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The short answer
On Display and YouTube nobody searched for anything, so the people a campaign reaches most easily are often the ones who already visited and bought. Oppy lists the Display, video and Demand Gen campaigns that spent recently with no buyer or converter list excluded.
Why it matters
On Search, a customer who searches again is often worth having. On Display, video and Demand Gen, the ad is pushed at whoever the campaign can reach, and the people it reaches most reliably are the ones on your own lists.
Without an exclusion, the campaign keeps paying to show an offer to people who took it yesterday. That spend is hard to see, because it looks like ordinary reach in every report.
How Oppy decides
The check only runs when it could read the account's audience exclusions.
A campaign that excludes any list passes, even one that is not your buyers, so check that the list you exclude is the right one. Google's own automatic lists count as lists the account could use.
Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.
When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.
| This check | |
|---|---|
| Step of the audit | Structure |
| What it reads | Campaigns, their settings and their results |
| Needs trustworthy conversions | No. It does not wait for the tracking step. |
| What happens next | Reported in the audit with the rows behind it. The decision stays with you. |
Check it yourself in Google Ads
- In Google Ads, open Tools, then Shared library, then Audience manager, and look for a list of purchasers or converters.
- Open each Display, Video or Demand Gen campaign, then Audiences, and look at Exclusions.
- Check that a buyer or converter list is excluded, at campaign or ad group level.
- If no such list exists, note it. You need one before you can exclude it.
What to do about it
Build a list of people who converted, from your purchase or lead conversion action or from your customer data, with a membership period that matches how often people buy again.
Exclude it from every prospecting campaign on Display, video and Demand Gen. Keep it included only in campaigns meant to bring past customers back, with their own message.
Terms on this page
Other checks in this area
The checks next to this one in Wasted spend, each with its own page.