Exclude irrelevant traffic: search terms that don't fit what you offer

What it flagsSearch terms from people looking for something else

Not every search term your ad shows for comes from someone looking for what you offer. If you sell a programming course and advertise on learn python, you also show up for the name of another training provider, and for people who want to know something about the snake. That traffic sometimes clicks, but never becomes a customer.

AdBuilder reads your search terms report and asks one question about every search term: is this person looking for what you offer? Terms where the answer is no end up in this recommendation, in three kinds.

• Other name or brand: the search term names a different person, company or brand than yours.
• Different meaning: your keyword has more than one meaning and the searcher means the other one.
• Not something you offer: the searcher wants a product, service or use that you don't provide.

Why it mattersWaiting until it costs money is too late

The other exclusion recommendations look at performance: they only flag a search term once it has cost enough without converting. That makes sense for terms where you can't tell yet whether they will work. With a search term that simply doesn't fit, you know at the first impression. Every click after that is money thrown away.

Irrelevant impressions also cost more than the clicks alone. People looking for something else click less often, which pulls down your click-through rate and with it your Quality Score. Excluding this traffic early keeps both your budget and your numbers clean.

How it worksA judgement on relevance, with your account as context

AdBuilder assesses every search term with AI and passes along what we know about your account: your brand name, your active keywords, the names of your ad groups and what your website offers. Each term gets a verdict: fits what you offer, doesn't fit, or not sure. For a term that doesn't fit, we also work out which word or name makes the difference.

A search term counts from a single impression. There is deliberately no cost threshold, because this is about relevance, not performance. Each term is assessed once and the verdict stays valid for 60 days, so the next check only looks at new search terms.

A few guardrails keep you from excluding something you want to keep.

• We never suggest your own brand name.
• If the search term is your own active keyword in the same ad group, we don't suggest excluding it.
• Search terms that did convert are shown, but not ticked. Someone who searched for a competitor and still bought from you is valuable traffic.
• When we're not sure, the term is in the list without a tick, so you decide.
• Search terms already suggested by the wasteful or informational search terms recommendations are left out here.
• We never offer a name or word as a broad exclusion if it touches your own keywords. If it appears in a search term that converted, you see the conversions next to it and it is not ticked.

What you can doChoose per term, and exclude names in one go

You see up to 50 search terms, the most expensive first, with the cost, clicks, impressions and the reason for each. You decide what gets excluded. If a name or word keeps coming back, you can exclude that itself as a phrase. That blocks every variation still to come in one go.

What you leave unticked, AdBuilder remembers as relevant. We won't suggest those search terms again. If there are more than 50 irrelevant search terms, the rest follow in a next round. Everything you add is reversible.

• Choose which search terms and which names or words to exclude.
• Choose the level: only the campaign where the term showed up, all search campaigns, or a shared exclusion list (existing or new).
• Choose the match type of the negative keyword per search term: phrase or exact.
• Undo the exclusion if you change your mind.