Wasted spend is money spent on clicks that were never likely to become customers. Every search account has some. This guide shows how to find yours and cut it without blocking searches that do make you money.
You can follow these steps in Google Ads directly. The last section shows how Roasby shortens them.
Start with conversion tracking
Check this first. Waste means spending without a result, so you can't measure it if results aren't recorded.
In Google Ads, open Goals, then Conversions, and confirm that your main action is recording: a purchase, a lead form or a booking. If an account shows clicks and no conversions at all, the likely problem is tracking, not your searches. Fix that before you exclude anything.
Pick a fair period
Use at least the last 30 days. A shorter period can make a search look bad when it simply hasn't had time to convert, and people often convert a few days after they click.
If you spend little, use 90 days, so you have enough data to judge.
Review your search terms
The search terms report shows what people typed before your ad appeared. This is different from your keywords, which are what you chose to bid on.
- Open Insights and reports, then Search terms.
- Sort by cost, highest first.
- Add a filter for zero conversions.
- Read the top 20 to 50 searches.
Sort each one into a group:
| Search | Example for a CRM company | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Unrelated | "crm developer jobs" | Exclude it |
| Wrong intent | "free crm templates" | Exclude it if you don't serve that need |
| Related but not converting yet | "best crm for small teams" | Keep it and improve the ad or page |
| Your brand | Your company name | Keep it |
| A competitor | A rival's name | Decide deliberately, because bidding on these can be a choice |
Add negative keywords carefully
A negative keyword stops your ad from showing for that search. Google's help page explains how the match types work:
- Broad blocks searches containing all your words, in any order.
- Phrase blocks searches containing your words in that order, with other words around them.
- Exact blocks only that exact search.
Three details catch people out.
- Negatives don't expand to close variants. Excluding "flowers" does not exclude "flower", so add singular and plural forms yourself.
- Too many negatives can reduce your reach. Google warns about this directly, so add what the data supports and stop there.
- Check before you exclude. A search with no conversions in one campaign may have converted in another. Look across the whole account first.
When you are unsure, start with exact match. It is the narrowest, so it can't block anything else.
Look for repeated bad words
Single searches can look small while one word costs you across many of them. If "jobs", "salary" or "free" keeps appearing in searches that never convert, that word is worth excluding on its own as a broad or phrase negative.
This finds waste that a top 20 review misses, and it stops new searches containing that word before they cost you anything.
Pause keywords that don't convert
Search terms are only half of it. Sort your keywords by cost with zero conversions over the same period.
A keyword with many clicks and no conversions is a candidate to pause. Don't judge a keyword on a handful of clicks, and don't pause one without checking its ad and landing page first. Sometimes the keyword is right and the page is wrong.
Check the other causes
Negative keywords only fix one kind of waste. If your spend still looks wrong, check these:
- Location settings. Make sure you target people in your locations, not only people interested in them.
- Match types. Very broad keywords bring in more unrelated searches.
- Landing pages. Good clicks can still fail on a slow or mismatched page.
- Schedule. If you can only serve customers at certain times, check whether you are paying for clicks outside them.
Make it a habit
Wasted spend comes back, because people keep searching in new ways. Review search terms every week or two, and keep a short note of what you excluded and why, so you can undo a mistake.
How Roasby helps
Roasby's wasted spend audit does the review for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. It adds up what you spent without a conversion, lists the costliest searches and keywords, and suggests exclusions.
It holds back when the data isn't reliable: it suggests nothing for an account with no conversions, and it skips searches that name your brand or converted elsewhere. On the web you approve each change, and most changes can be reverted. You can also ask your AI assistant: "Find the search terms that wasted money last month and suggest negative keywords."