❓ What is the Search Term Exclusion Tool?
The Search Term Exclusion Tool automatically identifies and removes underperforming search terms from your Google Ads campaigns. It helps you reduce wasted spend by continuously excluding queries that are too expensive, irrelevant, or inefficient based on your custom performance thresholds.
🔁 Suggestion Mode vs. Execution Mode
This tool runs in two modes:
Suggestion Mode: Search terms are logged as suggestions. No exclusions are made automatically, but they are viewable in the logs and sent to your team via email for manual review and exclusion.
Execution Mode: Poor-performing search terms are excluded automatically at the campaign or ad group level, depending on your setup. Logs and email summaries are still provided for full transparency.
Start with Suggestion Mode if you want manual oversight. Switch to Execution Mode for full automation once your thresholds are validated.
📈 Dashboard Overview
The dashboard provides insight into exclusion activity and performance impact:
Search terms excluded in the last 7 days
Total spend saved by exclusions
Top campaigns and ad groups affected
Scheduled run frequency and next run time
Overall log of excluded terms with associated metrics
🔍 Search Term Exclusion Explore
This section shows all search terms flagged by your performance rules. Each row includes:
Search term
Impressions, clicks, spend, conversions
CPA and ROAS
Matched keyword and match type
Account, campaign, and ad group
You can filter and sort this list to review past exclusions or current suggestions based on your selected mode.
⚙️ Rule Configuration
Define the performance thresholds that trigger an exclusion. Available settings include:
Minimum impressions, clicks, or spend
Maximum CPA or minimum ROAS
Maximum conversions allowed before exclusion is blocked
Delay window
Include or exclude paused campaigns
Filter by campaign name, ad group name, or keyword match type
These rules can be configured globally, per team, or per account.
📬 Email Summaries
After each run, the tool can send an email with a summary of:
How many search terms were excluded or suggested
Top campaigns affected
Spend saved from exclusions (if in Execution Mode)
A downloadable report link with all metrics included
📊 Non-Converting vs. Converting Search Terms
This view helps identify where ad spend is inefficient by surfacing search terms, campaigns, and ad groups with a high percentage of non-converting spend. Use this to prioritize what should be excluded or investigated further.
Key Features:
Spend Visualization. Quickly compare how much budget is going to converting vs. non-converting queries. This allows you to estimate potential waste and opportunity for cleanup.
Top Offenders by Campaign & Ad Group. Instantly identify the campaigns and ad groups with the highest absolute spend on non-converting search terms. These are your priority areas for exclusions.
Pivot table. A dynamic table breaks down each query b, non-converting vs. converting spend (both % and absolute) with direct "Exclude" actions to remove terms from campaigns or ad groups immediately. Can be easily pivotted towards ad group, campaign and account.
🧠 Query Keyword Similarity
This section uses semantic analysis to determine how relevant a search term is to the keyword it matched with. Low similarity scores often indicate mismatched intent and can waste spend.
Key Features:
Similarity score. Each search term is given a score (0 to 1) showing how closely it matches the keyword it's triggering. A score closer to 0 means poor alignment.
Breakdown by account and ad group. View where the most low-similarity queries are happening, and how often. This helps pinpoint problematic structures in your campaigns.
Query table with actionable metrics
🔁 Double Matched Queries (Duplicate Triggered Queries)
This section shows search terms that are triggering across multiple campaigns or ad groups.
It helps identify internal competition, wasted spend, and confusing attribution.
For each repeated query, you can view where it triggered, how often, and with what performance (spend, conversions, etc.).
You can spot where a query performs best and exclude it from weaker-performing placements.
This supports better keyword ownership, avoiding overlap and fragmentation.
Use it to refine campaign structure by assigning queries to one clear ad group and sculpting with negatives where needed.
Ideal for large accounts where query duplication can go unnoticed and cause inefficiencies.
🔐 Permissions & Access Control
Access is scoped to ensure users only view and manage accounts they’re assigned to:
All exclusion actions are permission-checked via user ID and team ID
Only authorized users can trigger or manage exclusion logic
📄 Logging & Transparency
Whether running in Suggestion or Execution mode, all excluded or suggested search terms are logged with the following details:
Date of identification
Metrics (impressions, spend, conversions, CPA, ROAS)
Exclusion level (campaign or ad group)
Status (excluded or suggested)
✅ Best Practices
Start in Suggestion Mode to validate your settings
Switch to Execution Mode for consistent and scalable results
Set spend and impression thresholds to avoid reacting to low-volume terms
Review excluded terms weekly to ensure alignment with goals