Increasing Google Ads Conversions Using AI Negative Keyword Detection

Building High Performing Google Ads Campaigns

There are three parts to building high performing Google Ads campaigns:

1. Effective ads, shown to the
2. Right People, that lead to
3. High Converting Landing Pages. 

In Google Ads, the most powerful tool you have to help you understand the people that are interacting with your ads is your search terms report. 

The Google Search Terms Report is a csv file you can download from Google with the details of the searches people were making on Google for when your ad was shown to them. 

If you don’t see value in being found for a given search term, you can add it as a negative keyword in your Google Ads account and your ads won’t show for those searches again. The money saved from these low intent clicks will then be redirected to higher performing searches where it can be spent more effectively. 

Unfortunately, this is not something that Google does automatically. The data must be reviewed line by line, and each campaign updated search term by search term. So you are left with a painful dilemma: either you continue wasting budget on ads that are underperforming, or you adopt a tedious daily ritual of checking and managing ad performance that eats into your ability to spend your valuable time working on the more strategic marketing efforts of your business. 

But, there is of course a better way. 

Automating Negative Keyword Detection

Handling Negative Keywords is one of the powerful ways that Glitch helps you to manage your campaigns more effectively. 

Glitch’s Negative Keyword AI Agent reviews your search terms report every single day, accurately identifying negative keyword candidates and eliminating wasted spend. 

It accurately identifies Google searches that lead to low value impressions, costly clicks, and poor conversion rates and eliminates them, redirecting your campaign budget to higher value searches. It’s highly accurate, never takes a day off, and continuously learns about your brand and campaigns. The AI completes a comprehensive analysis of your search term performance, rating search terms along multiple dimensions:

1. Performance
   The AI compares the search term’s click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate (CVR), cost per acquisition (CPA) and search volume against expected values for your campaign. If a term is performing significantly worse than your baseline, it will receive a poor rating and likely get tagged.
   
2. Business Relevance
   It then calculates how relevant the search term is for your specific brand or business. A Google search for “register a business name” scores highly for a company offering business registrations, but a search for “buy a Corvette” for that same business would be the opposite (assuming it has the right campaign type alignment, see below).
   
3. Customer Intent
   The AI also surmises whether the searcher shows genuine buying intent or if they are just casually browsing. The AI looks for low-intent signals like “free,” “how to,” or “tutorial” and penalizes those terms. Conversely, it boosts scores for high-intent signals like “buy,” “pricing,” or “hire.” This targets your ads at people who are ready to buy.
   
4. Campaign Type Alignment
   Glitch campaigns come in one of three types, each with a different objective. Brand campaigns are designed to capture people searching specifically for your company who already know about you. Prospecting campaigns aim to find new customers by casting a wider net across general search terms. Competitor campaigns target people searching for your competitors – it’s a way to win existing business over to yourself. The AI understands each campaign type, and manages negative keywords in such a way that it directs searchers to the right campaign types based on the intent of their search.
   
5. Geographic Location
   If your campaign targets customers in a certain city or country, the Negative keyword agent can understand location-based Google searches and compares them with your campaign targeting. It can also determine the difference between location and company type searches even when they are similar – e.g. the difference between “Dublin pottery” (someone looking to find pottery in Dublin) and “Dublin Pottery” (the name of a company that makes pottery).
   
6. Competitor and Complementary services
   The AI identifies if a search term contains a competitor’s brand name and how direct a competitor they are for you. Terms that score highly are direct competitors, terms that score lower means they might even be complementary services that are worth advertising. 

Saving You Money

Our current estimates are that 30-40% of an unoptimized Google Ads campaign spend can be redirected towards more efficient search phrases within 2-3 weeks of a campaign starting optimizations, with further benefits accruing over time (as seen in the “Wastage Removed” daily number below).

The Human In The Loop

It’s not all AI though. While the algorithm is highly accurate out of the box (90-95% detection rate for most campaigns), it’s almost definitely the case that there are unique components to your product or service that AI won’t get right or will occasionally hallucinate about. Your Glitch account manager also reviews all AI recommendations, flagging search terms that may have been missed which further helps the AI Agent learn on your specific brand and positioning. In cases where your business and terminology is complex, we’ll do that with you to ensure maximum accuracy for your search terms.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Training the Google Ads algorithm to know when to show your ads, and more importantly, when NOT to show your ads is an important step in generating cost effective traffic for your business.

Many businesses that could succeed with Google Ads don’t because of the complexity and time needed to build campaigns correctly. It’s where Glitch and AI managed campaigns in general have the opportunity to reset expectations about how agencies and small businesses can use Google to help them grow their business.

If you are interested in learning more about how Glitch can save you the drudgery and cost of getting your Google Ads Campaigns into tip-top shape, then Book a demo and see how you can create AI-generated solutions that you can confidently use and that follow all best practices.