Search Hygiene Cockpit

In Google Ads, you pay for clicks, not customers.

If your targeting is too broad, you're paying for:

The worst part? You don't see this in standard reports.

Google Ads shows you: Campaign A — 1,000 clicks, $2,500 spend, 45 conversions, 5x ROAS. Looks great.

But drill down into the search terms:

That's $750 wasted hiding inside a "winning" campaign.

The Search Hygiene Cockpit is your surgical cleanup tool. It finds those 300 garbage clicks, shows you exactly what people searched for, and gives you a one-click button to block them forever.

Think of this as your credit score for ad targeting.

Hygiene Score (0-100):

A composite metric grading how efficiently your search budget is spent.

Three Components:

1. Waste Ratio (50% weight)

2. Broad Match Penalty (30% weight)

3. Quality Score Penalty (20% weight)

Score Interpretation:

Wasted Spend Counter:

Next to the score, a hard number showing exactly how much budget was lost to non-converting queries in the selected date range. This is money you can recover immediately.

A visual heatmap showing wasted spend across your account hierarchy.

How it works:

How to read it:

The treemap instantly reveals which Campaign or Ad Group is the biggest offender. Is one Broad Match ad group eating 40% of your total waste? The treemap makes it visually obvious — no spreadsheet analysis required.

Interaction:

Click any box to filter the Negative Candidate Table below to show only waste terms from that campaign or ad group. This drills down from "where" to "what" — first you see the problem area, then you see the specific search terms causing the damage.

A bar chart breaking down wasted spend by keyword match type.

The Three Match Types:

What the Chart Reveals:

If 90% of your wasted spend comes from Broad Match, the data is telling you a clear story: your targeting is too loose. Solutions:

Industry Benchmark:

A healthy account typically has less than 20% of total waste attributable to Broad Match. If yours is higher, the Negative Candidate Table below shows you exactly which Broad Match terms to block first.

This is where cleanup happens. A list of every search term that matches your waste criteria — and the tools to eliminate them.

Default Criteria (Configurable):

Table Columns:

The Block Button:

Click it and the search term is added as a negative keyword. Choose the level:

Bulk Blocking:

Select multiple rows and block them all at once. If you identify 30 garbage terms in one session, block all 30 in a single action.

Sorting Strategy:

Sort by Spend (descending) to fix the biggest leaks first. A term wasting $200 is more urgent than one wasting $5.

The second tab in the Cockpit shifts from reactive cleanup to proactive prevention.

Quality Score Distribution:

A histogram showing how your keywords are distributed across Quality Score values (1-10).

Why it matters: Keywords with Quality Score 1-3 can pay up to 400% more per click than keywords with QS 7+. Google rewards relevance with lower CPCs.

Score Breakdown:

Component Diagnostics:

Google's Quality Score is built from three components. The audit shows which ones are dragging your score down:

The Prevention Logic:

Search Hygiene cleans up waste after it happens. Quality Audit prevents waste from accumulating by ensuring your keywords deserve low CPCs and high relevance scores.

The definition of "waste" varies by business. Click the gear icon (⚙️) to customize:

Max Conversions (Default: 0)

Min Clicks (Default: 10)

How many clicks does a term need before you judge it? Setting this to 5 catches waste faster but may flag terms that haven't had enough traffic to convert. Setting it to 20 is more conservative — only flagging terms with clear statistical evidence of failure.

Min Spend (Default: $50)

Don't waste cleanup time on terms that cost $2. Focus on the ones costing real money. Adjust based on your account size — a $100,000/month account should set this higher ($200+) while a $5,000/month account can keep it at $50.

Recommended Starting Configuration:

Recommended: Every Monday, 20 minutes.

Step 1: Check the Score (2 min)

Is Hygiene below 80? If yes, waste is accumulating. If above 80, you're maintaining — do a quick scan and move on.

Step 2: Scan the Treemap (3 min)

Identify the biggest waste box. Which campaign or ad group is the primary offender? Click it to filter the table.

Step 3: Audit the Negative Candidates (10 min)

Sort by Spend (descending). Review the top 20 terms:

Step 4: Review Match Type Leakage (2 min)

Is Broad Match dominating your waste? Consider shifting your top keywords to Phrase or Exact match.

Step 5: Quality Audit (3 min)

Switch to the Quality Audit tab. Are any keywords with QS 1-3 spending significant budget? Pause them or improve their ad relevance and landing page experience.

Expected Result:

After one cleanup session, your Wasted Spend metric should drop. After 4 weeks of weekly cleanup, your Hygiene Score should be above 80. Your account ROAS will improve naturally — not because you're spending more, but because you've stopped wasting what you already spend.