2026-07-23

How to Find Wasted Spend in the Google Ads Search Terms Report

You export the Search terms report, sort by cost, and there it is: dozens of queries with real spend and zero conversions, sitting there for weeks because nobody caught them. If you're an agency managing multiple accounts, this waste compounds fast — and clients notice it in the invoice before you notice it in the dashboard.

Why this happens

Ranked from most to least common causes:

1. Broad match with no negative keyword hygiene. Broad match (and even phrase match) will happily match adjacent, irrelevant queries if you're not pruning weekly. This is the single biggest source of waste in accounts under $20k/month.
2. Smart Bidding chasing volume, not relevance. Target CPA and Maximize Conversions will sometimes serve on loosely related terms if conversion data is thin, especially in the first 2-4 weeks of a campaign or after a big budget change.
3. Display/placement spend leaking into Search campaigns via Display Expansion or Search Partners. Placements on content sites and partner search engines rarely convert at the same rate but keep spending.
4. Stale negative keyword lists. Negatives added six months ago don't account for new products, seasonal queries, or competitor name changes.
5. Shared negative lists not applied to new campaigns. Someone builds a negative list, forgets to attach it to the campaign launched last month.

Fix, step by step

1. In Google Ads, go to Campaigns > Insights and reports > Search terms (or Keywords > Search terms for the classic view). Set the date range to at least 30 days — 90 if the account has low volume.
2. Add the Conversions and Cost columns if not already visible. Sort by Cost descending.
3. Filter for search terms with Conversions = 0 and Cost > 0. In the column filter, set Conversions "is equal to" 0.
4. Scan the list top to bottom. Flag any term that is: off-topic for the ad group, a competitor brand name you don't want to bid on, a job-seeker or "free" query, or a location outside your service area.
5. For each flagged term, add it as a negative keyword at the ad group level if it's ad-group-specific, or at the campaign/shared list level if it's likely to recur across multiple ad groups.
6. Repeat the same audit for placements: go to Audiences, keywords and content > Placements (or Content > Placements in older UI), filter by Cost > 0 and Conversions = 0, and exclude the worst offenders at the campaign level.
7. Check whether Display Expansion is enabled on any Search campaigns (Settings > Networks). If waste is concentrated on Display-looking placements, turn it off.
8. Check Search Partners under Settings > Networks. If partner network spend shows disproportionately more zero-conversion terms than Google Search, disable it for that campaign.
9. Create or update a shared negative keyword list and confirm it's applied to every active campaign in the account — not just the one you just audited.
10. Set a recurring calendar reminder (weekly for spend over $5k/month, biweekly under that) to repeat this audit. Waste re-accumulates continuously.

Copy-paste negative keyword & exclusion checklist

SEARCH TERMS AUDIT — WEEKLY CHECKLIST

[ ] Date range set to last 30 days minimum
[ ] Filter applied: Conversions = 0, Cost > 0
[ ] Reviewed every term with Cost > 1x average CPC
[ ] Flagged categories checked:
    [ ] Competitor brand names
    [ ] "Free" / "cheap" / "DIY" queries
    [ ] Job / career / "how to become" queries
    [ ] Wrong geography / service area mismatch
    [ ] Wrong product/service line (adjacent but irrelevant)
    [ ] Informational-only queries (no purchase intent)
[ ] Negatives added at correct level (ad group vs campaign vs shared list)
[ ] Shared negative list applied to ALL active campaigns
[ ] Placements report checked: Cost > 0, Conversions = 0
[ ] Display Expansion setting reviewed (on/off decision documented)
[ ] Search Partners setting reviewed (on/off decision documented)
[ ] Total wasted spend this period: $______
[ ] Next audit date scheduled: __________

How to verify it worked

Re-run the same Search terms filter (Conversions = 0, Cost > 0) seven to fourteen days after adding your negatives. The list should be visibly shorter, and total cost attributed to zero-conversion terms should drop as a percentage of overall spend. Do the same comparison on the Placements report. If the numbers aren't moving, check that your negative list is actually attached to the campaign — that's the most common reason a "fixed" account keeps leaking.

If you're running this audit across several client accounts, exporting each Search terms report by hand every week gets tedious fast — this is exactly the kind of recurring CSV cleanup Next Action Analyst is built to turn into a ranked action list instead of a manual spreadsheet chore.