It might sound counterintuitive, but the fastest path to scaling your Google Ads performance often starts with cutting spend – not increasing it.

At HOC, we audit multiple SaaS and B2B client accounts on a monthly basis. And time and again, we’re seeing the same pattern:

Most companies aren’t under-investing in Google Ads. They’re misallocating what they already spend.

It’s not that budgets are too small. It’s that they’re spread too thin, chasing the wrong clicks with the wrong strategy.

The False Promise of the “Scale” Playbook

When performance starts to dip or the board starts asking about growth, the instinct is usually the same:

• Increase spend
• Add more keywords
• Launch more campaigns

The logic is simple: more spend equals more visibility equals more conversions. But in reality, that approach often just pours fuel on a fire that’s already out of control.

Unless you’ve already got a rock-solid foundation – refined targeting, accurate conversion tracking, and efficient account structure – scaling in this way usually just magnifies inefficiencies.

Here’s what we see when this “growth at all costs” mindset kicks in:

• Broad match terms balloon the traffic but drag in low-quality leads
• Conversion tracking is vague or inaccurate, which misleads Google’s machine learning
• Remarketing budget gets siphoned off by poor placements, like irrelevant mobile apps
• Brand campaigns end up overpaying for clicks you’d likely get organically anyway

In short – you’re paying more and getting less.

What Scaling Actually Looks Like (in our opinion)

We’ve made a habit of flipping this tired playbook on its head.

Instead of asking, how can we spend more?, we start by asking, where are we wasting money?

Here’s what we focus on instead:

• Trimming waste from broad match keywords and low-intent traffic
  This usually means getting surgical with match types and search term exclusions. It’s not sexy, but it’s effective.
• Tightening up conversion actions
  Most accounts are still optimising for form fills or demo requests. That’s fine at the top of funnel, but we push clients to go deeper – optimise for SQLs or revenue when possible. If Google’s chasing the wrong goal, performance will always plateau.
• Controlling bids – not letting Google run wild
  Automation is powerful, but it still needs guardrails. We’ll cap bids in lower-value segments, and get more aggressive where it makes sense.
• Reallocating brand search budgets strategically
  There’s a time and place for bidding on your brand. But if 90% of that traffic was going to click on your organic listing anyway, those funds are better invested in growth-focused campaigns.

Results That Speak for Themselves

When you cut the bloat and sharpen the focus, that’s when real scaling happens.

We’ve seen this approach deliver:

• Better ROAS
• Lower CAC
• More qualified pipeline
• Less total spend

It’s not about feeding the ad machine more cash and hoping it spits out more leads. It’s about building a lean, performance-driven base – then scaling from there.

Build Your Launchpad First

If your first reaction to a performance dip is to pump in more budget, you’re looking at the problem backwards.

Scaling paid search is a bit like building a rocket. If you haven’t built the launchpad properly, no amount of fuel is going to get you off the ground. Worse – it might all go up in smoke.

Here at HOC, we’ve helped SaaS and B2B brands of all sizes do more with less by focusing on efficiency first, then scale. That’s how you grow predictably, sustainably (and profitably).