Blog
Google Ads traffic quality, in detail
How to find the spend that was never going to convert, and how to block it without blocking the traffic you wanted. Search term reports, negative keyword match types, and the parts of Google Ads that behave differently from how they read.
- Wasted Spend10 min read
Search Partners: The Wasted Spend You Can Barely See
Google Search Partners can drain a Search budget at near-zero conversion rates, and the search terms report barely lets you isolate it. How to find and cut it.
Read it - Negative Keywords9 min read
Location-Name Search Terms: Why Targeting Won't Stop Them
Location targeting sets who sees your ad, not which place names trigger it. How to negate irrelevant geographic search terms like out-of-area and job queries.
Read it - Performance Max10 min read
The Sept 21 API Change That Breaks PMax Channel Reports
On 21 September 2026 Google's Ads API splits the Performance Max Network field into seven channels, and every filter on Cross-network silently returns nothing.
Read it - Match Types11 min read
AI Mode Traffic Is Hiding in Your Exact Match Rows
Google is testing AI Mode ads on exact and phrase match keywords, so those rows now blend three traffic types. How to spot it and keep clean reads.
Read it - Negative Keywords10 min read
Brand Inclusions vs Negative Keywords in Google Ads
Brand inclusions and exclusions match on Google's brand entity index, so they catch brand queries and misspellings that text-string negative keywords miss. When to use each.
Read it - Performance Max10 min read
Mine Performance Max Search Terms in Ads Editor 2.11
Google Ads Editor 2.11 exposes Performance Max search terms offline. How to mine wasted queries and stage negatives in bulk, faster than clicking through the UI.
Read it - Search Terms10 min read
Build a Search-Terms Trend Database to Negate Smarter
Reviewing the search terms report as a monthly snapshot misses decaying terms. Snapshot it into a trend database and negate on trajectory, not one bad window.
Read it - Wasted Spend9 min read
Broad Match With No Negative List Is a Budget Leak
A broad match keyword with no paired negative list is the largest avoidable leak in most Google Ads accounts. Here is how to find it and plug it this week.
Read it - Negative Keywords10 min read
Negatives vs Smart Bidding: Which Still Earn Their Keep
Smart Bidding already down-bids losing queries to pennies. So which negative keywords still earn their place, and which are now redundant or actively harmful?
Read it - Search Terms9 min read
Why Negative Keywords Miss AI-Paraphrased Search Terms
Google's search terms report now shows AI-interpreted intent, not the literal query. Build a negative from that text and it can silently fail to fire.
Read it - Account Audits9 min read
Did AI Max auto-upgrade your account? How to check
AI Max auto-upgrades run through September 2026 and the flip is silent. How to detect which campaigns changed and reconcile negatives that now under-cover.
Read it - Wasted Spend11 min read
The Wasted-Spend Scorecard: 5 Metrics and Their Thresholds
Stop eyeballing the search terms report. Five query-level metrics and the exact thresholds that tell you whether an account has a structural waste problem or a tuning one.
Read it - Search Terms11 min read
AI Max Attribution Gaps: Which Number to Trust
AI Max search terms, campaign totals and conversions rarely reconcile. Here is what is double-counted, what is hidden, and which figure to trust before you negate.
Read it - Account Audits12 min read
The 2026 Search-Hygiene Audit, in Order
A sequenced search-terms audit for AI-driven Google Ads accounts: what to check first, the thresholds that flag waste, and the checks that no longer matter.
Read it - Match Types10 min read
Is Your Search Campaign Being Upgraded to AI Max?
Google auto-upgrades campaign-level broad match and ACA campaigns to AI Max between September 1-30, 2026. Here is how to tell which of yours are in scope this week.
Read it - Negative Keywords9 min read
Campaign-Level Negatives vs Shared Lists: When to Move
Native campaign-level negative keywords changed the calculus in 2026. Here is when to pull exclusions out of shared lists and the tradeoffs of doing it.
Read it - Search Terms10 min read
Search Terms Visibility Ratio: Audit Before You Mine
Most accounts see actual queries for under a third of spend. Compute your search terms visibility ratio to decide whether mining still pays or the fix is upstream.
Read it - Negative Keywords10 min read
When Negative Keyword Mining Hits Diminishing Returns
Reactive term-by-term negative mining is losing ROI as broad match and AI widen the query gap. A framework for when to stop mining the report and what still pays.
Read it - Match Types9 min read
Keywordless Search Ads: Which Controls Still Work
Google is moving toward keywordless search ads. Here are the wasted-spend controls that survive when the keyword stops being the lever — and the ones that stop mattering.
Read it - Account Audits10 min read
DSA Is Upgrading to AI Max: Prep Your Search Terms
Dynamic Search Ads campaigns get in-account AI Max upgrade warnings from September 2026, with forced migration in February 2027. Here is the prep to run first.
Read it - Negative Keywords10 min read
Scaling Negative Keyword Lists: The Real 2026 Limits
Per-campaign negatives now reach 10,000 and shared lists hit PMax. Here is how to restructure fragmented negatives into high-coverage shared lists within the real limits.
Read it - Negative Keywords9 min read
Negative Keyword Conflicts: When You Block Your Own Ads
A negative you added can silently block a keyword you are still paying to run, so the ad never serves. How to find these conflicts, fix them, and stop creating new ones.
Read it - Search Terms9 min read
Competitor Search Terms: Negate, Bid, or Leave Them?
