“We dumped another $10K in the trash.”
Gus was heated.
So heated, in fact, that his webcam started to fog up on our Zoom call.
“How many months have we f—ed up the same s—t!? I told you NOT to target Boise!”
He took a dramatic sip of water like he was trying to rinse the frustration out of his mouth.
“NO ONE from Boise is hauling their @$$ all the way to Pocatello to meet a lawyer!”
Let me break this down.
Gus (not his real name) ran a personal injury law firm in Pocatello, Idaho. He hired my former agency to run Google Ads.
Just Google PPC. That’s it.
Sounds simple, right?
You’d be shocked how easy it is to mess up something this basic.
The Fatal Mistake: Targeting the Wrong Location
See, Gus’s target clients were local. As in actually local.
Pocatello local. Not “Boise’s kinda nearby” local.
The two cities are over 230 miles apart. That’s a 3.5-hour drive through snow half the year. No car accident victim is making that trip when they can Google a Boise lawyer in 0.2 seconds.
But despite Gus telling the agency—multiple times—not to include Boise…
They kept targeting Boise.
And every time, he paid up to $1,000 per click on ads shown to people who were never, ever going to hire him.
Why Did This Happen?
Because Gus was labeled a “low-value client” in the agency’s internal system.
Which meant:
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He didn’t get strategy calls.
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His campaign didn’t get reviews.
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No one double-checked the targeting.
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And his budget was basically treated like scrap metal.
They checked boxes instead of getting results.
And that right there?
That’s the problem with how most businesses—and agencies—approach marketing.
They optimize for activity, not outcomes.
Stop Worshipping Vanity Metrics
You know the type:
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“Your ad had 40,000 impressions!”
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“Your clickthrough rate was great!”
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“We got 700 likes on that Instagram post!”
None of those things matter if they don’t lead to money in the bank.
Vanity metrics are any numbers you track that feel good but don’t move the bottom line.
Here’s what actually matters in paid traffic:
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Right location targeting (like, down to ZIP codes if needed)
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Ad copy that speaks to buyer intent
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A clear, specific, and local offer
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A landing page that converts strangers into leads or clients
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A feedback loop to adjust when things go wrong
Most agencies either don’t do this…
Or they do it once, then let the campaign rot.
Which means you end up like Gus:
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Paying premium prices for garbage traffic
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Wasting months before anyone realizes what’s wrong
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Getting gaslit by your agency when you push back
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And eventually, cursing at your webcam
Don’t Be Gus
The sad part?
Gus isn’t rare.
He’s every lawyer, roofer, chiropractor, SaaS founder, or ecommerce store that hired a shiny agency and ended up footing the bill for somebody’s Coca-Cola binge in Cancun.
So if your PPC feels broken…
If your agency gives you “metrics” but no money…
If you’re seeing traffic but not traction…
You might already be $10K deep in the wrong campaign.
Time to do something about it.
👉 Join my email list at nickbandy.com/waitlist
I’ll show you how to spot marketing BS, plug the holes in your funnel, and make every dollar do the work of ten.
Zero fluff. No Coke. Just results.
All you girls and Boise the truth now,
Nick
