Google Ads Account Audit and Negative Keyword Setup
This task audits your Google Ads account to identify campaigns where budget is lost on irrelevant search terms. The agent adds these keywords as negatives to stop wasted spending and improve ad targeting.
Open my Google Ads account, list the campaigns wasting money on irrelevant search terms, and add them as negatives.
Runs on the Tasks plan and the Goals plan.
Who This Is For and When It Pays Off
Businesses running Google Ads who want to optimize their ad spend by eliminating irrelevant keyword traffic will benefit. This is ideal if you suspect your campaigns attract costly clicks that do not convert or relate to your products or services.
Especially useful for those with multiple campaigns or large keyword sets, where manually spotting irrelevant search terms is time-consuming or complex.
Payoff comes from reduced wasted spend, improved click-through rates (CTR), better conversion rates, and overall more efficient advertising budgets.
How the Katteb Agent Does It, Step by Step
- Signs into your Google Ads account securely using your supplied credentials.
- Navigates to the Search Terms report within each campaign to review actual search queries triggering your ads.
- Identifies irrelevant or low-performing search terms that are wasting budget based on click patterns and metrics like CTR, conversion rate, and cost per conversion.
- Creates a consolidated list of these irrelevant terms grouped by campaign.
- Adds these irrelevant search terms as negative keywords to the corresponding campaigns or ad groups to prevent them from triggering ads again.
- Verifies that negative keywords were added correctly in the Google Ads interface.
- Prepares a summary report detailing the removed irrelevant terms, affected campaigns, and estimated budget savings based on past spend.
- Logs out from Google Ads to ensure security and privacy.
What You Give the Agent Before It Starts
- Access credentials for your Google Ads account with appropriate permissions to view search terms and edit negative keywords.
- Confirmation of which campaigns or account sections to include or exclude from the audit, if any.
- Optional: Any existing lists of negative keywords or specific terms you want the agent to prioritize or avoid.
- Your preferred language and currency settings for reports, if different from Google Ads defaults.
What a Good Result Looks Like
The agent typically identifies tens to hundreds of irrelevant search terms depending on campaign size, with the potential to reduce wasted spend by 10-30% in affected campaigns within the first few weeks.
The negative keywords are added directly to your campaigns or ad groups, immediately preventing waste on those queries.
You receive a clear, concise report summarizing all changes made, with data on prior spend linked to the removed terms and recommendations for future monitoring.
The entire task is completed within one session, typically under 45 minutes.
What to Expect and What Is Not Promised
The agent operates strictly within your Google Ads account using your permissions; it does not access or share data outside your account.
Analysis is based on recent historical data available in the Search Terms report; very recent or infrequent terms may not be detected.
Campaign performance improvements depend on factors beyond negative keywords, such as overall campaign setup, bids, and ad quality.
Google Ads policies and platform changes may affect the interface or features available during the task.
The agent does not guarantee specific ROI or conversion outcomes but focuses on reducing identifiable waste.
Questions people ask
How does the agent decide which search terms are irrelevant?
The agent uses performance metrics like click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per conversion to identify search terms that trigger ads but do not convert or relate to your business. It looks for patterns indicating wasted spend on irrelevant queries.
Will adding negative keywords stop all wasted clicks?
Adding negative keywords significantly reduces irrelevant traffic, but it cannot completely eliminate all unwanted clicks. Continuous monitoring and other campaign optimization strategies remain important.
Do I need to give the agent full admin access to my Google Ads account?
The agent requires sufficient permissions to view search term reports and edit negative keywords, typically standard or admin-level access. It does not need full admin rights beyond these capabilities.
Can I review the negative keywords before they are added?
The task as designed adds negatives automatically after analysis, but you receive a final report detailing all added terms. For a more cautious approach, you can request a custom task with a review step.
How often should I perform this audit?
Conducting this audit quarterly or bi-monthly is advisable to keep your campaigns free from accumulating irrelevant search terms. More frequent audits may be needed for rapidly changing markets or new campaigns.
