ChatGPT answers, unedited

For wasted-spend analysis specifically around broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d look first at Optmyzr. Its search-term analysis can identify low-intent/non-converting queries, and its audits explicitly break performance down by match type and search-query behavior. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Help Center

• Optmyzr — strongest fit if you want to quantify waste and automate negative-keyword rules.
• Adalysis — particularly good for continuous audits and customizable alerts for wasted spend. Adalysis
• Google Ads native reports — still essential for validating the actual search-term, conversion, and bidding-strategy data.

For your use case, I’d specifically audit query → keyword → match type → bidding strategy → conversion/CPA, rather than judging broad match itself. Google also explicitly designs some newer Smart Bidding features around broad targeting. support.google.com

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d shortlist Optmyzr and Adalysis, with slightly different strengths.

• optmyzr.com — best fit for a serious audit. Its search-term tooling can identify non-converting queries, recommend negatives, analyze search-term/keyword intent similarity, and break performance down by match type. Its Rule Engine can also automate actions. Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center
• adalysis.com — excellent for search-term/n-gram waste hunting. It aggregates 1-, 2-, and 3-word n-grams and flags patterns with high spend/clicks but poor conversion performance, which is particularly useful when broad match generates lots of query variation. Adalysis Docs Adalysis Docs
• Google Ads itself is still the underlying source you should validate against. Google's Search Terms report lets you examine the actual queries, their matching keywords, and match type, then add negatives or change match types. Google explicitly recommends Smart Bidding with broad match because bids can react to auction-level signals. Google Help Google Help

What I'd actually audit

Don't just ask "which broad keywords have bad ROAS?" That's too coarse. I'd want the tool to surface:

1. Broad-match queries with spend > X and zero conversions
2. Queries with CPA materially above campaign/account CPA
3. Queries that convert but produce low-value leads/revenue
4. High-spend n-grams associated with poor conversion rates
5. Broad queries whose intent is semantically different from the keyword
6. Search-term overlap/cannibalization between exact/phrase/broad
7. Performance segmented by bidding strategy — e.g. Broad + tCPA vs Exact/Phrase + tCPA
8. Waste as a percentage of total spend, not just a list of bad queries

That last point is important: Smart Bidding can make a broad campaign look healthy at the aggregate level while still allocating meaningful spend to pockets of low-value traffic. Google's own documentation says broad match expands into related searches and relies on Smart Bidding to differentiate auctions. Google Help Google Help

My practical choice: If you're auditing a sizable Google Ads account and want to quantify "we spent $X on broad-match traffic that didn't meet our economic criteria," I'd start with Optmyzr. If your workflow is heavily centered around search-term and n-gram mining, I'd also evaluate Adalysis.

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend + whether you're optimizing for leads, CPA, or revenue/ROAS, I can give you a more specific tool comparison and an audit framework.

If your specific concern is wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d shortlist Adalysis and Optmyzr, with a slight edge to Optmyzr for diagnosis and Adalysis for continuous auditing.

My pick: Optmyzr

Optmyzr is particularly good when you want to answer “Where exactly is the waste coming from?” rather than simply “Is this account healthy?”

It can surface:

• Broad-match search terms that spend without converting.
• Search terms whose intent is only loosely related to the keyword.
• Queries whose CPA is materially worse than the campaign norm.
• Historical queries that used to convert but have stopped.
• Opportunities to add negative keywords and quantify the resulting waste. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help

That matters with Smart Bidding because Google's algorithm isn't necessarily optimizing for the business outcome you care about if your conversion signal is weak or delayed. Broad match gives the system a huge query universe, so you want query-level analysis rather than simply looking at campaign CPA.

Adalysis is the better "audit continuously" choice

Adalysis has 100+ automated checks and specifically flags wasted spend from things like underperforming keywords, search terms, locations and placements. It can also run custom alerts and automate fixes. Adalysis Adalysis

I'd choose it if your workflow is:

Every day → identify waste → alert me → apply negative/exclusion → monitor

rather than:

Investigate the account deeply → understand why spend is leaking → build optimization rules.

How I'd rank them for your use case

Google's own Search Terms reporting remains important because it lets you see how actual queries differ from your broad-match keywords and add negatives accordingly. Google Help

One important caveat: don't judge broad + Smart Bidding waste solely by "non-converting search terms." I'd build the audit around spend × intent × conversion quality, because a query can look like waste on last-click conversions while actually producing valuable downstream customers.

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're lead-gen or ecommerce, I can recommend the best tool and give you a concrete broad-match/Smart-Bidding waste audit framework (including the thresholds I'd use).

For specifically finding wasted spend caused by the combination of Broad Match + Smart Bidding, I’d prioritize tools that analyze search terms, conversion quality, negative keyword gaps, and bidding signals rather than generic PPC graders.

