Find the signal in the noise
Every marketer checks their Google Ads dashboard daily. They see: Spend up 12%. Conversions down 8%. ROAS dropped from 4.2x to 3.1x.
But why?
Was it one campaign that tanked? A keyword that went rogue? A new search term eating budget? A specific device type converting at 0%?
Standard reports can't answer these questions without 30 minutes of manual filtering. The Explorer answers them in 30 seconds by visualizing multi-dimensional relationships that tabular data hides.
The Explorer uses a unified "Lens & Filter" architecture. Every lens shares the same visualization tools — scatter plots, correlation matrices, histograms, and data tables — but applied to a different entity type.
Lens 1: Campaigns
The highest level. Each bubble represents an entire campaign. Best for identifying which campaigns deserve more budget and which should be paused.
Key preset: Profitability Landscape — Spend (X) vs. Revenue (Y), bubble size = Conversions.
Lens 2: Ad Groups
One level deeper. Each bubble represents an ad group within a campaign. Best for finding efficiency pockets within a winning campaign.
Key preset: Efficiency Matrix — CTR (X) vs. CPC (Y), bubble size = Conversions.
Lens 3: Ads
Creative-level analysis. Each bubble represents an individual ad. Best for identifying which copy and headlines drive actual revenue.
Key preset: Creative Efficiency — CTR (X) vs. Conversion Rate (Y), bubble size = Revenue.
Lens 4: Keywords
Bid-level analysis. Each bubble represents a keyword you're actively bidding on. Best for finding high-value keywords to scale and low-value keywords to pause.
Key preset: Performance Clusters — Spend (X) vs. Conversions (Y), bubble size = Quality Score.
Lens 5: Search Terms
The raw query data — what people actually typed into Google before clicking your ad. Best for discovering new keyword opportunities and negative keyword candidates.
Key insight: Search Terms often reveal intent signals that your keyword list doesn't cover.
Global Filters
Apply across all lenses: Date Range, Device Type, Location, and Campaign selection. All filter selections sync to the URL for bookmarking and sharing.
The scatter plot is the most powerful visualization in the Explorer. Here's how to read it:
Axes:
X-Axis = Spend (Cost). Y-Axis = Revenue (Conversion Value). Bubble Size = Conversion Volume.
The Four Quadrants:
Top-Left — The Stars ⭐
High Revenue, Low Spend. These are your most efficient performers. Action: Scale these — increase budget, expand targeting, replicate the strategy.
Top-Right — The Workhorses
High Revenue, High Spend. Profitable but expensive. Action: Optimize — can you maintain revenue while reducing spend? Check for wasted search terms within these campaigns.
Bottom-Left — The Sleepers
Low Revenue, Low Spend. Not hurting you, but not helping either. Action: Investigate — is there untapped potential here? Test higher bids or new creatives.
Bottom-Right — The Bleeders 🩸
Low Revenue, High Spend. These are actively destroying your ROAS. Action: Pause immediately or restructure targeting.
The Diagonal Line:
Imagine a line from bottom-left to top-right. That's your break-even line (1:1 ROAS). Everything above is profit. Everything below is loss.
Bubble Size Matters:
A Star with a tiny bubble might just be lucky — not enough conversions to be statistically significant. Look for Stars with large bubbles — those are reliable, scalable winners.
The correlation matrix runs Pearson's r coefficient between all your key metrics. It answers one critical question: Are my assumptions about performance actually supported by the data?
How to Read the Matrix:
Each cell shows a value from -1.0 to +1.0 between two metrics:
+0.7 to +1.0 (Strong Positive): When one goes up, the other goes up.
+0.3 to +0.7 (Moderate Positive): Loose positive relationship.
-0.3 to +0.3 (No Correlation): No meaningful relationship.
-0.3 to -0.7 (Moderate Negative): When one goes up, the other goes down.
-0.7 to -1.0 (Strong Negative): Strong inverse relationship.
What Healthy Correlations Look Like:
Spend ↔ Conversions: Should be moderate positive (+0.3 to +0.7). If negative, spending more is NOT getting more conversions.
Spend ↔ ROAS: Slight negative (-0.1 to -0.3) is normal — efficiency naturally drops as you scale due to audience saturation. Strong negative (-0.6 to -0.9) means heavy diminishing returns.
CTR ↔ Conversion Rate: Should be positive. If negative, you're attracting clicks that don't convert — a targeting problem.
Impressions ↔ Conversions: Should be positive. If zero or negative, your ads are showing to the wrong audience entirely.
Red Flag Example:
Spend and Revenue have -0.4 correlation? That means the more you spend, the LESS revenue you generate. This usually indicates one or two high-spend campaigns with terrible targeting dragging down your entire portfolio.
The histogram reveals a truth most marketers avoid: the distribution of performance across your account.
What it shows:
A bar chart showing how many campaigns (or ad groups, keywords, etc.) fall into each performance bucket for any metric you choose — ROAS, CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate.
The Typical Pattern (Power Law):
Most accounts follow a power law distribution: 80% of revenue comes from 20% of campaigns. The histogram makes this visible.
Example — ROAS Distribution across 50 campaigns:
35 campaigns: ROAS between 0x-2x (below breakeven or marginal)
10 campaigns: ROAS between 2x-5x (healthy)
5 campaigns: ROAS above 5x (your unicorns)
The Action:
The 35 underperformers are diluting your account ROAS. Either optimize them (better keywords, tighter targeting) or pause them and reallocate budget to the 5 unicorns.
How to use it:
Select any metric from the dropdown. The histogram instantly reshapes. Combine with the Campaign lens to see which specific campaigns fall into which buckets. Click any bar to filter the data table below.
The Search Terms lens is arguably the most valuable in the Explorer because it shows you what people actually typed before clicking your ad — not the keyword you bid on, but the real query.
