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Weekly Google Ads negative keyword suggestions

Search term review automation reads your Google Ads search terms report each week and compares spend with the enquiries each search produced. It suggests negative keywords for searches that don’t fit your business, and adds only the ones a person approves.

An example of how the studio would build it. No live services are connected.

From last week’s searches to a short list of negatives to approve.

  1. Step 01

    Searches pulled

    Read last week’s search terms report from Google Ads, with clicks, cost and conversions for each search.

  2. Step 02

    Waste spotted

    Pick out searches that spent past your threshold without an enquiry, or that clearly don’t fit, such as jobs, courses or DIY.

  3. Step 03

    Negatives suggested

    Suggest a negative keyword and match type for each one, with the reason and the cost behind it.

  4. Step 04

    Person approves

    Post the suggestions to Slack, where a person approves, edits or rejects each one.

  5. Step 05

    Lists updated

    Add approved negatives to the right campaign or shared list in Google Ads and record the change.

The result

Your ad budget goes on searches from people who might actually hire you.

No keyword changes are made without a person’s approval, and the automation never touches bids, budgets or positive keywords. Every change is logged so it can be reversed if it blocks searches you wanted.

Before we connect it.

Where this is useful

Useful for trades, solicitors, private clinics, driving schools and other local services running Google Ads without anyone checking search terms regularly. A sensible first version sends the weekly suggestions to Slack for review, and starts adding approved negatives once you trust them.

What we need to connect

  1. 01Access to your Google Ads account through the API, with a developer token and permission to read reports and edit negative keyword lists.
  2. 02Conversion tracking for enquiries, set up in Google Ads or imported from Google Analytics 4 key events, so the review knows which searches led somewhere.
  3. 03The services you do and don’t offer, the areas you cover and a spend threshold below which searches are left alone.

What needs careful handling

Google doesn’t show every search term, particularly low-volume ones, and Performance Max campaigns give less search term detail than standard search campaigns, so the review covers what the reports make available. A search with no recorded enquiry may still be worth keeping if it brings phone calls you don’t track, so gaps in call tracking are pointed out before negatives are suggested. Broad negative keywords can block good searches, so suggestions favour exact or phrase match and show which recent searches each one would have blocked.

Questions people ask.

Isn’t this what Google’s recommendations do?

Google Ads offers its own recommendations, which can include keyword changes, and some can be applied automatically. This review follows your own rules about the work you want, and every change waits for your approval. You can use both, and switch off any automatic recommendations you are not comfortable with.

Will it change our budgets or bids?

No. This flow only suggests negative keywords. Budgets, bids and positive keywords stay with you or whoever manages your account.

Diary read → Ads updated
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