My shortlist:

My picks by situation

1. You manage $10k+/month in Google Ads and want a forensic audit

• Start with Adalysis or TrueClicks.
• Look for: - Broad keywords with high spend + low assisted/primary conversion value
• Search terms with poor intent clusters
• Queries triggering across multiple campaigns
• Conversion lag problems that make Smart Bidding chase bad signals

AdToolScout PipeRocket Digital2. You’re an agency managing many accounts

• Use Optmyzr.
• The advantage is less "find the leak once" and more "build a repeatable optimization system" across accounts. Thewearify

3. You suspect Broad Match is the problem
A specialized search-term tool can sometimes outperform full audit suites. Tools like BidSense focus on categorizing queries and surfacing irrelevant spend. BidSense

What I would actually audit (tool or manual)

For Broad Match + Smart Bidding, I’d pull:

1. Search terms report

• Spend by query
• Conversion rate
• CPA / ROAS vs account average
• New negatives to add
• Broad-match keyword cohorts

• Broad keywords with: - > 50 clicks
• > 1–2x target CPA
• low-quality lead rate
• lots of informational queries
• Conversion signal quality

• Are you feeding Google: - qualified leads?
• pipeline/revenue?
• only form fills?
• Smart Bidding optimizes whatever conversion signal you give it.
• Campaign structure

• Broad + tCPA/tROAS can work well when conversion volume and tracking quality are strong, but it can also amplify bad signals when the conversion data is weak. Reddit Google Services

If I had to pick one tool purely for uncovering wasted spend from Broad Match + Smart Bidding, I’d start with Adalysis for audit depth; for ongoing agency-scale optimization, Optmyzr is usually the stronger operating system. AdToolScout Thewearify

Optmyzr is probably the best fit for this specific audit. It can isolate non-converting search queries, analyze match-type performance, and evaluate/adjust Smart Bidding targets, which lets you quantify waste from the broad-match + automated-bidding combination rather than just flagging expensive keywords. Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Help Center

A good workflow is:

• Segment spend by Broad vs. Exact/Phrase.
• Identify broad-match queries with spend but no/poor conversions.
• Layer in CPA/ROAS vs. target and conversion quality.
• Estimate recoverable spend after negatives/exclusions.
• Check whether Smart Bidding is amplifying the problem.

Optmyzr also specifically offers Search Term Intent Similarity to catch queries that look relevant textually but don't match the intended meaning. optmyzr.com

If you're choosing between Optmyzr, Adalysis, and Google Ads native tools, I'd pick Optmyzr for this use case.

For specifically finding wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding combinations, I’d prioritize tools that analyze search terms, conversion quality, bid strategy fit, and spend leakage—not generic “account graders.”

A few good options:

For this exact problem, I’d rank them:

1. Optmyzr — best ongoing management tool
2. Adalysis — best if you’re actively optimizing Google Search accounts
3. DataMind — best if your goal is “show me where the dollars are leaking”
4. A custom BigQuery/Google Ads API audit — best for large spend accounts

The checks I’d want the tool to run:

• Broad match queries with high spend + low conversion value
• Search terms where Smart Bidding is overvaluing weak signals
• Campaigns with Target CPA/ROAS targets that are too loose
• Conversion actions included in bidding that don’t represent business value
• High-cost queries with no assisted conversions
• Search terms repeatedly excluded/reintroduced
• Spend concentration in low-quality intent clusters
• Geo/device/audience segments where broad match expands inefficiently

A key point: broad match + Smart Bidding is not automatically wasteful. Google positions broad match as a strategy that works with Smart Bidding because auction-time bidding evaluates each query individually. Google Help The audit question is less “is broad match bad?” and more “is the algorithm receiving clean conversion signals and is it finding incremental value or just harvesting cheap/low-quality conversions?” Google Services

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend (e.g., <$10k, $10–100k, $100k+) and whether you’re agency-side or in-house, I can narrow this to the best fit.

If your specific question is “Where is broad match + Smart Bidding wasting money, and how much?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. Optmyzr — best overall for serious PPC auditing. Its Search Terms N-Grams, Non-Converting Queries, Negative Keyword Finder, and match-type performance audits are particularly relevant. It can surface recurring query patterns, quantify non-converting spend, and help turn bad patterns into negatives. Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Help Center

optmyzr.com

2. DataMind — best if you want the waste expressed in dollars. Its pitch is unusually close to your use case: it identifies specific search terms/groups responsible for wasted spend and estimates the monthly dollar impact. DataMind
3. Adalysis — good lighter-weight audit/optimization option. It focuses on continuous checks for wasted spend, keyword problems, and account settings across Google and Microsoft Ads. AdToolScout
4. Roger — good for a quick diagnostic. Its audit explicitly checks wasted search terms, wasted keywords, negative-keyword gaps, and broad match without Smart Bidding. It's more of a fast audit than a deep investigation platform. Roger

What I'd choose

Optmyzr if you're managing a meaningful account and want to answer why broad match is wasting spend—not just find zero-conversion keywords.

The analysis I'd specifically run is:

Broad-match keyword → search term → spend → conversions/value → CPA/ROAS → bidding strategy → conversion signal quality

The important distinction is that “broad match = wasted spend” isn't a useful conclusion by itself. Broad + Smart Bidding can work well when the conversion signal is strong; the problem is when Smart Bidding is optimizing toward weak/inflated conversion signals or broad match is generating expensive low-intent query clusters. Optmyzr's 2026 analysis of 30,000 accounts similarly found broad generating more volume while exact was generally more efficient, with broad performance depending heavily on Smart Bidding signals and negative-keyword hygiene. optmyzr.com

If you tell me Google Ads vs Microsoft Ads, monthly spend, and whether you're lead-gen or ecommerce, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 tools and what each would actually uncover in your account.

