When the Client Knows Best: The $0.1 CPC Goal That Cost a Singapore Service Company Thousands

At Solbright Digital Services, we partner with clients across Southeast Asia, helping businesses in competitive markets like Singapore thrive. Our job is to bridge the gap between business goals and the complex reality of platforms like Google Ads.

Sometimes, however, we encounter a scenario where a client is so certain of their self-devised strategy—despite all evidence and expert advice—that we proceed with their plan purely as a controlled experiment to gather data on predictable failure. This is the story of a service-based client in Singapore who insisted on 6 critical, campaign-killing mistakes. We managed the campaign to show exactly why his refusal to track performance or bid realistically was a guaranteed path to wasting budget. For a broader look at how this fits into your long-term strategy, check out our guide on SEO vs. Paid Ads.

It’s a perfect illustration of why successful Google Ads requires more than just a vague idea; it demands data, alignment, and a respect for the algorithm.

Mistake 1: The Myth of the $0.1 Click (The PMax Misconception)

The first, and most foundational, flaw in this client’s strategy was the budget mismatch.

The client operates in a highly competitive Singapore service niche where we identified the top-of-page cost per click (CPC) of the selected keywords to be between $2-$6. Yet, his expectation was to pay only a few cents per click, insisting he heard “it was doable,” from some “other agency”. He is probably referring to the Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, and this is likely stemmed from a misunderstanding of how PMax operates.

The PMax Misconception: The Truth Behind the Cheap Clicks

PMax is designed to automate bidding and reach across all Google inventory (Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, etc.). It is true that PMax can often report extremely low CPCs.

Pros and Cons of PMax in this Scenario:

• Pro (The Myth Source): PMax gains its low average CPC by delivering a massive volume of inexpensive clicks through the Display and YouTube networks, where competition and click quality are much lower than on pure Search.
• Con (The Reality): PMax requires significant conversion volume and budget to learn effectively. For this service company whose main goal was high-intent phone calls, the massive influx of low-quality, non-Search clicks would have overwhelmed the client’s tiny $10/day budget instantly, consuming it with low-value “vanity clicks” from irrelevant placements rather than high-intent searchers. For high-value service leads, pure Search campaigns offer the necessary control and targeting. You can learn more about the PMax campaign here. To see how search ads differs from other channels, read our comparison of Google Ads vs. Social Media Ads)

The Reality of the Ad Auction

For a competitive search term, Google operates on an Ad Rank system, where your position is affected by your bid on top of 5 other factors. If competitors are bidding $2-$6, bidding $0.1 doesn’t mean you get a cheap click; it means your ad is effectively non-existent.

Compounding this was the microscopic $10/day budget. With competitive CPCs, that budget would be exhausted within 3-5 clicks. By the time the working day started, the campaign would already be paused, rendering the effort pointless.

Solbright’s Expert Take: Unrealistic bidding is simply a refusal to participate in the auction. It burns your budget quickly and gives you zero competitive data, providing a false sense of failure for the platform, when the fault lies with the strategy.

Mistake 2: Flying Blind—The Refusal of Conversion Tracking

If bidding was the tactical mistake, refusing conversion tracking was the strategic mistake that made optimization impossible.

The client believed that the final count of phone calls received by his office was the “correct number” and that tracking was unnecessary.

Clicks are Vanity, Conversions are Profit

We had to explain that a click or an incoming call is not a conversion. A conversion is a successful business outcome—a qualified lead, a call over a specific duration (e.g., 60 seconds), or a confirmed booking.

Without proper tracking, you can only optimise for clicks, not for profit.

• How do you know if the certain keywords generated quality leads while other generated irrelevant clicks? You don’t.
• How can the Google algorithm learn which users are most valuable to your business? It can’t.

When you refuse conversion tracking, you are literally telling Google to optimise your spending based on the cheapest possible action, regardless of whether that action ever makes you money. It is the single biggest reason why good campaigns fail.

Mistake 3: Sabotaging the Algorithm’s Learning Process

Beyond the budget and tracking issues, the client insisted on a highly inefficient management schedule: thrice-weekly optimization.

This is another common mistake rooted in impatience. Google’s Smart Bidding and machine learning algorithms require time to collect statistically significant data.

Solbright’s Expert Take: Constant tinkering is chaos for the algorithm. We recommend checking and making meaningful adjustments no more frequently than weekly (sometimes every 10-14 days). Thrice-weekly optimization disrupts the learning cycle, leading to inconsistent performance and higher costs over time. You must give the system time to learn which users provide those valuable, tracked conversions.

Mistake 4: Relying on 3 Broad Keywords with a Tiny Budget

The client was adamant about using only three broad match keywords. While broad match has its place in campaign discovery, relying exclusively on it with a microscopic $10/day budget for a competitive service niche is highly ineffective.

