Watch this video on YouTube On PPC Live The Podcast, I spoke with Peter Bowen, a Google Ads specialist with nearly 20 years of experience and a strong focus on B2B lead generation. Pete shared two major lessons from his career: always check the basics, and never assume the systems around your ads are working just because the campaigns look fine. The currency mistake that cost 10 times the budget Pete Bowen shared an early mistake where a South African client’s account was set up in the UK, defaulting the currency to pounds instead of rand. That simple oversight led to spending roughly 10 times the intended budget, delivering great results at first — but ultimately setting unrealistic expectations and losing the client. Why checklists protect PPC teams The takeaway from that mistake was to formalise learning into process. Adding something as simple as a currency check to a setup checklist ensures that once a mistake is made, it doesn’t happen again — turning painful lessons into repeatable safeguards. The bigger problem: system decay Beyond setup errors, Pete highlighted a more subtle but common issue he calls “system decay” — where the infrastructure connecting ads, tracking tools, CRMs and sales processes gradually breaks down without anyone noticing. Why conversion data failures hurt performance When conversion data stops flowing properly, Google’s algorithms lose the feedback they rely on to optimise. This can lead to reduced spend, poor performance or campaigns that suddenly stop delivering — even if nothing appears wrong inside…
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