Free Google Ads script: a daily email when search terms waste money

What the script does

Once a day it reads your search terms report, keeps the terms that spent money and brought no conversions, and emails you the list, highest spend first, with the campaign, the cost and the clicks of each one. If nothing crosses the threshold, it sends nothing.

It runs inside your own Google Ads account with your own permissions. No outside server sees your data, and there is nothing to sign up for.

How to install it in five minutes

1. In Google Ads, open Tools, then Bulk actions, then Scripts, and press the plus button to create a new script.
2. Delete the example code and paste the script below.
3. Change the email in the first line to yours.
4. Press Authorize, then Preview: the log shows what the script found.
5. Save, go back to the list of scripts and set the frequency to Daily.

Google explains scripts and their permissions in its own guide (Google Ads Help).

The script

// Wasted spend watchdog - generated by Ads MCP
// Paste in Google Ads > Tools > Bulk actions > Scripts, then schedule it daily.
// It only reads your account and emails you. It never changes anything.

var EMAIL = 'you@example.com';
var DAYS = 7;
var MIN_SPEND = 5;

function main() {
  // The last DAYS full days, up to yesterday, in the account's time zone.
  var zone = AdsApp.currentAccount().getTimeZone();
  var day = 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000;
  var end = new Date(Date.now() - day);
  var start = new Date(end.getTime() - (DAYS - 1) * day);
  var format = function (d) { return Utilities.formatDate(d, zone, 'yyyy-MM-dd'); };

  var query =
    'SELECT search_term_view.search_term, campaign.name, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.clicks, metrics.conversions ' +
    'FROM search_term_view ' +
    "WHERE segments.date BETWEEN '" + format(start) + "' AND '" + format(end) + "' AND metrics.conversions = 0 " +
    'ORDER BY metrics.cost_micros DESC LIMIT 50';

  var rows = AdsApp.search(query);
  var lines = [];
  var total = 0;

  while (rows.hasNext()) {
    var row = rows.next();
    var cost = Number(row.metrics.costMicros) / 1000000;
    if (cost < MIN_SPEND) continue;
    total += cost;
    lines.push(
      '- "' + row.searchTermView.searchTerm + '" in ' + row.campaign.name +
      ': ' + cost.toFixed(2) + ', ' + row.metrics.clicks + ' clicks, no conversions');
  }

  if (lines.length === 0) {
    Logger.log('Nothing above the threshold in the last ' + DAYS + ' days.');
    return;
  }

  var body =
    'Search terms that spent without converting in the last ' + DAYS + ' days:\n\n' +
    lines.join('\n') + '\n\nTotal: ' + total.toFixed(2) + '\n\n' +
    'Account: ' + AdsApp.currentAccount().getName() + ' (' + AdsApp.currentAccount().getCustomerId() + ')';

  MailApp.sendEmail(EMAIL, 'Wasted spend: ' + total.toFixed(2) + ' in ' + DAYS + ' days', body);
  Logger.log('Email sent to ' + EMAIL + ', ' + lines.length + ' terms, total ' + total.toFixed(2));
}

Settings you can change

• EMAIL: where the alert goes. For more than one address, separate them with commas.
• DAYS: how many full days back it looks, up to yesterday. 7 is a good start; use 14 or 30 for small accounts.
• MIN_SPEND: the smallest spend, in your account currency, that makes a term worth an email.

What to do with the email

For each term, ask one question: do you sell that? If not, add it as a negative keyword. If yes, keep it and give it time.

If you manage many accounts, or want the negative keywords file built for you, Ads MCP does the same review from ChatGPT, Claude or another AI assistant and returns a file ready for Google Ads Editor. It is read-only too.