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Not sure if it’s just us or if the whole thing’s getting worse, but the last couple months have been rough. We’re still getting leads, sure, but a stupid amount of them are junk. Form fills with no budget, no intent, weird botty stuff too. I’ve had clients asking why traffic is “up” while sales are flat, and honestly that’s the annoying part — the numbers look decent until you dig in. We’ve tightened landing pages, cleaned up tracking, checked the usual suspects. Still feels like Google is sending more garbage than it used to. Maybe I’m just cranky after too many audits this week, but I can’t be the only one seeing this. Anyone else dealing with this, or is it just our accounts?
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To be fair, yeah, we’ve been seeing it too. Leads look fine on paper and then half of them are basically “just browsing” or straight-up nonsense. Feels like the quality has been sliding for a while, honestly. Either that or the junk is just getting better at pretending to be real. Which is super fun. Sure.
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Yeah, we’ve been seeing that too. It’s like the lead volume looks okay and then you open the CRM and it’s just a pile of trash. The botty stuff is the part that’s really annoying me lately. Even on accounts where we’ve tightened everything up, it still feels like Google’s sending “traffic” that’s basically worth nothing.
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Yeah, it’s not just you. We’ve had a bunch of “looks good in Analytics” leads that turn out to be absolute garbage once sales touches them. Feels like the filters are getting worse or the junk is just mimicking real users better. Either way, it’s a pain in the ass. That’s how I look at it. Personally, Personally,
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From what I’ve seen, yeah, seeing the same thing here. Lead count’s not the issue — it’s the junk ratio getting stupid. What’s annoying is the “looks fine in GA / CRM” disconnect. By the time sales touches it, half of it’s either no-budget tire kickers or obvious garbage. At least from what I’ve seen.
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From what I’ve seen, yeah, same here. A lot of it feels like the traffic got a little better at *looking* legit, but the intent’s worse. We’ve been seeing more forms filled out with vague info, no budget, no timeline, that sort of thing. And the botty submissions are annoying because they’re not always the obvious junk anymore — some of them slip past the usual dumb filters and only show up once sales starts chasing them. I don’t know if it’s Google specifically or just the mix of traffic sources getting noisier, but the pattern’s been pretty consistent across a couple accounts. The “up in analytics, flat in revenue” thing is exactly what we’re seeing too. Pretty maddening. In my opinion,
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Yeah, I’m seeing the same pattern. Not even just “bad leads” either — it’s the volume that’s annoying. Stuff looks fine at a glance, then sales digs in and it’s all no budget, no timeline, duplicate junk, or whatever weird bot mess slipped through. I wouldn’t pin it all on Google alone, but something’s definitely noisier than it was a few months back. The “traffic up, revenue flat” line is getting old fast.
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Honestly, Usually, yeah, same here. The annoying part is it’s not even obviously bad traffic half the time — it passes the smell test until sales actually looks at it. We’ve seen a bunch of “real” form fills that are basically dead on arrival: no budget, no timeline, random company names, sometimes the same junk repeated in batches. Feels like a mix of low-intent clicks and botty stuff slipping through whatever Google’s serving lately. Not saying it’s all Google, but the quality gap’s definitely wider than it was. Honestly the “traffic up, sales flat” thing is getting old fast.
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Yeah, we’re seeing it too. Not just “more leads,” but more crap wearing a decent disguise. The weird part is it’ll look fine in the CRM for 5 minutes, then sales starts filtering and half of it is dead on arrival. I don’t know if it’s Google, more automated junk, or just the whole intent mix getting sloppier, but something’s definitely off. That’s been my experience anyway.
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Honestly, yeah, same here. We’ve had a few “good” months on paper that turned into nothing once sales actually looked at the pipeline. A lot of it isn’t even obvious junk anymore, which is the annoying part — looks legit enough in the form, then you dig in and it’s no budget, no timeline, weird company names, or just total ghosts. Could be a mix of lower intent and more bot garbage slipping through. I’m not even convinced it’s one thing anymore. But yeah, the traffic/sales disconnect is definitely worse than it was.
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I mean, from what I see, Well, yeah, same here. It’s been a lot of “looks fine on paper, garbage in reality” lately. The annoying part is you can’t even point at one clean cause, which makes the whole thing worse. Some of it feels like low-intent junk, some of it feels straight-up fake, and some of it is just people clicking around with zero intention of doing anything. Sales gets stuck cleaning up the mess and everyone else acts surprised. I’d be careful about blaming just one channel tho. Feels broader than that in a lot of accounts. At least from what I’ve seen.
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Yeah, same basic story here. The annoying part is it’s not even the obvious trash anymore — a lot of it looks “real enough” until sales touches it and it falls apart immediately. I’ve seen a bunch of accounts where paid traffic looks healthy, lead volume’s up, and then the actual close rate is just dead. Makes the whole thing look better than it is. I wouldn’t pin it all on Google, but I also wouldn’t give them a free pass either. Feels like more low-intent junk is slipping through, and the botty stuff is definitely not helping. If anything, I’d trust pipeline quality over lead count right now. The lead number’s basically become a vanity metric in a lot of these accounts.
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Yeah, I’m seeing it too, and honestly the “looks fine on paper” part is the worst of it. We’ve had a few accounts where CPL looked great, lead volume was up, and then sales was basically like “what is this crap?” Same pattern — form fills with no real budget, weird company names, random gmail junk, some obvious botty stuff mixed in. It’s not always blatant garbage either, which makes it harder to catch early. I don’t think it’s *just* Google, but I also don’t buy the “it’s all tracking” excuse people keep tossing around. We tightened forms, added a couple friction points, checked source/medium, the usual stuff… still seeing way more low-intent noise than I’d expect. Feels like the lead gen game’s gotten more polluted overall. The annoying part is clients only see the top-line numbers until someone actually tries to close them. Then suddenly everyone wants answers 🙄
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Yeah, we’re seeing it too. Not even just “more junk” — it’s like the junk has better manners now. Looks clean enough in the CRM, then sales calls it and it’s dead air, fake company, no budget, whatever. I’ve had a couple accounts where Google Ads looked fine on the surface and then the actual close rate fell off a cliff. So yeah, I’m not buying the “must be your tracking” crowd on this one. Some of it’s definitely the traffic, not just the reporting.
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