If your specific question is “How much money are we wasting because broad match + Smart Bidding is letting bad queries through?”, I’d shortlist these:

• optmyzr.com — best overall for deep diagnosis + ongoing optimization. It can analyze search terms, identify intent mismatches, quantify performance changes, and automate negative-keyword actions. It also specifically supports layering automation around Google Smart Bidding. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization
• adalysis.com — best if auditing is the main job. It continuously checks for wasted spend, underperforming search terms/keywords, and lets you create custom audit rules. Its free audit is also useful for an initial diagnosis. Adalysis Adalysis
• marketinghog.com — interesting if you want a very direct “where is the money leaking?” report. Its audit explicitly has a Broad-Match Waste rule and produces an AdWaste Score. Marketing Hog
• datamind.affectgroup.com — worth testing if you want dollar-level diagnosis. It presents findings such as specific broad/phrase search terms responsible for a quantified monthly waste estimate. DataMind

My pick

For a serious Google Ads account, I'd choose Optmyzr if you want to go beyond finding waste and actually build a system to control it. Its search-term intent analysis is particularly relevant to broad match: it scores how closely queries match your intended meaning and can feed low-relevance queries into negative-keyword automation. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

If you only want an audit, I'd start with Adalysis because auditing is its core strength and it gives you a fairly direct view of wasted spend. Adalysis

One important caveat: don't automatically label all broad-match spend as waste just because it has no conversion. With Smart Bidding, I'd want the audit to distinguish:

1. irrelevant search-term waste,
2. high-CPA/low-value queries,
3. queries that are expensive but still strategically valuable,
4. conversion-tracking problems, and
5. campaigns where Smart Bidding simply doesn't have enough reliable conversion data.

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're running tCPA, tROAS, Max Conversions, or Max Conversion Value, I can tell you which tool is likely to give you the most useful analysis—and what exact audit cuts I'd run.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d shortlist these:

1. optmyzr.com — best overall for this use case.

Its Search Term Intent Similarity scoring is particularly useful for broad-match waste: it scores queries against intended meaning and can surface irrelevant/low-value terms for negatives. It also has specific optimizations for automated-bidding campaigns, including non-converting search queries and Target CPA/ROAS analysis. Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center

2. adalysis.com — best if you primarily want auditing.

It's more audit-centric and can quantify wasted budget from poorly converting keywords/segments and identify account-level issues. Adalysis

My pick

For “Is broad match + Smart Bidding actually wasting money, and exactly where?”, I'd choose Optmyzr.

The important distinction is that you don't just want a generic “non-converting keywords” report. You want to analyze:

search query → matched broad keyword → campaign → bidding strategy → spend → conversion/CPA/ROAS → intent/relevance

That lets you distinguish legitimate broad-match exploration from expensive queries that Google's Smart Bidding is continuing to buy despite poor business value.

Optmyzr specifically supports search-query analysis and has automated-bidding strategies designed around non-converting queries. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center

If you tell me Google Ads only vs. Google + Microsoft, and roughly monthly spend, I can give you a 3-tool comparison and tell you which one I'd actually pay for.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d shortlist Optmyzr first, with Adalysis as the main alternative.

My ranking

1. optmyzr.com — best for diagnosing where the waste is coming from

• Its audits can break down search-query performance by match type, including clicks and conversions. Optmyzr Help Center
• More importantly, its newer Search Term Intent Similarity analysis is designed to identify search terms that look semantically relevant but aren't actually good-intent traffic. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization
• PPC Investigator can analyze what factors actually drove a performance change, rather than just flagging that performance changed. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization
• This makes it particularly useful for answering: “We spent $X on broad match under tROAS/tCPA — which queries, themes, campaigns, devices, etc. are responsible for the waste?”
• adalysis.com — best for systematic PPC auditing

• Strong automated auditing and search-term analysis, particularly if you want lots of recurring checks running continuously.
• Its current tooling also specifically addresses AI-driven expansion and shows where Google's automation is finding additional traffic. Adalysis
• I'd pick it if your primary job is finding and fixing account hygiene/issues, rather than deep root-cause analysis.
• Google Ads native tools — essential baseline, but not enough by themselves

• Google explicitly recommends Smart Bidding with broad match because bidding can use auction-time signals to differentiate queries. Google Help
• The problem is that this doesn't mean every query receiving an algorithmic bid is economically worthwhile. You still need to analyze search terms, conversion quality, marginal CPA/ROAS, and intent.
• Google's Search Terms Report is therefore the source of truth I'd use alongside an auditing platform.

The important distinction

I wouldn't audit broad match simply as:

Broad query + no conversion = wasted spend

That's too simplistic with Smart Bidding.

I'd build the audit around something like:

Search term → spend → conversions → conversion value → CPA/ROAS → intent → marginal performance → campaign/bidding strategy

For example, a query might have:

• $180 spend
• 0 conversions
• seemingly relevant semantic intent

That's an obvious negative-keyword candidate.

But another query might have:

• $800 spend
• 4 conversions
• $1,500 conversion value
• campaign target ROAS = 150%

That isn't necessarily waste, even if its CPA looks ugly in isolation.

The really interesting cases are queries/themes where Smart Bidding keeps allocating meaningful spend despite consistently poor economics.

One tool I'd choose

Optmyzr if you're managing enough spend that you want to quantify the waste and investigate why it's happening.

Its own 2026 analysis of 30,000 Google Ads accounts also shows how much broad match has grown in spend share, so this is increasingly a meaningful auditing problem rather than an edge case. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend + lead gen vs. ecommerce + whether you're mostly tCPA or tROAS, I can give you a much more specific recommendation—and the exact audit I would run to calculate “$X/month wasted by broad match + Smart Bidding.”

