Spend Without Conversions

What AdGradr checks

This is the honest version of a “wasted spend” check. AdGradr surfaces review candidates, not “cut these now.” Zero conversions can come from broken tracking, weak landing pages, conversion-lag windows, or actually irrelevant queries. Only the last deserves a negative keyword. Pausing the others throws away signal.

AdGradr uses two filters to decide what is worth a human’s attention:

Significant spend threshold. Calibrated to your account size: the higher of $50 or 2% of total account spend. Prevents small accounts from being held to enterprise thresholds and vice versa.
Statistical floor (2x account CPA). If your account has a CPA baseline, a keyword or search term must also have spent at least 2x that CPA with zero conversions before it surfaces. This is the point past which random variation alone does not explain the absence of conversions. No CPA baseline means the absolute threshold above is the only filter.

Two conditions are evaluated:

Keywords with significant spend, Quality Score 3 or below, and zero conversions. Low QS is Google’s signal that the keyword, ad, or landing page is mismatched.
Search terms with significant spend, 10+ clicks, and zero conversions. Volume threshold ensures statistical meaning.

Why this matters

A “wasted spend” check that recommends pausing every non-converting keyword is dangerous. It conflates four very different problems and prescribes one solution for all of them. AdGradr separates the diagnosis from the action: the report tells you what is worth investigating, not what to pause.

What good looks like

Zero keywords with significant spend, QS 3 or below, and no conversions.
Search terms report reviewed at least monthly, with negatives added for genuinely irrelevant queries.
Conversion tracking and conversion-lag windows understood for your business model before treating zero conversions as wasted.

The four root causes (rule out in this order)

When a keyword or search term shows significant spend with zero conversions, work through these before adding a negative or pausing:

Conversion tracking is broken or fires on the wrong event. If your conversion tag is not firing, every non-converting keyword looks wasted. Verify tracking first. This is why AdGradr flags the entire account if conversion health fails.
Landing page is the problem, not the keyword. A high-intent keyword paired with a slow, off-message, or broken page will produce traffic with no conversions. The keyword may be fine; the page is the issue.
Conversion-lag window. B2B, high-consideration purchases, and long sales cycles regularly have 30 to 90 day lag between click and conversion. A 30-day window will show zero conversions for keywords that are actually working.
Genuinely irrelevant query. Only after ruling out the above three is the term a candidate for a negative keyword.

How to act on findings

Confirm conversion tracking is healthy. If the Conversion Tracking Health check flagged issues, fix those first and let the data settle 30 days before acting.
For each flagged keyword or query, check the landing page. Does it match the keyword intent? Is it loading correctly?
Map your average sales cycle. If conversions typically close 45 days after first click, a 30-day window will miss them. Extend your attribution window before adding negatives.
For terms that survive all three checks above, add the negative keyword. Search terms with 10+ clicks, no conversions, and confirmed irrelevance are the cleanest negative-keyword candidates.
Set a monthly cadence for this review. The four root causes shift over time; a clean account today is not a clean account in 90 days.

When to ignore this check

New campaigns in their first 30 days. Keywords need time to accumulate conversion data. Low Quality Scores often improve as Google gathers click-through data.
Accounts where conversion tracking was recently fixed. Historical data will show zero conversions for keywords that may actually be converting now. Give the new tracking 30 to 60 days before acting on findings.
Long sales cycle businesses where conversions happen offline or weeks after the click. The 30-day window may miss conversions that close later. Use a longer attribution window for diagnosis.

Want someone to handle this? The Click Makers team manages Google Ads accounts for companies spending $10K+/month. Get in touch to see if we are a fit.