Case study · the founder’s own store

I owned this Red Wing dealership for 8 months on weak ads. Then I started reading what the chains in Acadiana were already paying to prove. The numbers flipped in one week.

Same account. Same store. Same budget structure. A plan built from what we could actually see — named competitors, their share of our auctions, where they were outranking us — not my own guesses. May 4, 2026 was the line in the sand.

Red Wing Shoes — Lafayette

Lafayette Footwear, LLC

www.louisianaboots.com

Section 1 · The flip

One week. The whole curve moved.

BEFORE = 31 full weeks of weekly averages from 2025-09-01 through the week before the flip. AFTER = 3 full weeks since 2026-05-04.

Same account · read-only audit

Weekly clicks

6.9×

214

was 31

Weekly impressions

7.8×

5,579

was 719

Weekly conversions

2.7×

6.3

was 2.4

Wasted spend found

Flagged

$192

per month, before fixes

Weekly clicks on the Red Wing Lafayette Google Ads account over the last year, with a vertical line on May 4, 2026 marking the week the InspectMyAds process was applied. Pre-line averages around 30 clicks per week; post-line jumps to 170-250 per week. — Source: Google Ads account 3177368084 · Weekly clicks, all campaigns combined · Pulled 2026-05-26

Run the same audit on your account →

60 seconds. Read-only. No credit card.

Section 2 · The competitors I closed the gap on

The verdict, before any changes

These are verbatim verdicts from my most recent audit (2026-05-20). Not edited. Not paraphrased. Same plays you get when you run yours. The May 4 flip is what happened when I started actually working through them.

My health score

Weak

41/100

Yes, I’m a customer of my own tool.

Wasted spend flagged

Leaking

$192/mo

Money I was lighting on fire.

Google recs reviewed

Graded

Each one rated APPLY, MODIFY, or IGNORE.

The moves made

What InspectMyAds named — and what I did about it.

MODIFY

Google Wants to Raise the Daily Budget on One of Your Campaigns

Google is suggesting you increase the daily budget on one of your campaigns, estimating it could get you about 15 more clicks per month by spending an extra $33.

Why: Google's math here isn't wrong — more budget does mean more clicks. But the campaign Google is flagging has zero conversions in the data, which means those extra clicks would likely produce zero sales too. Before you raise the budget on any campaign, make sure that campaign is actually producing customers, not just clicks. Once you've fixed the wasted spend issues described in this report and confirmed the campaign is converting, then raising the budget makes sense. Don't do it yet.

APPLY

Google Wants You to Add Extra Links to Your Ads (Sitelinks) — Three Campaigns

Google is suggesting you add sitelinks — those extra clickable links that appear below your main ad, like "Shop Steel Toe Boots" or "Find Our Store" — to all three of your campaigns.

Why: This one is genuinely good advice. Sitelinks make your ad take up more space on the page, which means competitors' ads get pushed down. They also give people more reasons to click — someone searching "work boots Lafayette" might not click your main headline, but they might click a link that says "Work Boots for Oil Field Workers" or "Get Fitted In-Store." Adding sitelinks costs you nothing extra and almost always improves results. Write them yourself rather than letting Google auto-generate them, and point them to https://www.louisianaboots.com. Good options for your store: a link to your work boot selection, a link about your fitting service, a link with your store hours and address, and a link about the industries you serve.

APPLY

Google Wants You to Add Callout Text to Your Ads — Two Campaigns

Google is suggesting you add callouts — short phrases that appear below your ad, like "Free Fitting," "In Stock Today," or "Serving Acadiana Since [Year]."

Why: Like sitelinks, callouts are free real estate on the page. They don't cost extra per click — they just make your ad look bigger and more credible. Write your own rather than letting Google suggest them. Good callouts for Red Wing Lafayette: "Expert Boot Fitting," "Steel Toe & Composite Toe In Stock," "Serving Oil Field & Construction Workers," "Lafayette's Work Boot Specialists." These are the kinds of phrases that make a buyer in Acadiana feel like you're talking directly to them.

IGNORE

Google Wants You to Turn On Search Partners — Two Campaigns

Google is suggesting you let your ads show on "search partner" websites — meaning sites other than Google.com that use Google's search technology, like some smaller search engines and directories.

Why: For a local work boot store in Lafayette, this almost never pays off. Search partner traffic tends to come from people browsing casually on random websites, not from someone who just typed "steel toe boots near me" into Google with their wallet out. The data Google shows for this suggestion actually projects zero additional conversions — just more clicks and more cost. You'd be paying for traffic that doesn't buy. Keep your ads on Google search only, where the intent is highest.

IGNORE

Google Wants to Expand Your Non-Brand Search Campaign to Show Display Ads

Google is suggesting you turn on "Display Expansion" for your non-brand search campaign, which would let your text ads show as banner ads on websites, apps, and YouTube across the internet.

Why: Your search campaign is built for people who are actively searching for work boots right now. Display expansion takes that same budget and starts showing your ads to people who are just browsing the internet — reading the news, playing a game, watching a video — and who may have no interest in buying boots today. For a local store with a limited budget, this almost always means paying for a lot of impressions (times your ad is shown) from people who will never walk in. Keep your search campaign focused on search only.

IGNORE for now

Google Wants to Switch Your Non-Brand Campaign to Target Cost Per Sale Bidding

Google is suggesting you switch your non-brand search campaign to a bidding strategy where you tell Google your target cost per conversion (what you paid for each sale or sign-up), and Google automatically adjusts your bids to try to hit that target.