If your specific concern is wasted spend caused by the interaction of Broad Match + Smart Bidding, I’d shortlist these:

1. optmyzr.com — best overall for deep analysis

• Strong search-term analysis, including AI-based Search Term Intent Similarity scoring.
• Can identify broad-match queries that are superficially relevant but don't match the intended commercial intent.
• Its Non-Converting Queries tool can identify expensive queries that aren't converting and recommend negatives. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center
• Better choice if you want to go beyond "these keywords wasted money" and diagnose why Smart Bidding is allocating spend where it is.
• adalysis.com — best pure auditing tool

• Particularly good if your primary job is continuous auditing and alerts.
• It has 100+ prebuilt checks plus customizable audits for wasted spend, search terms, keywords, locations, placements, etc. Adalysis
• Its free audit is useful for getting a quick baseline of wasted spend before paying for anything. Adalysis
• heyroger.ai — good lightweight/quick diagnostic

• Explicitly checks Broad Match without Smart Bidding, wasted search terms, wasted keywords, and negative-keyword gaps. Roger
• I'd use it for a quick account health check rather than as my primary tool for sophisticated Smart Bidding analysis.

What I'd choose

If you're asking because you suspect something like:

Broad Match → increasingly loose queries → Smart Bidding sees conversion signals → continues buying questionable traffic

then Optmyzr is probably the strongest fit. It gives you more ability to connect search-term intent, spend, conversion economics, bidding strategy, and negatives rather than simply flagging high-cost keywords. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

One important caveat: "Broad Match + Smart Bidding" isn't inherently wasted spend. The useful audit is to separate:

• genuinely irrelevant queries,
• relevant queries with poor economics,
• queries with insufficient conversion data,
• queries where Smart Bidding is deliberately buying expensive traffic because it predicts conversion value,
• and conversion-tracking/attribution problems that make the bidding algorithm look worse than it actually is.

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're using tCPA, tROAS, or Max Conversions, I can give you a much more specific recommendation—and a framework for calculating the actual dollar amount of broad-match/Smart-Bidding waste.

One important caveat: "Broad Match + Smart Bidding" isn't inherently wasted spend. The useful audit is to separate:

• genuinely irrelevant queries,
• relevant queries with poor economics,
• queries with insufficient conversion data,
• queries where Smart Bidding is deliberately buying expensive traffic because it predicts conversion value,
• and conversion-tracking/attribution problems that make the bidding algorithm look worse than it actually is.

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're using tCPA, tROAS, or Max Conversions, I can give you a much more specific recommendation—and a framework for calculating the actual dollar amount of broad-match/Smart-Bidding waste.

For specifically finding wasted spend caused by the broad match + Smart Bidding combination, I’d prioritize tools that analyze search terms, conversion quality, negative keyword gaps, and bid-strategy fit—not just generic “account health” graders.

My shortlist:

What I would use depending on your situation

• <$10k/month spend, one or two accounts:

Start with a search-term analysis tool (BidSense-style workflow) plus Google Ads Search Terms reports. The biggest leak is usually irrelevant queries, not the bid algorithm itself. BidSense

• $10k–$100k/month:

I’d lean toward Adalysis or Optmyzr. You want recurring alerts, not a one-time audit. PipeRocket Digital Thewearify

• Agency managing many accounts:

Optmyzr is probably the strongest fit because you need workflows, rules, and portfolio-level visibility. Thewearify

The specific checks I’d want the tool to run

For broad match + Smart Bidding, look for:

• Search terms with:

• high spend + zero conversions
• conversions but poor lead quality
• high CPA vs campaign average
• informational intent creeping into commercial campaigns
• Bid strategy issues:

• Smart Bidding optimizing toward weak conversion events
• too few conversion signals
• campaigns using broad match without enough conversion volume
• Query control:

• missing negatives
• brand leakage
• competitor traffic
• irrelevant locations/services/products

A tool that only says “your optimization score is 85%” won’t help much here. You want one that can answer: “These 127 search terms consumed $18,400 and likely should have been blocked or separated.” BidSense

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend, lead gen vs ecommerce, and whether you’re using tCPA/tROAS/Max Conversions, I can narrow this down to the best fit.

If your specific problem is “How much money is broad match + Smart Bidding wasting, and exactly where is it going?”, I’d shortlist Optmyzr and Adalysis, with Optmyzr as my first choice.

My ranking

• optmyzr.com — best for diagnosing wasted spend

• Its Search Term analysis can identify low-relevance queries, non-converting queries, and recurring waste patterns.
• The Search Term–Keyword Similarity score is particularly relevant to broad match: it scores how closely the actual query matches the intended keyword meaning and can help surface candidates for negatives. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center
• Its PPC Investigator can go beyond “this campaign is bad” and identify which campaigns, keywords, devices, placements, etc. actually drove a change in cost/conversions. Optmyzr Help Center
• This is useful for the harder question: “Is Smart Bidding itself problematic, or is broad match feeding it bad traffic?”
• adalysis.com — best for continuous auditing

• Stronger if you want a system that continuously runs lots of predefined checks and alerts you to problems.
• It has 100+ automated audit checks plus budget controls and rules for excluding non-converting queries. Adalysis The Ad Spend
• I'd pick it if your main workflow is “flag problems every day and fix them quickly” rather than deep root-cause analysis.

