How Often Are You Auditing Search Terms?

[3xROAS]

just did a deep search terms audit a few weeks ago and found around $2k/month of spend going to completely irrelevant queries. I try to do this weekly but honestly it slips. whats your cadence and do you have a system for it or just brute force?

 

[RunItBackROI]

that $2k bleed is real but the thing that got me worse was not catching the *intent* drift over time, like queries that used to convert fine slowly going garbage as my competitors shifted their copy and attracted different clicker types. brute forcing a weekly audit misses that because youre looking at recent spend not the slow creep.

 

[geo_hall]

weekly at minimum, twice weekly if spend is high or accounts are messy.

 

[lagurachristian]

just did a deep search terms audit a few weeks ago and found around $2k/month of spend going to completely irrelevant queries. I try to do this weekly but honestly it slips. whats your cadence and do you have a system for it or just brute force?

Weekly is ideal, but realistically many people do bi-weekly or monthly unless spend is high. The key is having a simple system like regularly adding negatives and grouping patterns instead of full deep audits every time. Even quick checks can save a lot.

 

[NotTodayBuddy]

I usually audit search terms every 2-3 weeks. It's not always easy to keep up with, but I try to use filters and custom reports to spot irrelevant terms quickly. I don't really have a complex system, just stay consistent with checking and updating regularly to avoid wasting spend.

 

[ingeine]

i usually check once a week if spend is decent, if campaign big then 2-3 times weekly, no fancy system just quick scan and add negatives, focus on high spend low conversion terms first, you dont need deep audit every time just catch obvious bad queries and clean regularly, takes like 10-15 min and saves good money.

 

[olekountry]

Losing $2k a month on spam keywords is a significant expense. To avoid missing out, I usually set up automatic reporting in Google Ads to filter search keywords daily. Instead of doing it manually, I use a shared Negative Keyword List for the entire account and update it twice a week. This helps the system automatically remove irrelevant queries immediately

 

[navyraiser]

I do it every day in the evening, takes 10-20min. If I do it weekly I will almost take half a day.

 

[Rankify008]

I try to stay consistent with it, usually once a week as a baseline. If I notice spend increasing or performance dropping, I’ll check more frequently.

Over time I’ve realized it’s less about doing one big audit and more about keeping things clean on a regular basis. Even small adjustments—like filtering out irrelevant queries early—can make a noticeable difference in overall ROI.

It’s easy to skip when things are running fine, but those are usually the times wasted spend quietly builds up.