Google by default optimises toward whatever is cheapest to generate, and the cheapest leads are usually the worst ones, so out of the box the platform is optimised to find you more junk.

Performance Max can work for lead gen, or flood you with junk. Here's the one thing that decides which, when to use it, and how to run it without wasting budget.

If your cost per lead has been creeping up (or jumped overnight) and nothing obvious changed on your end, you're not imagining it. Google Ads has quietly gotten more expensive to run badly. Average cost per click is now more than double what it was ten years ago ($5.42 vs $2.32, WordStream 2026), and the platform hands more of the decisions to its own AI every year. The good news: rising CPL is almost always caused by a short list of specific, findable things. It's loud and d