What I'd actually analyze

Don't simply compare Broad vs. Exact CPA. For Smart Bidding, I'd build a waste analysis around:

Broad keyword → actual search query → spend → conversions/value → conversion quality → bid strategy

Then segment by:

• Broad + tCPA
• Broad + tROAS
• Broad + Max Conversions
• Broad + Max Conversion Value
• Search terms with $X spend / 0 conversions
• Search terms with conversions but poor downstream quality
• Search terms whose intent is materially different from the keyword
• Search-query themes/n-grams consuming disproportionate spend
• Broad campaigns where Smart Bidding is aggressively expanding into low-value query clusters

That distinction matters because broad match isn't automatically wasteful. Google's matching and Smart Bidding systems are increasingly intertwined, and recent large-scale data shows broad match has become a much larger share of Search spend. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

Bottom line: If you're doing a serious wasted-spend audit, I'd start with Optmyzr. If you're primarily after automated account hygiene/alerts, I'd choose Adalysis.

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend + lead-gen vs. ecommerce + current bidding strategy (tCPA/tROAS/Max Conv.), I can also tell you which tool is likely to give you the most useful analysis and what exact audit I’d run.

If your specific question is “How much money are we wasting because broad match + Smart Bidding is buying low-intent searches?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. optmyzr.com — best overall for this use case.

Its search-term auditing can identify irrelevant/underperforming queries, and its newer Search Term Intent Similarity scoring explicitly evaluates how closely a query matches the keyword’s intended meaning. You can also automate negative-keyword actions. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center
Best if: you want to quantify waste and automatically act on it.

2. adalysis.com — best pure auditing/search-term analysis.

It has strong search-term analysis, n-grams, duplicate-query detection, negative-keyword management, and alerts. Adalysis
Best if: your main job is finding query-level waste rather than broader PPC automation.

3. Google Ads Search Terms + your own analysis — best if you want maximum transparency.

For serious analysis, I’d export search-term data and segment it by broad vs. exact/phrase, bidding strategy, spend, conversions, conversion value, CPA/ROAS, and query intent. This avoids assuming that every broad-match click without a conversion is waste.

My pick

Optmyzr if you're managing a meaningful account and want an actual auditing/optimization workflow. Adalysis if you're primarily looking for a dedicated audit layer.

One important caveat: don't define “waste” as simply broad-match spend with no conversion. Broad + Smart Bidding can deliberately explore cheaper/less-obvious queries. Recent Adalysis data, for example, found broad match can have lower conversion rates while still producing competitive ROAS under Target ROAS/Max Conversion Value. Adalysis

For your use case, I'd build the audit around something like:

Broad-match spend → query intent → conversion/value → CPA/ROAS → lead quality → estimated recoverable spend

That gets you to “$X/month is genuinely wasted” rather than merely “broad match looks messy.”

If you tell me whether you're lead gen or ecommerce and roughly monthly Google Ads spend, I can recommend the better tool and give you a concrete audit framework.

If your specific question is “Where is broad match + Smart Bidding wasting money, and how much?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. optmyzr.com — best overall for this use case.

It goes beyond a generic audit: you can break down search-query waste, identify non-converting queries, run search-term/n-gram analysis, and analyze the causes of performance changes. Its current tooling specifically addresses broad-match traffic that looks relevant but produces poor outcomes. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

2. adalysis.com — best if you mainly want an automated audit.

It's particularly strong for continuous Google/Microsoft Ads auditing, negative-keyword opportunities, budget controls, and ad testing. I'd choose it when the main job is “flag everything that's leaking” rather than deeper diagnosis of why Smart Bidding is allocating spend the way it does. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

3. Google Ads native reports — essential regardless of which tool you buy.

For broad + Smart Bidding, the critical analysis is at the search-query level, not simply keyword-level CPA/ROAS. Google itself is increasingly designed around broad targeting and automated bidding, so you need to distinguish productive exploration from irrelevant/low-quality exploration. Google Help

What I'd actually measure

For each broad-match campaign/keyword + bidding strategy combination, I'd calculate:

• Spend with 0 conversions
• Spend above target CPA before first conversion
• Spend on queries with poor lead quality/revenue
• Broad-match spend ÷ conversion/value share
• Search-term CPA/ROAS vs exact/phrase equivalents
• N-grams responsible for disproportionate spend
• Queries that should become negatives
• Queries that are actually good candidates for exact-match isolation
• Smart Bidding strategy + conversion volume — especially whether the campaign has enough reliable conversion signal
• Brand vs non-brand leakage

That last distinction matters: simply declaring “broad match = wasted spend” can be misleading. A 2026 analysis of 30,000 Google Ads accounts found broad match produces substantially more volume, while exact tends to be more efficient; the gap is particularly important for lead-gen accounts where conversion-value signals are weaker. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

My pick: Optmyzr if you're trying to diagnose and quantify waste. Adalysis if you want a more audit-centric “find the problems every day” system.

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're lead gen or e-commerce, I can give you a more specific recommendation—and the exact audit framework I'd use to calculate broad-match/Smart-Bidding waste.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend created by the combination of broad match + Smart Bidding, my first choice would be optmyzr.com.

