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The short answer
Oppy reads the searches the account paid for recently and lists the ones past both of its bars with no conversion. Searches for competitor names you listed are prepared as negatives on every Search campaign, after a check against your brand and the searches that converted before.
Why it matters
Keywords are what you bid on. Search terms are what you pay for, and one broad keyword can match a hundred searches of which three are the ones anybody meant to buy. That makes search terms the first thing any audit should read, and usually the larger problem.
It is also where a careless fix does the most harm. Block the wrong word and you stop your own customers reaching you, with no report to tell you so.
How Oppy decides
A search is flagged when it has no conversion, cost more than the account's waste bar, and had at least the clicks the account's conversion rate needs before zero means something.
It reads the search terms of Search and Shopping campaigns. Performance Max searches are not part of this read yet, so check them in the search terms report.
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 | Spend |
| What it reads | Search terms report |
| Needs trustworthy conversions | Yes. It stays silent when the tracking step fails. |
| What happens next | Oppy prepares the searches for competitors you named as negatives on every Search campaign. Waits for your approval in both modes. |
Check it yourself in Google Ads
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms, for the last 30 days.
- Filter on Conversions = 0 and sort by Cost.
- Keep the searches past the clicks your conversion rate needs that also spent well past what a conversion should cost you.
- Before adding any as a negative, check it has not converted before and does not block one of your own keywords.
What to do about it
Add the clear misses as negatives, in phrase or exact match so they block only what you mean. Put words that are wrong everywhere in a shared list.
Read the search term mining guide for the routine: weekly at first, then monthly once the list settles.
Terms on this page
Other checks in this area
The checks next to this one in Wasted spend, each with its own page.