Why This Matters:
You might bid on "running shoes." But the actual search terms triggering your ad could include: "running shoes clearance," "free running shoes giveaway," "running shoes for flat feet."
Only one of those is your customer. The other two are wasting your budget.
What the Search Terms Lens Shows:
Query Volume Analysis: Which search terms drive the most spend and conversions
Performance Scatter: Plot search terms by Spend vs. Conversions to find high-value queries and waste
Data Table: Full list of search terms with metrics including CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate, and ROAS
Discovery Opportunities:
High-converting search terms that aren't in your keyword list? Add them as exact match keywords. This is how you discover new opportunities your competitors miss.
Waste Identification:
High-spend, zero-conversion search terms? These are negative keyword candidates. Flag them here, then use the Search Hygiene Cockpit (Level 3) to block them permanently.
The Explorer offers two modes of analysis:
Preset Combinations (Quick Start)
Pre-configured X/Y/Size metric combinations designed for common analysis patterns:
Profitability: Spend (X) vs. Revenue (Y), Size = Conversions
Efficiency: CTR (X) vs. CPC (Y), Size = Conversions
Scale: Impressions (X) vs. Clicks (Y), Size = Revenue
ROI: Cost per Conversion (X) vs. Conversion Value (Y), Size = ROAS
Custom Exploration (Advanced)
Select any metric for X-axis, Y-axis, and bubble size independently. This enables analyses like:
Impression Share (X) vs. ROAS (Y) — Are you leaving money on the table by not bidding enough?
Quality Score (X) vs. CPC (Y) — Are high QS keywords actually cheaper?
Bounce Rate (X) vs. Conversion Rate (Y) — Are your landing pages killing conversions?
URL State:
All metric selections, lens choice, and filter settings are synced to the URL. Bookmark a specific analysis to return to it instantly, or share the URL with your team.
Weekly Strategic Review (15 minutes):
Step 1: Campaign Health Check (3 min)
Open Campaign lens with Profitability preset. Scan for Bleeders (bottom-right). Any new campaigns entering the danger zone? Check if existing Stars are maintaining position.
Step 2: Correlation Sanity Check (2 min)
Open Correlation Matrix. Verify that Spend ↔ Revenue is still positive. If it's trending negative, you're hitting diminishing returns — time to optimize, not scale.
Step 3: Search Term Discovery (5 min)
Switch to Search Terms lens. Sort by Spend (descending). Scan the top 20 search terms. Any irrelevant queries eating budget? Flag for negative keyword addition. Any high-converting queries not in your keyword list? Add as exact match.
Step 4: Distribution Check (3 min)
Open ROAS histogram on Campaign lens. How many campaigns are below breakeven? If more than 50%, your account needs structural cleanup before scaling.
Step 5: Document Insights (2 min)
Export the scatter plot (PNG for presentations) or data table (CSV for analysis). Share findings with your team or client.
Use the Explorer (Level 1) when:
You need to understand *why* performance changed
You want to discover new keyword opportunities from search term data
You're doing a weekly or monthly strategic review
You need to present visual insights to a client or stakeholder
You're evaluating whether to scale or cut a campaign
Use the Performance Command Center (Level 2) when:
You need a daily operational check — "Is anything on fire?"
You want AI-prioritized action items
You need budget pacing and forecasting
Use the Search Hygiene Cockpit (Level 3) when:
You specifically want to find and block wasted search terms
You need to clean up negative keywords
You want to audit Quality Scores and match type discipline
The Mental Model:
The Explorer teaches you how the system behaves. The Command Center helps you run it daily. Search Hygiene helps you clean it weekly.
Google Ads reports show you metrics in tables — rows and columns of numbers. The Explorer visualizes multi-dimensional relationships that tables can't reveal. A scatter plot instantly shows which campaigns are Stars and which are Bleeders. A correlation matrix reveals whether scaling actually helps. You'd need 30 minutes of manual filtering to get these insights from native reporting.
Usually yes, but verify three things first: (1) Is the bubble large enough? Small bubbles mean few conversions — could be a lucky streak. (2) Is Impression Share Lost to Budget high? If yes, there's headroom to scale. (3) Has ROAS been stable over the last 14 days? If all three check out, scale aggressively.
Slight negative (-0.1 to -0.3) is normal — efficiency naturally drops as you scale due to audience saturation. Strong negative (-0.6 to -0.9) means heavy diminishing returns — stop scaling. Positive correlation (+0.3 or higher) is rare but amazing — it means scaling actually improves efficiency, typically seen with strong brand campaigns.
Weekly for active optimization. Monthly for stable accounts. Daily only if performance suddenly crashes (to diagnose what broke). It's a strategic analysis tool, not a daily monitoring dashboard. For daily monitoring, use the Performance Command Center.
Yes. Use the export function to download as PNG (for presentations) or CSV (for deeper analysis in a spreadsheet). The PNG includes quadrant labels for easy interpretation.
That's the power law in action — most accounts have a majority of underperforming campaigns. Strategy: Identify the 3-5 campaigns with ROAS above 5x (your unicorns). Pause the bottom 50% of performers. Reallocate budget to the unicorns. Then use Search Hygiene to clean up the mid-tier campaigns.
It means you're attracting clicks that don't convert — a targeting problem. Your ads are compelling enough to click, but the landing page or offer doesn't match user intent. Solutions: Review search terms for irrelevant queries, check landing page relevance, and tighten audience targeting.
The Explorer shows you the full picture — all campaigns, all entities, all metrics. Search Hygiene is laser-focused on one thing: finding and blocking wasted search terms with zero conversions. Think of the Explorer as your strategic telescope and Search Hygiene as your surgical scalpel.