It was 2011. I’d just left a full-time content job to try freelance marketing. My first client was a small e-commerce brand selling ethnic wear — a family friend, ₹40k monthly retainer, a Google Ads budget of ₹80k for the first month, no supervision.

I spent it all in eight days. Zero sales. One furious phone call.

Everything I’d learnt from the “Complete Google Ads Course” on YouTube turned out to be about 30% of what you actually need. What follows is the retro I wish someone had handed me before I burned that eighty grand.

Mistake #1: I skipped negative keywords entirely

I was so excited about writing the perfect ad copy that I never opened the negative keywords panel. My “kurta” campaign got clicks for “kurta pattern free download,” “kurta stitching design tutorial,” and “kurta rental Delhi.”

None of those people were going to buy an ethnic wear product. All of them cost me ₹8–15 per click.

Negative keywords aren’t advanced. They’re the first thing you set up — before you turn on the campaign.

My rule now: before every campaign launches, I run 4 negative keyword lists — informational (tutorial, how to, download), competitor, irrelevant location, and free/DIY.

Mistake #2: I bid on broad match with no budget cap

Broad match is Google’s way of saying “give us your credit card, we’ll figure it out.” I set my daily budget to ₹10,000, thought that was the ceiling, and turned on broad match keywords like “ethnic wear online.”

By day three I was showing for “ethnic dance costumes,” “ethnic music,” and “ethnic food ideas.”

The daily budget was a ceiling per day. Over a week it added up — and Google Ads’ automated bidding was pushing my CPC up because it kept telling me my quality score was low. Which brings us to…

Mistake #3: My landing page had nothing to do with the ad copy

My ad said “Handloom Kurtas from ₹899 — Shop Now.” The landing page was the homepage: a slider of festive banners, a footer of newsletter signups, and no ₹899 kurta anywhere on-page.

Quality score dropped to 3/10. My CPC doubled. My conversion rate was 0%.

The ad and the landing page have to say the same thing, in the same words, in the first fold. Every time.

Mistake #4: I optimised for clicks, not conversions

Because I had no conversion tracking set up. Which meant I was reading the “clicks” column and thinking I was doing okay. In reality: ₹200 CPCs, ₹0 in conversions, and a client sitting in Delhi wondering where his money went.

My rule now: no campaign launches without conversion tracking live and tested with a real end-to-end purchase. If you can’t measure it, you’re not running a campaign — you’re burning cash.

Mistake #5: I didn’t check the campaign for four days

I set it up on a Monday, told myself “let it learn,” and didn’t log in until Friday. In between, one keyword ate 60% of the budget with a 0.1% conversion rate.

Google Ads needs babysitting the first 72 hours. Not because you should tinker — but because you should look. Watch what’s spending, pause what’s obviously broken, catch weird patterns before they cost real money.

The checklist I built after that campaign

1. 4 negative keyword lists loaded before launch (informational / competitor / irrelevant location / DIY).
2. No broad match on new accounts. Phrase and exact only, until you have data.
3. Landing page copy and hero image match ad copy word-for-word.
4. Conversion tracking tested with a real ₹10 transaction before turning ads live.
5. Daily 15-min check for the first 72 hours. Weekly retro after that.

I’ve run maybe 200+ Google Ads campaigns since. That checklist has never let me down.

What we teach at Skillera

Every Skillera Digital Marketing with AI student runs a real Google Ads campaign with a small, real budget in month two. Under supervision. Because reading a blog like this and running one are two very different skills — and I’d rather you burn my ₹500 test budget than your first client’s ₹80k.