Playbooks
Playbooks, teardowns and product updates on cutting Google Ads wasted spend.
N-Gram Analysis for Google Ads — No Scripts Needed (2026)
N-gram analysis breaks your search terms into word patterns so wasted spend that hides across hundreds of individual queries becomes visible in one table. Here's how to run it in 2026 — with a script, with a spreadsheet, or with a free browser tool — and the one guardrail that keeps it from costing you conversions.
Does PMax Cannibalize Your Search Campaigns? How to Measure It
Performance Max can and often does serve on queries your Search campaigns - especially brand - would have won anyway, then takes the conversion credit. Here is what PMax cannibalization actually is, why it is invisible in standard reports, and a step-by-step method to measure it in your own account before deciding what to do.
AI PPC Management: What It Is, What It Actually Does, and the Best Tools in 2026
What AI PPC management actually means for Google Ads in 2026 — what AI does well, what's hype, how much control to give it, and an honest ranking of the best tools, with every price sourced and dated.
Performance Max Search Terms: How to Actually See Them (2026)
You can see Performance Max search terms now - Google shipped a native report in 2025. Here is exactly where it lives, what it still hides, and a triage framework for what to do with it: brand cannibalization, junk placements, channel waste, and negatives up to the 10,000 cap.
Dayparting in Google Ads: The Complete 2026 Guide (with Heatmap)
Most dayparting advice was written for a Google Ads that no longer exists. Under Smart Bidding, hourly bid adjustments are ignored on most strategies. Here's what still works in 2026 — and how to read a 7×24 heatmap without fooling yourself.
Performance Max Negative Keywords: The Complete Guide to the 10,000 Cap
Performance Max supports campaign-level negative keywords - up to 10,000 per campaign since March 2025 - plus shared lists and account-level negatives. Here is how to add them, what to add first, and what negatives can and cannot fix in PMax.
Negative keyword tool: find and add negatives in minutes
Negative keywords are the fastest way to stop paying for clicks that never convert. Here is how to find the right candidates, add them at the right level, and avoid the trap of blocking your own good keywords.
Wasted Ad Spend: How to Find and Eliminate It in Google Ads (2026)
Wasted ad spend is money that bought clicks with no realistic path to a conversion. Here are the six places it hides in Google Ads, the exact thresholds we use to flag it, and a worksheet to put a number on yours.
Google Ads audit: a practical checklist that finds real money
A DIY Google Ads audit you can run this week. Eight checks in priority order - what to look for, what bad looks like, and the exact fix - starting with the one thing that makes the other seven pointless if it's broken.
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