The waste we see most often in Google Ads accounts doesn’t come from bad campaign structure. It comes from a report nobody looks at: the search terms report.
The distinction: a keyword is what you target. A search term is what people actually type. They are not the same thing.
How big can the gap be?
At one client, the keyword “office chair” was running on broad match. When we opened the report we found the ads were also appearing on:
- “office chair repair”
- “second hand office chair”
- “office chair wheel replacement”
- “how to dismantle an office chair”
All four look relevant. None of them buys. That month roughly 31% of the budget had gone to searches like these.
Where to find the report
Google Ads → Campaigns → Search terms (under “Insights and reports” in the left menu).
Set the date range to the last 30 days. Add these columns: Impressions, Clicks, Cost, Conversions, Cost per conversion.
Then sort by cost, largest first.
What to look for
Reading the list top to bottom, separate three groups:
1. Terms that spend money and don’t convert Clicks, cost, zero conversions. If that term has taken at least 15-20 clicks and is still at zero, it’s a candidate for the negative list.
2. Terms with the wrong intent “how”, “free”, “DIY”, “repair”, “second hand”, “jobs”, “complaint”. These are people looking for information or people who will never buy.
3. Wrong-product terms People searching for a model or brand you don’t sell. The most insidious group, because they look relevant within the sector.
How to build the negative list
Rather than adding every term one by one, think in patterns.
Instead of single terms:
free
gratis
second hand
how to
repair
jobs
complaintAdd these to an account-level shared negative list. That way every new campaign you open starts protected.
Mind the match type: match types apply to negatives too. Add “free” as a broad negative and every search containing that word is excluded.
A warning: cutting too much also hurts
Growing the negative list too far strangles your traffic. Avoid this mistake in particular: shutting off a term the moment it fails to convert.
Use this as the measure: to switch a term off, it should have spent at least 1.5x your target CPA and produced no conversion at all.
If your target CPA is 300₺, a term that has spent 450₺ with zero conversions gets switched off. A term that has spent 120₺ isn’t decided yet.
How often to check
- On a new campaign: every two days for the first two weeks
- On an established account: weekly
- On a low-budget account: every two weeks
The list looks long at first glance, but most of the work is in the first pass. Later checks take 10 minutes.
The other side: finding winning terms
The report doesn’t only show waste. It also shows terms that convert but aren’t in your keyword list.
Move those into their own ad group as exact match. That lets you give that search its own ad copy and its own landing page. Typically CPA improves by 20-40%.
Checklist
- Have you sorted the last 30 days’ search terms report by cost?
- Are there terms that spent 1.5x target CPA with no conversions?
- Have you built an account-level shared negative list?
- Have you split converting new terms out as exact match?
- Have you put this check in your calendar as a recurring task?