On most small accounts we analyze, a significant share of the budget goes to queries that never had a chance to convert. Not because of some exotic setting: simply because nobody ever opened the search terms report.
Keywords and search terms are not the same thing
A keyword is what you buy. A search term is what the user actually typed. In between, Google interprets: with broad match, a keyword like "locksmith Troyes" can trigger ads on "locksmith training", "locksmith salary" or "open a door yourself". Three paid clicks, zero customers.
The three families of queries that cost for nothing
- Informational queries: "how to", "tutorial", "average price", "definition". The user is researching, not buying today.
- Jobs and training queries: "salary", "become a", "job offer", "apprenticeship". Very common in trade businesses, and consistently off-target.
- Competitor and brand queries: they sometimes convert, but they are expensive and expose you to a trademark-in-ad-text disapproval.
The ten-minute method
Open the search terms report over 90 days, sort by descending cost, and filter on zero conversions. You get the list of queries that cost you the most while returning nothing. Review it line by line: every off-topic term becomes a negative keyword.
Two precautions. Exclude at the right level: an account-level negative applies everywhere, a campaign-level one stays local. And leave low-volume queries alone: three clicks without a conversion prove nothing, that is statistical noise.
What SaveAds does for you
SaveAds reads that report continuously, automatically classifies terms by intent, and hands you the exclusion list with the amount spent on each query. You approve in one click — or keep the ones that make sense for your business.
No exclusion is applied without your approval: the list is shown with its cost, you decide.