Where wasted spend hides. Six places, in the order to look.
Waste rarely sits in one place. It hides in searches nobody meant to buy, keywords past the point of proof, default settings and places that never convert. Look in this order, and judge each on your own numbers.
- Six places
- Bars from your own numbers
- Saving or redirection
Six places to look, in order.
The first two hold most of the money in most accounts. The rest are settings that spend quietly.
Search terms
Sort the search terms report by cost. Look for searches with real spend and no conversion, past the click count your rate needs.
Keywords
Apply the same bar to keywords. A keyword far past it with nothing back is a candidate to pause or rework.
Networks
Segment Search campaigns by network. Search Partners and the Display network are on by default and convert differently.
Locations
Check the location option. 'Presence or interest' buys clicks from people outside the area you chose.
Hours and days
Look for hours and days that take money and return nothing, on enough data to be sure.
Placements
In Display, video and Performance Max, read where the money went: phone apps, placements and channels.
When does zero mean something?
A search with 20 clicks and no conversion is not proof of waste. On an account that converts often, it is already unusual. On one that converts rarely, it happens all the time, and it takes many more clicks before zero means something.
So the click bar comes from your own conversion rate: the lower it is, the more clicks a search gets before it is judged.
Add a money bar too: a €4 click and a €0.40 click cannot share one count. Oppy flags a row only once it has also spent past a bar set from your target cost per conversion, or from what the account actually pays when no target is set.
The wasted spend threshold calculator gives the numbers for your own account.
A saving, or a redirection?
If the account already runs out of budget, money freed by blocking junk is spent again the same day on better searches. That is a redirection, not money back.
Oppy reads how much impression share the account loses to budget. When the account is short of budget, waste is reported as money moved to better searches, and never added into a saving.
The checks that find it. As the app names them.
Every wasted spend check is listed on its own page.
8Checks listed here
Structure
How it is built and set
A Search campaign spending outside Google Search
A Search campaign also serving on Search Partners or the Display network. Both are on by default, convert differently, and blur the campaign's numbers.
A Search campaign spending outside Google Search: How it decides and what to doBuying clicks from people who are not in the country
Location set to people 'in or interested in' a place, Google's default. Someone abroad reading about your city counts as your market, and with no location at all a campaign serves worldwide.
Buying clicks from people who are not in the country: How it decides and what to doPerformance Max with no negative keyword list
Performance Max with no negative keyword list attached. The list the account keeps for Search is usually never attached here.
Performance Max with no negative keyword list: How it decides and what to do
Spend
Where the money goes
Searches taking money with nothing back
Searches that took money and returned nothing, judged on the account's own numbers. Your brand is never named, and searches for competitors you listed are proposed as negatives on every Search campaign.
Searches taking money with nothing back: How it decides and what to doKeywords spending past the point of proof with nothing back
Keywords that spent past the point of proof with nothing back. The bar comes from the account's own numbers, not from one fixed rule. One finding per keyword, so you can agree to four of six.
Keywords spending past the point of proof with nothing back: How it decides and what to doPlaces taking money and returning nothing
Countries that took real money across enough clicks to judge and returned nothing, inside campaigns that convert elsewhere. Same arithmetic as the keyword waste check.
Places taking money and returning nothing: How it decides and what to doHours of the day that take money and return nothing
Hours of the day that take money and return nothing, on accounts with enough conversions to read hour by hour.
Hours of the day that take money and return nothing: How it decides and what to doMoney going to phone apps nobody chose
Display money going to phone apps nobody chose, mostly games where a tap is an accident. Names what those apps cost in the period read.
Money going to phone apps nobody chose: How it decides and what to do
Questions about wasted spend.
Anything else? Ask Oppy in the product, or write to the team.
What counts as wasted spend in Google Ads?
Money spent on searches, keywords, places, hours or placements that had enough clicks to convert at your account's rate and returned nothing. Spend that is still too small to judge is not waste yet.
How many clicks before I add a negative keyword?
It depends on your conversion rate: the lower it is, the more clicks a search needs before zero conversions is unlikely to be luck. Check the cost too, against what a conversion should cost you.
Should I block everything with no conversions?
No. Leave anything below the bar, anything that converted elsewhere in the account, and words a real buyer might type. Block what is past both bars and clearly not what you sell.
Does Optizads find wasted spend automatically?
Yes. Every weekly audit runs the wasted spend checks with bars from your own numbers. In Suggest only, the fixes wait for your approval. In Autonomous, keyword pauses can apply inside your money limits, and negatives still wait for you.
Put Oppy to work on your account.
Create your account and connect Google Ads. Your first audit arrives in minutes, your first tasks soon after. 14 days free, no card.
- Every change logged in History
- Hosted in the EU
- Any account size