon (qwestyon.com) — a Sussex-based agency specialising in Google Ads, Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads and AI-driven growth for SMEs.

Rather than just drop a link, here are 3 of the most common paid-ads mistakes I see:

1. Judging campaigns on clicks, not revenue — with no proper conversion tracking, you're optimising blind.
2. Boosting posts instead of using Ads Manager — boosting burns budget on reach that rarely converts.
3. Killing campaigns too early — Meta's learning phase needs ~50 conversions before performance stabilises.

Happy to answer any paid-ads questions in the thread. And if anyone wants a second pair of eyes on their account, I offer a free Meta Ads audit — no strings.

Cheers, Adam @ Qwestyon
 
I’ve run into this myself with paid ads — the biggest trap is thinking a campaign is failing just because the numbers don’t look impressive at first glance. I’ve seen ads with a decent amount of clicks that brought almost nothing, while others with fewer clicks actually generated proper enquiries.
One mistake I’d add is not testing enough variations. A lot of businesses put up one image, one headline, leave it running for a bit, and assume the platform doesn’t work. Small changes in the offer or creative can make a massive difference.
The tracking point is probably the biggest one though. If you don’t know which campaign or audience is bringing real customers, you’re basically making decisions based on guesses.
 
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Yeah 100% agree - also all the experience in the world and there's no way of knowing which creative will perform best other than testing it!
 
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I think another mistake that often gets overlooked is sending paid traffic to a weak landing page. Businesses spend time tweaking audiences and ad creatives, but then send visitors to a homepage with too many options or no clear call to action. Even a well-performing campaign will struggle if the page doesn't match the promise made in the ad. Speed, mobile usability and a simple enquiry process can make a huge difference. I've seen cases where improving the landing page increased conversions without increasing the ad budget at all. Ads and the website really need to be treated as one system rather than two separate things.
 
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Agree with that. The landing page is by far the most important component. No point in having a superb ad campaign if nobody converts. All to often ad point to a standard page or even worse, the homepage.

Landing pages from adverts need to be differently structured. Unfortunately many agencies don’t want to work on landing pages as it’s more challenging than setting up an ad campaign.
 
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I completely agree. In my experience, the highest-performing campaigns are usually the result of continuous improvements to both the ads and the landing page rather than trying to find a single "winning" ad. Even small details like page load time, trust signals, customer reviews, or reducing the number of form fields can have a noticeable impact on conversion rates. It's also surprising how many businesses never look at user behaviour after the click. Heatmaps, session recordings and funnel analysis often reveal simple usability issues that are costing leads. When advertising and the landing page are optimised together, the budget tends to work much harder without increasing spend.
 
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