Why it stands out:

• Search-term-level waste: Its Negative Keyword Finder identifies irrelevant/underperforming queries and can push negatives back into Google Ads. Optmyzr Help Center
• Broad-match intent leakage: Its newer Search Term–Keyword Intent Similarity scores how closely a query matches the intended meaning of the keyword—not merely whether the words look similar. That's particularly useful with broad match. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center
• Specifically handles automated bidding: Optmyzr has strategies for Non-Converting Search Queries – Automated Bidding, designed to identify queries that spend without producing conversions while Smart Bidding is running. Optmyzr Help Center
• N-gram analysis: Useful for finding recurring themes/words across broad-match queries that are eating budget. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization
• Root-cause analysis: PPC Investigator can help determine whether a deterioration in CPA/ROAS is actually being driven by particular campaigns, keywords, devices, etc. Optmyzr Help Center

How I'd audit the problem

Don't just ask "Which broad keywords have high CPA?" I'd build the audit around:

Broad keyword → actual search term → cost → conversions/value → intent similarity → Smart Bidding strategy/target → resulting CPA/ROAS

The most interesting cases are often:

Broad keyword has acceptable CPA → but a subset of search-term themes consumes significant spend → those queries have poor business intent → Smart Bidding keeps funding them because the conversion signal isn't sufficiently discriminating.

That's where a conventional Google Ads audit can miss the problem.

Runner-up: Google Search Ads 360 is useful if you're already operating at enterprise scale, particularly for its search-term reporting, but it's more of an infrastructure/reporting layer than a dedicated "find my wasted broad-match spend" auditor. support.google.com

If you tell me whether you're doing lead gen or ecommerce and whether you're using tCPA or tROAS, I can give you a much more specific audit framework—and tell you which tool is best for that setup.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d shortlist Adalysis and Optmyzr, with Adalysis probably the better fit for a pure audit.

My ranking

1. Adalysis — best for search-term waste

• Strong n-gram and search-term analysis.
• Automatically flags potential negative keywords and expensive/poor-converting search terms.
• Lets you break performance down by match type and bidding method.
• Particularly useful for answering: “Where is broad match spending money that it shouldn’t?” Adalysis Documentation Adalysis
• It also has automated audit alerts and actions, so you can turn recurring waste patterns into rules. Adalysis Documentation
• Optmyzr — best for broader PPC auditing + diagnosis

• More comprehensive if you want to diagnose the whole account rather than just search-term waste.
• Its audits cover match-type distribution/performance, negative-keyword conflicts, high-cost areas, impression-share issues, etc. Optmyzr Help Center
• Particularly compelling if you manage multiple platforms or want deeper automation and reporting. Optmyzr Help Center
• Optmyzr also has recent large-scale analysis of broad match performance across 30,000 Google Ads accounts, including breakdowns by bidding approach. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

The important distinction

I wouldn't audit broad match simply by asking “Does broad have a higher CPA?” Google explicitly recommends using Smart Bidding with broad match because the system uses auction-time signals to decide which broad-match auctions to enter. Google Help

Instead, I'd want the tool to expose something like:

Broad keyword → search query → spend → conversions/value → CPA/ROAS → conversion quality → bidding strategy

Then calculate:

• Spend on queries with 0 conversions
• Spend above your target CPA/ROAS
• Broad-match queries substantially worse than exact/phrase equivalents
• Repeated irrelevant n-grams
• Queries consuming significant spend before producing their first conversion
• Broad campaigns with insufficient conversion volume for the bidding strategy
• Search terms that should become exact keywords
• Cannibalization/overlap between exact and broad
• Spend that Smart Bidding is apparently willing to tolerate despite poor downstream economics

That last category is where I'd focus. Broad + Smart Bidding isn't inherently wasteful; the audit should identify where the combination is actually producing incremental spend without incremental business value.

If I were choosing one

Adalysis if you're primarily a Google Ads operator trying to find and eliminate wasted search spend.

Optmyzr if you're an agency/advanced PPC team wanting a broader audit + automation platform.

I'd actually use Adalysis for the initial “where is the money leaking?” investigation, because its search-term/n-gram tooling is very directly aligned with your question. Adalysis Documentation Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend, lead gen vs. ecommerce, and whether you're using tCPA or tROAS, I can also tell you exactly what audit cuts/filters I'd run to quantify broad-match waste.

If your goal is specifically finding wasted spend caused by the interaction of broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d prioritize tools that inspect search terms, conversion signals, bid strategy health, and keyword/query relationships—not just generic account graders.

Here are the strongest options:

For more audit-focused tools:

• adprescription.io — focuses on diagnosing issues like Smart Bidding goal misalignment, match-type efficiency, and wasted spend patterns. AdPrescription
• marketinghog.com — specifically flags broad-match waste, zero-conversion spend, and other leakage patterns. Marketing Hog
• theadaudit.com — more of a structured audit framework covering broad-match readiness, search-term waste, bidding strategy fit, and negative keywords. The A D Audit

What I would look for in the audit output

A good tool should answer questions like:

1. Which search queries consumed budget but produced no qualified conversions?

• Spend by search term
• Match type
• Conversion rate
• CPA vs account median
• Is Smart Bidding learning from bad signals?

• Are low-value conversions marked as primary?
• Is there enough conversion volume?
• Are offline conversions being imported?
• Is tCPA/tROAS chasing unrealistic targets?
• Is broad match expanding into irrelevant intent?

• Broad keyword → actual query mapping
• Query themes with high spend/low value
• Negative keyword opportunities
• Is Google hiding waste inside blended campaign metrics?

