When your own ad groups bid against each other

When your own ad groups bid against each other

Here's a hidden budget-waster: running several ad groups that target nearly the same people. It's called audience overlap.

Audience overlap = two or more ad groups chasing the same users, so you end up competing with yourself in the auction.

Why it matters: you bid against your own campaigns, which can push your CPM up and make results look worse than your creative deserves. You're paying extra to beat yourself.

It sneaks in easily — 'fitness fans,' 'gym,' and 'workout' interests are mostly the same crowd.

How to stay clean:
— Give each ad group a clearly different audience, not three flavors of one
— Prefer fewer, broader groups over many tiny lookalikes
— If two groups perform identically, suspect overlap and merge them

Try this: list your active audiences and ask 'would the same person fit two of these?' If yes, combine them. Don't worry if you've been overlapping — almost everyone does at first, and tidying it usually drops your costs.