Keyword targeting
Put budget behind searches that can actually become customers.
Keyword targeting is where Google Ads quietly gets expensive. I look at the searches that actually triggered spend, separate customer intent from junk, and turn that into cleaner match types, negatives, and budget decisions.
What this covers
Find the searches worth paying for.
The account should be able to explain why each search term deserved money.
What breaks
Bad targeting usually looks normal until you read the queries.
- Spend goes to services the business does not offer.
- Broad match expands into research, jobs, DIY, parts, or unrelated categories.
- Good keywords exist, but budgets are diluted by low-intent variants.
- Negatives are added reactively, after money is already gone.
- Geo terms imply a service area the business cannot profitably cover.
- The account reports conversions but cannot say which search intent created them.
How it proves itself
The proof is in the query trail.
Search terms. Real queries show where the money went.
Negative opportunities. Waste patterns become concrete exclusions.
Intent groups. Similar queries get grouped by business value.
Budget direction. Spend gets pointed at terms worth testing harder.
Follow-up checks. The next audit can see whether the leak returned.
How I think about it
Targeting is a fit problem before it is a bid problem.
I read the account from the search term up. The question is simple: would this query plausibly become a customer for this business, in this market, at this price? If not, the account needs a targeting decision before it needs another bid adjustment.
The labels are technical. The decisions are not.
| Signal | What it tells you | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Search term | What the user actually asked for | The fastest way to spot waste hiding behind good-looking keywords. |
| Match type | How Google was allowed to expand | Shows whether the leak is structural or just one bad query. |
| Negative gap | What should be blocked next | Turns audit evidence into an account change. |
| Service fit | Whether the query maps to a real offer | Keeps spend tied to revenue-capable work. |
Want to know where your keyword spend is leaking?
Free audit first. I will show you the search terms that deserve money, the ones that do not, and the targeting fixes that matter.
Get the audit