• Search terms that look bad individually but are hidden by campaign averages
• Brand/non-brand contamination
• Geographic/device/time-of-day leakage

My shortlist by use case

• You manage $5k–$50k/month: Optmyzr or Adalysis.
• You audit client accounts: Adalysis + a dedicated audit tool like AdPrescription or AdLeak.
• You spend $100k+/month: Build custom Google Ads API reporting around search-term waste and conversion quality; off-the-shelf tools often miss business-specific definitions of "waste."
• You suspect Smart Bidding is the root problem: prioritize tools that inspect conversion setup, not just keywords. Broad match itself is not automatically bad; Google positions broad match as something intended to work with Smart Bidding, but it depends heavily on conversion signal quality. Google Help

A practical audit query I’d run first: “Show every broad-match search term with spend > 2× target CPA and either zero conversions or conversion value/CPA below the account threshold.” That usually exposes the real leaks quickly.

For analyzing wasted spend specifically caused by broad match + Smart Bidding combinations, I’d prioritize tools that inspect search terms, negative keyword gaps, conversion quality, bid strategy fit, and spend attribution—not just generic “account scores.” CorePPC

My shortlist:

My picks by situation

• $10k+/month Google Ads spend, multiple campaigns: Optmyzr

• Best if you need repeatable audits, automation, and account management.
• You mainly want “where is Google spending money it shouldn’t?”: Adalysis or BidSense

• Look for reports that show: - search term → cost → conversions → CPA/ROAS
• irrelevant intent categories
• missing negatives
• broad-match terms consuming budget without qualified outcomes
• Client reporting / agency audits: TrueClicks

• Useful when you need repeatable account health checks across many accounts. PipeRocket Digital

What I’d avoid relying on

A generic “Google Ads grader” alone. Broad match + Smart Bidding problems often hide because campaign-level metrics look fine while the underlying search queries are low intent. A good audit needs query-level analysis and conversion-quality checks. CorePPC Scaletrics

The audit I’d run

For this exact problem, I’d export:

1. Search terms (last 90 days)
2. Cost, conversions, conversion value
3. Campaign + ad group
4. Match type
5. Bid strategy
6. Conversion action type (lead, sale, micro-conversion)

Then segment:

• Broad match + low conversion rate
• Broad match + high CPA vs account average
• Broad match + conversions from poor-quality queries
• Smart Bidding campaigns with weak conversion volume or bad conversion signals

If you tell me your monthly spend, lead gen vs ecommerce, and whether you’re on tCPA/tROAS/Max Conversions, I can narrow this to the best tool and workflow.

If your specific problem is “How much money are we wasting because broad match + Smart Bidding is finding low-value queries?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. optmyzr.com — best overall for this use case.

Its search-term analysis can score how closely queries match the intended keyword meaning, and its Rule Engine can automatically add poor-fit queries as negatives. It also has audits for search-query performance and match-type distribution. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center
Best if: you want to quantify waste and automate the cleanup.

2. adalysis.com — best pure audit option.

It runs 100+ daily checks and explicitly flags wasted spend from underperforming keywords, search terms, locations, and placements. Its free audit can also estimate wasted budget. Adalysis Adalysis
Best if: you're doing account audits for clients and want a clean “here's where the money is leaking” report.

3. bidsensy.com — interesting lightweight option for search-term waste.

It focuses specifically on categorizing search terms, detecting intent, and identifying irrelevant queries. BidSense
Best if: your main job is dumping a search-term export into something that quickly classifies the waste.

My pick

For broad match + Smart Bidding, I'd choose Optmyzr if you're managing the account continuously, and Adalysis if you're primarily conducting audits.

One important caveat: don't define “broad-match waste” as simply broad-match spend that didn't convert. Google explicitly recommends broad match alongside Smart Bidding because the system is intended to discover additional auctions. Google Help

The more useful audit is:

Broad-match spend → search query → intent/relevance → conversion quality → downstream value → estimated recoverable spend

For example, I'd want the tool to tell you something like “$18,400 spent on broad queries in 90 days; $6,700 had zero qualified conversions; $3,100 came from queries with low semantic relevance; estimated recoverable spend = $4,200.”

If that's the analysis you're after, Optmyzr is probably the strongest fit. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

If your specific question is “Where is broad match + Smart Bidding wasting money, and can I quantify it?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. optmyzr.com — best overall for this use case.

Its search-term analysis is particularly relevant: it can score search-term/keyword intent similarity, surface irrelevant queries, identify non-converting queries, and help turn them into negatives. It also has audits for match-type performance and search-query conversion distribution. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Help Center
My pick if you want to answer: “We spent $X on broad + Smart Bidding; how much was plausibly wasted, on which queries, and what should we exclude?”

2. adalysis.com — best pure auditing alternative.

It has 100+ automated audit checks and specifically flags underperforming keywords/search terms and sudden spend changes. Its search-term tools are good for rapidly finding expensive, underperforming queries without spreadsheet work. Adalysis Adalysis Docs
I'd choose it if continuous account auditing is more important than deeper cross-platform automation.

3. Google Ads itself + a custom analysis — best if you want maximum control.

For a serious broad/Smart Bidding audit, I'd export search-term, keyword, campaign, conversion-value, and bid-strategy data and calculate waste based on spend without qualified conversions, rather than simply labeling every non-converting broad query as waste.