Competitor brand queries show up in your search terms report on broad and phrase match. Here is how to decide whether each one is waste to negate or intent worth bidding on.
Read it - Match Types9 min read
AI Max Enables Query Expansion You Never Turned On
Campaigns running only automatically created assets get search term matching switched on by default when they upgrade to AI Max on September 1. Here is the leak and the fix.
Read it - Wasted Spend9 min read
How Many Clicks Before You Negate a Search Term?
A zero-conversion search term is not automatically waste. Here is the click and cost math for deciding when a term has had a fair chance and when to negate it.
Read it - Match Types10 min read
Broad, Phrase, or Exact: The 2026 Match-Type Decision
Phrase match is no longer the safe middle. A practitioner framework for choosing broad, phrase, or exact match by the search-term quality your account can absorb.
Read it - Negative Keywords9 min read
Build Your Negative Keyword List Before Launch Day
A defensive negative keyword list built before a campaign goes live keeps month one's search terms report from becoming a bloodbath of wasted spend. Here is the tiered playbook.
Read it - Match Types9 min read
Exact Match Now Matches Unrelated Search Terms
Exact match keywords in Google Ads now trigger on semantically unrelated queries. Here is how to spot the leak in your search terms report and fence it back in.
Read it - Wasted Spend10 min read
Close Variants Eat Half Your Budget: The Fix
A 4.5M-click study found close variants consume over half of Google Ads budget at double the CPA. Here is how to isolate and claw that spend back.
Read it - Search Terms10 min read
Group search terms into patterns, not one-off negatives
Negating junk queries one at a time never ends. Cluster wasted search terms into intent patterns and block the pattern with one phrase negative instead.
Read it - Negative Keywords9 min read
Audit your negatives after the AI Max migration
AI Max auto-migrates Campaign-level Broad Match and ACA in Sept 2026. Negatives carry over but change behaviour — here's the after-migration audit to run.
Read it - Performance Max9 min read
PMax brand exclusions vs brand negative keywords
Brand negatives and brand exclusions both try to stop Performance Max serving on brand queries, but only one catches misspellings and variants. When to use which.
Read it - Match Types10 min read
Negative fencing: stop broad match eating exact-match budget
Broad match quietly steals queries your exact and phrase keywords would win cheaper. Negative fencing routes each query to its most efficient ad group.
Read it - Search Terms10 min read
Reading the new AI Max rows in your search terms report
Google Ads now tags AI Max-generated queries in the search terms report. How to isolate those rows, read the source column, and negate the waste without throttling reach.
Read it - Performance Max9 min read
Reading the new Performance Max search terms report
Performance Max finally has a real search terms report with a Search and Shopping split. How to mine it for branded cannibalization and research-intent waste, then negate it.
Read it - Negative Keywords10 min read
Negative keyword lists: account vs shared vs campaign
Finding negatives is half the job; housing them is the other half. Where each negative belongs across account, shared list, campaign and ad group — and the caps that decide.
Read it - Negative Keywords9 min read
Over-negating: when negative keywords cost you sales
Every guide tells you to add more negatives. Almost none warn about the opposite failure. How over-negating throttles good traffic, and how to audit for negatives to remove.
Read it - Search Terms10 min read
Your search terms report hides up to 40% of queries
Google redacts roughly 20-40% of your search terms as low-volume, so waste hides in rows you never see. Here is how to find and contain the hidden spend.
Read it - Negative Keywords9 min read
Find negatives at scale with n-gram search-term analysis
Scanning the search terms report row by row misses the money. N-gram analysis groups queries by word so the recurring junk draining budget surfaces at once.
Read it - Account Audits10 min read
The AI Max migration search-terms checklist for Sept 1
On 1 September 2026 Google begins auto-upgrading campaign-level broad match and ACA Search campaigns to AI Max. Audit your search terms and negatives before it flips.
Read it - Match Types9 min read
Negative keyword match types: the plurals trap
Negative broad, phrase and exact do not expand to plurals, synonyms or misspellings the way positive match types do. Here is how each behaves and how to block the variants.
Read it - Search Terms9 min read
When Your Search Terms Report Shows AI-Guessed Queries
Google now says the search terms report can show an AI-interpreted version of a query instead of the exact words typed. Here is how that changes the way you write negatives and read waste.
Read it - Negative Keywords10 min read
When AI Max Overrides Your Negative Keywords
AI Max expands your queries through URL and keyword expansion, and its negatives behave differently from a normal Search campaign. Here is how to keep spend on-target before DSA sunsets.
Read it - Google Ads9 min read
How to read the Google Ads search terms report and turn it into negative keywords
The search terms report is the only place Google shows you what people actually typed. Here is where to find it, what it hides, how to read it without over-reacting, and how to convert wasted spend into negative keywords that block the right traffic and nothing else.
Read it - Performance Max9 min read
Performance Max negative keywords: what changed and how to add them
Performance Max now takes negative keywords in the self-service UI, up to 10,000 per campaign, through shared lists and at account level. Here is what changed in 2025, how to add them, and the inventory they do not touch.
Read it - Wasted Spend9 min read
The wasted spend the top-cost search terms view hides
Sorting the search terms report by cost surfaces a handful of expensive terms and misses most of the waste. Here is where the rest hides — the low-cost long tail and the terms Google no longer shows — and how to find it.
Read it