How to reduce wasted ad spend
Symptom: Spend is high but a chunk of it produces nothing
Wasted spend is rarely spread evenly, it concentrates in a handful of queries, placements, and settings. This workflow hunts those pockets systematically: irrelevant search terms, junk placements, over-broad targeting, and disapprovals, then reinvests the savings into the segments that convert. The aim is to cut waste without cutting the spend that actually works.
A 47-point written audit of your Google, Meta or Shopping account, back in five business days.
Get your auditBook a call- Google Ads access with edit rights
- Search-term and placement reports
- Reliable conversion tracking
- A sense of what a good cost per outcome is
- 1
Confirm conversions are trustworthy
Before cutting anything, verify the conversion data is honest. If tracking is broken or over-attributing, you may cut spend that is actually working or protect spend that is not.
Waste analysis is only as good as the conversion data underneath it, so confirm that first.
- 2
Mine the search-term report
Find queries consuming spend with no or poor conversions and add them as negatives. Irrelevant and off-intent queries are usually the largest single pocket of waste, especially under broad match.
Promote the converters you find into controlled campaigns at the same time.
- 3
Clean up placements and networks
For Display, Video, and PMax where visible, review placement reports for junk sites, apps, and irrelevant channels burning budget. Exclude the worst offenders.
Mobile-app placements and low-quality sites are common silent drains on campaigns that opted into broad networks.
- 4
Tighten over-broad targeting
Look for targeting that is wider than it should be: broad geographies including areas you cannot serve, audiences too loose to convert, or schedules running when no one can act on leads.
Narrow targeting to where the business can actually convert the interest it pays for.
- 5
Catch disapprovals and broken links
Check for disapproved products and ads that stopped serving, and for broken landing-page links wasting clicks. A silent disapproval is lost demand, and a broken link is paid clicks going nowhere.
These are pure waste that hurts nothing to fix.
- 6
Reinvest the savings
Reducing waste is only half the job. Move the recovered budget into the campaigns, keywords, and audiences that convert well, so the account grows rather than just shrinks.
Cutting waste and reinvesting is what turns a leaner account into a stronger one.
- Cutting spend before confirming the conversion data is honest
- Slashing budgets broadly instead of removing specific wasteful pockets
- Ignoring placements and networks where junk spend hides
- Leaving disapprovals and broken links unfixed
- Cutting waste but never reinvesting the savings into what works
Common questions
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A 47-point written audit of your Google, Meta, or Shopping account. Five business days, no sales call.
