1. Search terms — remove irrelevant traffic
Pull the last 30 days of search terms and sort by spend. Filter for terms with zero conversions and spend above your target CPA. These are your clearest negative keyword candidates.
Ask Claude: "Show me search terms from the last 30 days with more than $20 spend and zero conversions, sorted by spend." This surfaces the waste directly without manual filtering.
- Terms with spend > target CPA and zero conversions
- Competitor brand terms (unless you want to bid on them)
- Informational queries ("how to", "what is") in conversion campaigns
- Irrelevant product categories that broad match pulled in
2. Quality Score — find low-QS keywords dragging up CPC
Quality Score below 5 on keywords with significant spend is a tax on your whole account. Low QS means higher CPC for the same position. The fix is usually better ad-to-keyword alignment or dedicated landing pages for high-spend keyword themes.
- Pull all keywords with QS = 4 and spend > $50 last 30 days
- Check whether the ad copy actually contains the keyword
- Check whether the landing page matches the keyword intent
- Consider pausing low-QS keywords that are not converting
3. Budget utilization — where is spend concentrated?
Pull campaign-level spend vs budget. Any campaign consistently hitting 100% of budget is leaving conversions on the table. Any campaign spending less than 50% of budget has a delivery problem worth investigating — poor targeting, low bids, or a paused ad causing it.
4. Bid strategy health — is Smart Bidding working?
Target CPA and Target ROAS strategies need sufficient conversion volume to work well — Google recommends at least 30–50 conversions per month per campaign. Below that threshold, smart bidding often underperforms manual CPC.
Check the bid strategy status in each campaign. "Limited by budget," "Learning," or "Eligible (Limited)" signals need attention.
5. Ad strength and asset coverage
Responsive Search Ads need at least 8–10 unique headlines and 4 descriptions to test effectively. Ads marked "Poor" strength have lower eligibility and typically get less impression share. A quick RSA refresh — adding new headlines, including the top keyword, adding a CTA — usually lifts strength within a week.
6. Audience and geo performance
Pull performance by top city and device. Most accounts have at least one geo or device segment where CPA is 2x the average — and the fix is a bid adjustment or exclusion, not a full campaign rebuild.
Ask Claude: "Compare my CPA by device type and flag any device with CPA more than 50% above average."