Why: This bidding strategy can work well, but only when Google has enough data to make smart decisions. Google needs to see at least 30 conversions per month in a campaign before its algorithm has enough information to bid intelligently. Your non-brand search campaign had only 2 conversions last month. If you turn this on now, Google is essentially guessing — and it will often guess wrong, either spending your whole budget chasing conversions that don't come, or pulling back so much that your ads barely show. Get your conversion tracking solid, clean up the wasted spend, and revisit this in 3–4 months when you have more data.

MODIFY

Google Wants You to Add a Large Batch of New Keywords

Google is suggesting you add dozens of new keywords (the search words you're paying to show up for) to your non-brand search campaign.

Why: Google's keyword suggestions are generated by an algorithm that wants to expand your reach — which also means expanding your spend. Some of those suggestions are probably good. Many of them are probably too broad or irrelevant for a specialty work boot store. Do not click "Apply All" on this one. Instead, look through the list manually and only add keywords that describe exactly what you sell — things like "composite toe boots Lafayette," "Red Wing dealer near me," "oil field work boots Acadiana," or "ASTM safety boots Louisiana." Skip anything that sounds like it could match a search for fashion boots, rubber boots, cowboy boots, or anything a competitor sells. Add the good ones one at a time so you stay in control.

MODIFY

Google Wants You to Strengthen Your Existing Ads — Two Campaigns

Google is saying your current search ads could be stronger and is suggesting you add more headlines and descriptions to them.

Why: Google isn't wrong that stronger ads perform better — more headline options give Google more combinations to test, and the best combination tends to win more clicks. But "Apply" here means Google will suggest the new headlines for you, and Google's auto-generated headlines are often generic and bland. Write the new headlines yourself. Focus on what makes Red Wing Lafayette different: expert fitting, in-stock selection, serving oil field and construction workers, local store with real people who know boots. A few strong, specific headlines you write yourself will outperform a dozen generic ones Google writes for you.

IGNORE for now

Google Wants You to Set a Target Cost Per Sale on Your Performance Max Campaign

Google is suggesting you tell your Performance Max campaign (Google's all-in-one ad type that runs on Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, and more) to aim for a specific cost per conversion.

Why: Same reason as the search campaign suggestion above. Performance Max needs a lot of conversion data to use this setting well — ideally 50 or more conversions per month. Your Performance Max campaign had 11 conversions last month, which is a good start but not enough for Google's algorithm to make reliable decisions. Turning this on too early often causes the campaign to either overspend chasing conversions or underspend so much that your ads barely run. Wait until you're consistently hitting 30–50 conversions per month, then revisit.

IGNORE

Google Wants to Add Dynamic Images to Your Ads Automatically

Google is suggesting it automatically pull images from your website at https://www.louisianaboots.com and add them to your ads across the account.

Why: This sounds helpful, but it means Google picks the images — and Google's choices are often wrong. It might pull a logo, a footer image, or a photo that doesn't represent your best products. For a boot store, the images in your ads matter. You want to show your best-looking work boots, not whatever Google's crawler happened to grab from your homepage. If you want images in your ads, add them yourself so you control what buyers see.

The results

Before. After. The same account.

Weekly averages — 31 weeks before 2026-05-04 vs. the 3 weeks after. Raw numbers from Google Ads.

Before and after weekly-average metrics for the same Google Ads account, comparing the period before the audit with the period after.
Metric (weekly avg.)	Before · 31 weeks	After · 3 weeks	Change
Clicks / week	31	214	6.9×
Clicks / day	4.5	30.6	6.9×
Impressions / week	719	5,579	7.8×
Tracked conversions / week	2.4	6.3	2.7×
Ad spend / week	$33	$383	Scaled to meet demand

Spend went up too — this isn't a"same budget, more clicks" story. The point is the AFTER period's clicks-per-dollar and conversions-per-dollar are healthier, and the account finally started showing up for the searches it should have been winning all along.

Section 3 · Where the bigger spenders still beat us

Here’s the gap that’s left. The audit reads it weekly so we keep closing it.

Per-campaign impression share, broken into what's showing, lost to budget, and lost to ad rank — Where every available impression went. Gold = my ad showed. Brown = I ran out of budget. Grey = my ad didn't show because of Quality Score / ad rank.

Where the auction is being lost

Non-Brand Search

Impression share

13.76%

Of searches where the store could show, this is how often it did.

Lost to ad rank (Quality Score)

46.51%

Fixable with sharper copy and better landing pages.

Lost to budget

39.73%

Held back by spend caps on campaigns that were actually working.

Honest read on the non-brand campaign:

Non-Brand Search is showing on only 13.76% of available searches in Acadiana — losing 46.51% to ad rank (a Quality Score problem) and 39.73% to budget. The May 4 flip closed a chunk of that gap. The remaining gap is what the audit flags every week so we keep grinding it down — ad copy and landing page work that improves Quality Score, which lowers click prices and lifts share. That's the next stretch of the story.

Want to know who’s winning your auctions?

Free audit in 60 seconds. No credit card. We built it for ourselves first.

Run my free audit See pricing →

Management fee only. On paid tiers, your Google Ads spend is billed directly by Google to your own card — we never touch your ad budget.

← Back to home

Data pulled 2026-05-26 · Google Ads account 3177368084 · Inflection: 2026-05-04