Purpose of this document:
To define the weekly optimizations that should be made to a Google Ads account.
- Pause Underperforming Keywords — 4-bucket benchmark-based pause routine
- Check CPA Drift — campaign-level and ad-group-level week-over-week drift
- Add Converting Search Terms — convert proven search terms into exact-match keywords (Week 4+)
- Check Landing Page Performance — mobile-friendly click rate, conversion rate per URL
- Make CPC Bid Adjustments (Manual CPC and Maximize Clicks only) — tune CPC bids against Keyword Planner Top of Page Bid + 14-day CPC trend
- Adjust Ad Schedule for Budget Pacing — narrow the schedule when daily cap is hitting before EOD
Optimizations
Pause Underperforming Keywords
📖 Deep dive: Pause Underperforming Keywords
Time: 15-20 min.
4-bucket cascade against the campaign’s all-time cost-per-conversion benchmark:
- Establish the benchmark from All time + Enabled + Conversions > 0
- Pause expensive winners — cost/conv ≥ 1.5× benchmark
- Pause non-converters past their fair shot — spend > benchmark cost/conv, 0 conversions
- Pause impressions-only keywords — 20+ impressions, 0 clicks
Apply the previously-converting exception: any keyword with 15+ historical conversions gets 1-2 more cycles before pausing.
Check CPA Drift
📖 Deep dive: Check CPA Drift
Time: 5 min.
Compare this week’s Cost/Conv to last week’s at campaign level, then drill into ad groups sorted by Cost/Conv descending.
- Campaign-level red flag: 20%+ WoW jump with no obvious explanation
- Ad-group-level red flag: any ad group at 2× the campaign average that wasn’t there last week
Add Converting Search Terms
📖 Deep dive: Add Converting Search Terms
Time: 5-10 min.
Skip on weeks 1-3. From Week 4 onward, filter Search Terms by All time + Conversions > 0 + Added/Excluded: None. Save terms that still match the client’s offering, geography, and intent. Add as exact match only to the intent-matched ad group.
Check Landing Page Performance
📖 Deep dive: Check Landing Page Performance
Time: 2-3 min.
Open Insights and Reports → Landing Pages. Check Mobile-Friendly Click Rate, Valid AMP Click Rate, and conversion rate per URL against last week. If anything dropped 30%+ WoW, open the URL in incognito on a real mobile device, submit a test form, confirm the lead alert email lands.
Make CPC Bid Adjustments (Manual CPC and Maximize Clicks only)
📖 Deep dive: Make CPC Bid Adjustments
Time: 5 min.
Skip on Smart Bidding campaigns — manual CPC controls are ignored.
Pull the 14-day Average CPC trend. Re-check Keyword Planner’s Top of Page Bid range for the campaign’s top 3-5 expensive keywords (scoped to the campaign’s geo). Adjust CPC bids against the trend + Top of Page Bid range. Don’t adjust by more than $2-3 per cycle.
Adjust Ad Schedule for Budget Pacing
📖 Deep dive: Adjust Ad Schedule for Budget Pacing
Time: 5-10 min.
If CPL is drifting up week-over-week AND the daily cap is hitting before end-of-day on most days, narrow the schedule (remove dead days/hours) or apply percentage bid adjustments.
- Maximize Clicks: percentage bid adjustments (+10-30% peak, -10-30% dead) OR hour/day removal both work
- Smart Bidding: only hour/day removal works; percentage adjustments are ignored
Where to go from here
- Tomorrow morning: Google Ads Daily Optimizations
- End of month: Google Ads Monthly Optimizations
- When Gate 2 (Transition Readiness) goes green: The Switch