Non-brand search cleanup for a supplements account losing efficiency
Non-brand CPC dropped 22% over 45 days, conversion rate improved, and the account became much easier to scale without paying for noise.
How to read this:Client details are anonymized where needed. The useful proof is the problem pattern, the actions taken, and the measurement window.
22% lowerNon-brand CPC
+15%Conversion rate
180Negatives added
Challenge
High CPCs, weak match-type discipline, and no meaningful negative-keyword process had pushed non-brand campaigns into an expensive pattern of low-intent traffic.
What changed
- Ran n-gram analysis across historical query data to identify repeated waste themes
- Pushed high-priority negatives by spend-to-conversion ratio instead of by intuition
- Restructured ad groups around cleaner intent tiers
- Reduced broad match exposure where query quality was consistently weak
- Established an ongoing query-governance process rather than treating cleanup as a one-time fix
What I was looking for
The goal was not only to improve the headline metric. The work was designed to make the account easier to read, easier to control, and easier for a marketing team to trust.