The Negative Keyword Audit: Cleaning Up a Live Search Terms Report

Marketing Academy · Field Work●Paid Ads

MiniAudit· 25 minutes

Lenskart

Objective: Given a real Search Terms report export and a Quality Score breakdown, identify which triggered queries are wasting spend and diagnose the weakest Ad Rank component, using the lesson's match-type and auction framework.

You're a paid search associate at Lenskart reviewing a broad-match eyewear campaign that has been live for three weeks with a rising cost per lead.

Find the irrelevant triggered queries burning budget, build a themed negative keyword list, and read the Quality Score breakdown to find the one component actually dragging down Ad Rank.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Sheets

FreeSort, filter, and group the Search Terms export and Quality Score log

No account access needed, works entirely on the provided exports

Paid upgrades (optional, faster/deeper)

Optmyzr(optional)

PaidAutomated negative keyword mining across large accounts

Surfaces waste patterns across hundreds of ad groups instead of a manual weekly scan

No access? The manual Google Sheets scan above catches the same waste at low query volume

The process

2 steps

Step 01 of 02

Negative keywords as a budget and Quality Score control

The lesson's warning callout on match types: broad match with zero negative keywords lets Google spend your budget on searches unrelated to your business, so the Search Terms report has to be checked weekly.

This 18-row Search Terms export is from a broad-match 'prescription eyeglasses' ad group. Which triggered queries should become negative keywords before next week's spend?

Google Sheets— Import search-terms-export.csv, freeze the header row, sort by Cost descending.

Procedure

Import the export and freeze row 1
Sort by Cost descending to see which queries consumed the most budget
Flag every query with zero conversions and a clear intent mismatch
Group flagged queries into negative keyword themes (repair, jobs, free, DIY)

Sample output

Search Terms report (excerpt, sorted by cost)

  eyeglasses repair near me        Cost $38.10   Clicks 22   Conv 0
  prescription glasses jobs        Cost $19.40   Clicks 11   Conv 0
  free eyeglasses government       Cost $16.70   Clicks 9    Conv 0
  buy prescription eyeglasses      Cost $61.20   Clicks 34   Conv 4
  prescription eyeglasses online   Cost $54.90   Clicks 29   Conv 3

Healthy

The three zero-conversion, intent-mismatched rows (repair, jobs, free/government) become negatives; the two converting rows stay untouched and may get their own tighter ad group.

Unhealthy

Treating every low-converting row the same and cutting 'prescription eyeglasses online' along with the true negatives, which removes a query that is already converting.

What this means

A negative keyword decision is about intent mismatch, not just a low conversion count on its own.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
Cost per lead has been climbing week over week with no ad or bid changes	Pull the Search Terms report and check it before touching bids or budget	5 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Step 02 of 02

Reading Quality Score components to diagnose Ad Rank

Ad Rank = Bid x Quality Score x expected impact of ad extensions. Quality Score itself is built from three components Google scores separately: Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience.

This keyword's Quality Score is 4/10. Given the three-component breakdown below, which one lever, if fixed, most directly explains the low score?

Google Sheets— Log the three component ratings from the Google Ads Keyword status column into a tracking sheet.

Procedure

Record Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience for the keyword
Compare each rating (Below Average / Average / Above Average) against the ad and landing page it maps to
Identify which single component is rated Below Average

Sample output

Keyword: prescription eyeglasses online   Quality Score: 4/10

  Expected CTR          Average
  Ad Relevance          Average
  Landing Page Experience   Below Average

  Ad group's ads link to: lenskart.com/ (homepage)

Healthy

The diagnosis correctly names Landing Page Experience as the weak link, and the fix is a dedicated /eyeglasses/prescription landing page, not a rewritten ad.

Unhealthy

Rewriting ad headlines for another week when the ad itself is already rated Average, while the homepage-as-landing-page mismatch goes untouched.

What this means

Quality Score is diagnostic, not just a number: each of the three components points at a different fix.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
Quality Score stays at 4-5/10 despite several rounds of new ad copy	Check Landing Page Experience specifically before writing another headline	30 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Final deliverable

A themed negative keyword list (grouped by intent-mismatch category) plus a one-paragraph Quality Score diagnosis naming the single weakest component and its fix.

See a reference example

Sample output

Warby Parker, prescription sunglasses ad group audit

NEGATIVE KEYWORDS TO ADD
  repair: sunglasses repair, lens replacement
  free/jobs: free sunglasses, sunglasses warehouse jobs

QUALITY SCORE DIAGNOSIS
Keyword 'buy prescription sunglasses' scores 5/10. Expected CTR and Ad Relevance are both Average; Landing Page Experience is Below Average because the ad links to the general sunglasses category page instead of a prescription-specific page. Fix: build a dedicated /prescription-sunglasses landing page before touching ad copy.

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

Correctly separates true intent-mismatch negatives from low-but-valid converting queries
Names the single weakest Quality Score component from the breakdown, not a guess
Ties the fix to the specific component diagnosed (landing page vs ad copy vs CTR)