How do I find Google Ads search terms wasting spend?
Pull search_term_view.search_term with metrics.cost_micros and metrics.conversions from search_term_view, then filter for terms with real spend and zero conversions. Those are candidates for a negative keyword.
The report
| GAQL field | What it means |
|---|---|
search_term_view.search_term | The actual query someone typed that triggered your ad. |
campaign.name | The campaign the search term matched under. |
ad_group.name | The ad group the search term matched under. |
metrics.cost_micros | Cost in micros (millionths of your currency unit) - divide by 1,000,000 for the real amount. |
metrics.conversions | The number of conversions attributed to that search term. |
Resource: search_term_view. Tool: get_search_terms - one of Caybl.ai's built-in Google Ads tools.
Ask it in plain English
Ask that in Claude or ChatGPT once Google Ads is connected through Caybl.ai, and your agent builds this exact report - you don't need to know the GAQL field names above at all.
What actually trips people up
Two things make this report harder to act on than it looks. First, Google's close-variant matching means the exact string in a row isn't necessarily safe to add as its own negative - it may already be covered by a broader match you still want. Second, very low-volume queries get masked for privacy rather than shown individually, so the visible rows can undercount total spend versus what the campaign-level total shows - the gap is real traffic you can't see term-by-term.
Ask your own Google Ads account this
Connect once, then ask in plain English. No tokens, no setup.
Get started freeFAQ
Which GAQL fields does "How do I find Google Ads search terms wasting spend?" need?
search_term_view.search_term, campaign.name, ad_group.name, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.conversions, from the search_term_view resource. These are the real Google Ads Query Language (GAQL) field names, so the same report can be built in the Google Ads UI, the API, or through Caybl.ai.
Can I just ask "Show me search terms that spent over 50 with no conversions in the last 30 days." instead of writing GAQL?
Yes. Once Google Ads is connected through Caybl.ai, ask "Show me search terms that spent over 50 with no conversions in the last 30 days." and your agent runs the report for you - no need to know the search_term_view.search_term field or write GAQL yourself.
Does asking about search_term_view change anything in my Google Ads account?
No. This is a read-only report - it uses Caybl.ai's read access to Google Ads and doesn't touch campaigns, budgets, or keywords. Making changes to your account is a separate, opt-in permission you control per connection.
Related recipes
Sources
- Google Ads Query Language (GAQL) reference - official Google documentation