Search terms nobody buys from
Queries that get clicks and never convert, because negatives are missing or match types are too loose.
- Microsoft
Free tool PPC leak audit
See where your ad budget leaks out.
Most ad accounts pay for some clicks that were never going to buy. Our paid media team goes through your account with read-only access and shows you which ones, and roughly what they cost you each month.
- Google Ads
- Meta Ads
- Microsoft Ads
Fig. 01 What you get
The leaks, in dollars, in order.
You get a short report that lists each leak we found, an estimate of what it costs per month, and the change that stops it. Fix them yourself, hand them to your current agency, or ask us.
Monthly ad spend reviewed
$12,400Estimated leak per month
$2,980- Search terms with clicks and no conversions212 terms over 90 days, mostly “free”, “jobs” and “DIY” searches−$1,120/mo
- Performance Max bidding on your own brandBrand clicks that organic search would likely have caught−$860/mo
- Location set to “presence or interest”Clicks from people outside your service area−$620/mo
- Duplicate conversion actionThank-you page and form event both count, so bidding chases the wrong signal−$380/mo
Sample data. Your report uses your own account’s numbers and periods.
Fig. 02 Where we look
Eight places budget usually goes missing.
These come up again and again in accounts we take over. Several are easy to miss in the platform’s own recommendations.
Paying for your own brand
Performance Max and broad match picking up brand searches you’d likely get for free.
Wrong locations
The default “presence or interest” setting shows ads to people who only searched about your area.
- Microsoft
Broken conversion tracking
Double-counted leads, missing calls, or a tag that stopped firing after a site update.
- All
Partner and display networks
Search campaigns quietly spending on partner sites and display placements that don’t convert.
- Microsoft
Audiences bidding against each other
Overlapping Meta ad sets pushing up your own costs in the same auction.
- Meta
Creative fatigue
Ads shown so often that frequency climbs and cost per result follows.
- Meta
Slow or mismatched landing pages
Paying for the click, then losing the visitor to a slow page or one that doesn’t match the ad.
- All
Fig. 03 Access
We look. We don’t touch.
The audit needs read-only access to your ad accounts. You grant it from inside each platform, and you can remove it the moment the audit is done.
- 01
You send the form
We email step-by-step instructions for each platform you use.
- 02
You grant read-only access
Google Ads “Read only”, a Meta partner request with view permissions, and Microsoft Ads “Viewer”.
- 03
We review and report
Our paid media team goes through the account and sends you the findings.
What read-only access allows
See campaigns, search terms and settingsYes
See performance and conversion dataYes
Change bids, budgets or adsNo
See or change your billing detailsNo
Add or remove usersNo
Fig. 04 FAQ
About the leak audit.
Want the whole picture, including your site and tracking? Try the free growth audit.
Get the leak auditIs there a minimum ad spend?
No minimum to ask. The audit is most useful once an account has a few months of history and spends regularly, because that’s when patterns in the search terms and audiences show up.
Can you change anything in my account?
No. Read-only access lets us see settings and data. It doesn’t let anyone change bids, budgets, ads, billing or users.
We already have an agency. Is that a problem?
Not at all. Many owners use the audit as a second opinion. You can share the findings with your current agency and have them make the fixes.
How do you estimate the cost of each leak?
From your own account data: what the leaking clicks, terms or placements spent over the review period, averaged per month. We show the period and the method next to each number.
Is it really free?
Yes. We’ll email the audit and may follow up once to ask if you’d like help. If you don’t reply, that’s the end of it.