Free Google Ads Grader
How Much Of Your Spend Is Wasted?
Upload Your Search Terms Report And See Which Searches Spent Money And Never Converted.
Upload Your Search Terms Report
Your browser reads the file and grades it on the spot. It never leaves your device.
How To Get The Report
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns → Insights and reports → Search terms.
- Pick a date range: the last 30 to 90 days.
- Check that the Conversions column is in the table.
- Click Download and choose .csv.
Drag your CSV here, or
The .csv you downloaded from Google Ads.
No report to hand? See a full result for an invented plumbing business.
Your Grade
Grade:
- Spend
- Clicks
- Conversions
- Cost / conv.
- Search terms
Where Your Spend Went
| Search terms | Terms | Spend | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Converted | |||
| Unproven: no conversion yet | |||
| Proven waste |
Proven Waste
Search terms with no conversion that each spent at least what one conversion costs you. Costliest first.
Words That Never Convert
Words and two-word phrases found across your search terms, none of which converted. These are your negative keyword candidates.
Expensive Converters
Search terms that do convert, at more than twice your average cost per conversion. Fix these; do not exclude them.
Top Converting Terms
The searches that bring your conversions. Protect them when you add negative keywords.
What To Do Next
Read the list before you add it. It is built from one report, and a negative keyword blocks every future search that matches it: delete any line for something you sell.
Rather not do this every month? groas runs Google Ads for you, search terms included.
How The Grader Works
- 01
Export The Report
In Google Ads open Campaigns → Insights and reports → Search terms. Pick the last 30 to 90 days, check that the Conversions column is in the table, then choose Download → .csv.
- 02
Upload It Here
Drop the file on the grader or pick it from your device. Your browser reads it: nothing is sent to groas or to anyone else.
- 03
Read Your Grade
The grader works out what one conversion costs you, then finds every search term that spent that much or more and returned nothing.
- 04
Take The Negative Keywords
Download the search terms and words to exclude, read the list, and add what fits to Google Ads as negative keywords.
What The Grader Measures
Proven Waste
Search terms with no conversion that each spent at least what one conversion costs you on average. They had a fair chance to pay off and did not. The grade is set by this number alone.
Unproven Spend
Search terms with no conversion yet, on less than one conversion’s cost. That is too little data to judge, so it is shown separately and never counted as waste.
Words That Never Convert
Every search term is split into words and two-word phrases. A word such as “jobs” or “salary” that appears across several searches, none of which converted, is a negative keyword candidate.
Expensive Converters
Search terms that do convert, at more than 2 times your average cost per conversion. They need a lower bid or a better landing page, not an exclusion.
How The Grade Is Set
The grade comes from one number: the share of your spend that is proven waste. The cut-offs below are groas’s own rule of thumb, not an industry standard. Your own cost per conversion is the yardstick, so the grade compares your account with itself.
| Grade | Proven waste, as a share of spend | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| A | Under 5% | Almost every search term that spent real money returned a conversion. |
| B | 5% to under 10% | A few expensive searches to exclude. A short negative keyword list fixes it. |
| C | 10% to under 20% | A noticeable share of the budget buys searches that do not convert. |
| D | 20% to under 35% | Between a fifth and a third of the spend goes to searches that had a fair chance and failed. |
| F | 35% or more | More than a third of the spend is proven waste. Negative keywords and match types need work now. |
A report with no conversions gets no grade. Without a cost per conversion there is nothing to measure a search term against, so the grader says so and treats all of the spend as unproven.
What A Result Looks Like
An illustration: one month of search terms for Harbourline Plumbing, a business invented for this page. Every name and number is made up. The “Try It With Sample Data” button above loads this same report, with all 61 of its search terms.
Grade C: $1,071 of $8,416 (12.7%) is proven waste. One conversion costs $50.70.
| Search term | Cost | Conv. | Cost / conv. | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| emergency plumber near me | $1,102 | 31 | $35.56 | Converts |
| 24 hour plumber | $637 | 16 | $39.83 | Converts |
| plumber cost per hour | $249 | 1 | $249 | Converts, but expensively |
| plumber salary | $152 | 0 | – | Proven waste |
| plumbing jobs near me | $137 | 0 | – | Proven waste |
| drain cleaner liquid | $129 | 0 | – | Proven waste |
| septic tank pumping | $46.80 | 0 | – | Unproven |
Your Report Never Leaves Your Browser
A Search terms report shows what your customers search for and what you pay for each click. That is your business, so the grader was built to work without ever receiving it.
- The file is opened and analysed by your own browser. It is not uploaded to groas or to any other server.
- No sign-in with Google and no access to your Google Ads account: the grader sees only the one file you give it.
- No email address, no account with groas, and no limit on how many reports you grade.
- Nothing is stored. Reload or close the tab and the report and its result are gone.
FAQ
How to export the report, what the grade means, and what to do with the result.
How do I export the Search terms report from Google Ads?
Sign in to Google Ads and open Campaigns → Insights and reports → Search terms. Set the date range (the last 30 to 90 days gives the grader enough to work with) and check that the Conversions column is in the table; if it is not, add it under Columns → Modify columns → Conversions. Then click Download and choose .csv. Both the plain .csv and the “Excel .csv” download work here. An .xlsx file does not.
Is my Google Ads data uploaded anywhere?
No. The report is opened and analysed by your own browser, and the result is drawn on the page you are looking at. The file is not sent to groas or to any other server, nothing is stored, and you do not sign in or give an email address. Reload the tab and the report is gone.
What counts as wasted spend?
The grader first works out your cost per conversion: total spend divided by total conversions in the report. A search term is proven waste when it has no conversion and has spent at least that much. It was given a full conversion’s worth of budget and returned nothing. The yardstick is your own account, not an outside benchmark.
Why is some spend with no conversions not counted as waste?
Because a search term with three clicks and no conversion has not failed; it has not been tested. A term that has spent less than one conversion costs you may still convert with more clicks, and excluding it now could cut off a search that pays. The grader reports that money separately as unproven spend, so the wasted figure holds only what the data supports.
What should I do with the negative keyword list?
Read it before you add it. The list is built from one report, and a negative keyword blocks every future search that matches it, so delete any line for something you sell. Then add the rest in Google Ads as negative keywords, on a campaign or in a negative keyword list shared across campaigns. Search terms are listed as exact match, which blocks only that search. Words are listed as phrase match, which blocks every search containing the word: check those most carefully.
Does the grader work for Shopping and Performance Max campaigns?
It grades whatever rows are in the Search terms report you upload, whichever campaign type they come from. Search terms from Shopping campaigns are graded the same way as those from Search campaigns, and so are Performance Max search terms when your report includes them. The grader reads search terms only: it does not look at product feeds, assets, bids or landing pages.
How is this different from a grader that signs in with Google Ads?
A tool you sign in to with Google is given access to your Google Ads account. This grader has no access to anything: it reads one file that you exported, inside your browser. The price of that is scope. It judges where the money went by search term and what to exclude; it does not review bidding, ads, Quality Score or account structure. For that, book a consultation and groas looks at the whole account with you.
How often should I grade my search terms?
Once a month suits an account that is running steadily. Grade more often, every week or two, after you launch a campaign, add broad match keywords or raise the budget, because that is when new searches start spending. Use a date range long enough to hold a meaningful number of conversions: with only a handful, the cost per conversion and the grade are rough.
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