The Flaw in the Logic: With competitive bids between $2-$6, using broad match ensures your budget is consumed by irrelevant searches almost instantly. Broad match is like a wide net; without the budget to filter out the small, useless results, you waste money catching things you don’t need. The campaign stalls before finding any real leads.

Solbright’s Expert Take (The Best Practice): For a limited budget, you must be surgical (or hyper-targeted). The best practice is to focus on long-tail, high-intent keywords (e.g., “emergency plumber Singapore CBD”) which are generally cheaper, less competitive, and carry much higher commercial intent. This ensures your limited budget targets the user most likely to convert.

Mistake 5: The Costly Trick of Putting Your Phone Number in Ad Copy

The client insisted that the phone number should be displayed prominently in the descriptions because “that’s what other people are doing”. His logic was: “People can copy the contact number without clicking—that saves me ad cost.”

This strategy attempts to game the system and completely backfires for three major reasons:

1. Policy Violation (The High-Risk Gamble): We know clients often say, “A lot of people are doing it,” and they’re right—some ads temporarily slip past the automated check. However, Google explicitly provides Call Extensions for displaying phone numbers. Placing the number elsewhere is a clear editorial policy violation that will eventually be caught by either automated or human review. When it is caught, it frequently leads to the ad being disapproved or, if done repeatedly, can risk account suspension. Don’t mistake temporary non-enforcement for compliance.
2. Quality Score Penalty: When Google sees you trying to use your ad copy to bypass the click mechanism, it penalises your ad’s relevance and user experience. This leads to a low Quality Score (QS). A low QS means your actual CPC increases dramatically, directly counteracting the client’s goal of saving money.
3. Terrible User Experience (UX): Most users search for services on mobile devices. When a user sees a number in a Call Extension, they can click and call instantly. By forcing them to manually copy, switch apps, open the dialer, and paste the number, you introduce massive friction. This significantly increases the barrier to contact, frustrates the user, and guarantees fewer successful calls. Most users will likely click your ads instead of copying the description anyway.

Solbright’s Expert Take: Never try to trick the system. Use the appropriate Ad Extension feature. Extensions are designed to give users quick contact options and are rewarded with a higher Ad Rank and often a lower CPC, as Google sees the ad as more helpful.

Mistake 6: Refusing Valuable Ad Extensions (Beyond the Call Button)

Finally, the client refused to use any ad extensions aside from the basic Call Extension, believing the Messenger/Sitelink extensions will dilute the focus on his ads.

This mistake is pure self-sabotage. Ad Extensions (like Sitelinks, Structured Snippets, and Lead Forms) are effectively free ad space that expands your ad’s size and visibility on the search results page.

The Financial Impact: Extensions contribute directly to your Ad Rank because they increase your ad’s expected Click-Through Rate (eCTR). When your Ad Rank is higher, you can often secure the same position for a lower bid than a competitor whose ad is smaller and less helpful. Furthermore, some extensions, like Sitelinks, can act as highly specific landing page options, improving the user experience.

Solbright’s Expert Take: The goal isn’t just to get a click; it’s to provide the most helpful result. Utilizing a full stack of relevant extensions is standard best practice for maximizing visibility and simultaneously driving down costs by boosting your Quality Score.

The Solbright Standard: Strategy Built on Data

Ultimately, despite our clear warnings and attempts to educate, the client insisted on his personal philosophy. As professionals committed to delivering results, Solbright Digital Services agreed to run the campaign exactly as requested for a defined, short period. This allowed us to gather undeniable data showing the predictable outcome of ignoring best practices.

The result was exactly as predicted: minimal impressions, near-zero qualified traffic due to the tiny budget being instantly consumed by broad match terms, zero measurable conversions (due to no tracking), and high costs for the few irrelevant clicks that did occur. This experience solidified our commitment to data-driven strategy.

What a Successful Campaign Looks Like:

Here is the strategy we proposed for the client, which we implement for successful service businesses across Malaysia and Singapore:

1. Mandatory Conversion Tracking: Implement call tracking with duration thresholds and form tracking to define true lead value.
2. Realistic Bidding: Set a competitive bid to secure top-of-page presence, paired with Target CPA bidding to maximise returns.
3. Surgical Keywords: Focus on dozens of both short-tail and long-tail keywords to target high-intent users, filtering out irrelevant clicks.
4. Full Ad Extension Stack: Utilise Sitelinks, Callouts, and Structured Snippets to maximise Ad Rank and overall ad quality.
5. Weekly Optimization: Review performance based on qualified conversion data after the algorithm has had time to learn, focusing on improving Quality Score to drive down CPC over time.

Don’t let rigid thinking or bad advice cost your business thousands. Successful Google Ads campaigns are built on professional strategy, adherence to policy, and, most importantly, reliable data. For more local strategy insights, check out our guide on Google Ads for Malaysia SMEs.

If your current Google Ads strategy is stuck in a cycle of low performance and high frustration, let’s talk. Solbright Digital Services specialises in turning those costly myths into profitable realities.