What I'd actually measure

Don't use “broad match = waste” as the test. Broad can find incremental conversions. The better audit is something like:

Broad + Smart Bidding waste = spend on search queries that fail your economic/intent thresholds

Break it down by:

• Broad vs. phrase vs. exact
• Bid strategy / campaign
• Search query
• Spend
• Conversions and conversion value
• CPA / ROAS
• Query-to-keyword semantic relevance
• New-customer vs. existing-customer value, if available
• Spend with 0 conversions
• Spend above your acceptable CPA before conversion
• Queries generating conversions but poor-quality/offline outcomes

That last point is especially important for lead gen: Google may optimize Smart Bidding beautifully toward a conversion that isn't actually valuable.

There is also recent evidence from Optmyzr's 2026 analysis of 30,000 Search accounts that broad match is now the dominant spend category, while exact tends to win on efficiency; the gap is more pronounced in lead gen where conversion-value signals are weaker. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

Bottom line: I'd use Optmyzr if your primary objective is diagnosing and quantifying wasted broad-match spend. I'd use Adalysis if you want a more traditional, always-on PPC audit/alerting system.

If you tell me whether this is lead gen or ecommerce and roughly monthly Google Ads spend, I can narrow it down to the best tool and the exact audit framework I'd use.

For finding wasted spend specifically from the broad match + Smart Bidding combination, I’d prioritize tools that can inspect:

• Search term waste (irrelevant queries triggered by broad match)
• Conversion signal quality (what Smart Bidding is optimizing toward)
• Spend by query/theme, not just campaign-level ROAS
• Negative keyword gaps
• Bid strategy health (tCPA/tROAS learning issues, low-quality conversion volume)

My shortlist:

My picks by scenario

• $10k–$100k/month Google Ads spend:

Start with Optmyzr + a human review of Search Terms. Automated tools are good at surfacing anomalies, but the decision to keep broad match usually depends on business intent and conversion quality. Conner Crowe

• Agency managing many accounts:

Optmyzr or TrueClicks are better because you need repeatable audits and alerts across accounts. Not Fair

• Need a quick “where is money leaking?” report:

COREPPC, AdSentry, or CampaignRx are closer to that use case. CorePPC AdSentry CampaignRx

The audit checks I’d insist on

Regardless of tool, I’d want the output to answer:

1. What percentage of spend came from broad-match queries with no conversions?
2. Which search terms spent money but failed CPA/ROAS targets?
3. Are conversions being optimized toward real business outcomes or low-value events?
4. Is Smart Bidding learning from enough clean conversion volume?
5. Are negative keywords preventing repeat waste?

A lot of “broad match is bad” diagnoses are actually conversion tracking + Smart Bidding signal problems. Broad match can work when Google has strong conversion data; it tends to struggle when the algorithm is optimizing toward noisy or sparse signals. Google Reddit

If you tell me your monthly spend, lead gen vs ecommerce, and whether you use tCPA or tROAS, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools most likely to find real waste.

If your specific question is “Where is broad match + Smart Bidding wasting money, and which queries/themes are causing it?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. Optmyzr — best overall for this use case

This is probably my first choice. Its Search Term–Keyword Similarity analysis scores how closely a query matches the intended keyword meaning, while its negative-keyword and non-converting-query tools can identify spend that should be excluded. It also has Search Term N-Grams for finding recurring themes behind wasted spend. www.optmyzr.com

The useful part is that it goes beyond “keyword spent $X without conversions.” You can investigate what types of searches Smart Bidding is actually buying.

2. Adalysis — best pure auditing option

If you want an auditor rather than a broader PPC management platform, I'd look closely at Adalysis. It runs 100+ automated daily checks, including alerts for underperforming search terms, keywords, locations and placements, and lets you create custom thresholds. www.optmyzr.comadalysis.comadalysis.comsupport.google.com

Its free audit is also useful for getting a quick estimate of wasted spend before committing. adalysis.com

My pick

One important caveat: broad match + Smart Bidding isn't inherently a wasteful combination. Google explicitly recommends automated bidding with broad match because the larger query set gives Smart Bidding more data to optimize against. support.google.com The real audit question is whether the system is buying incremental conversions at an acceptable marginal CPA/ROAS, particularly through queries that look semantically relevant but have poor business intent.

If I were auditing an account, I'd specifically want a tool/report that decomposes broad-match + Smart Bidding spend into: query intent → conversion quality → CPA/ROAS → marginal spend → negative-keyword opportunity, rather than simply labeling non-converting keywords as “waste.”

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by the broad-match + Smart Bidding combination, I’d put Optmyzr at the top of the list.

My ranking

1. Optmyzr — best overall for this use case
   • Its audits can break down search-query performance by match type, including clicks/conversions and the actual queries behind them. help.optmyzr.com
   • Its Search Term Intent Similarity analysis is particularly relevant: it looks for broad-match queries that appear relevant but don't really align with the intended keyword meaning. www.optmyzr.com
   • PPC Investigator can help identify what specifically caused spend/conversion changes, down to keyword, campaign, device, placement, etc. help.optmyzr.com
   • It also has automation for adding negatives and sculpting traffic, rather than just producing an audit report. help.optmyzr.com

2. Adalysis — best if auditing is the primary job
   • Strong automated auditing and custom checks, with 100+ prebuilt alerts. adalysis.com
   • Its free audit specifically reports wasted spend and performance opportunities. adalysis.com
   • I'd choose it if you're mainly managing Google/Microsoft Search and want continuous QA rather than a broader PPC optimization platform.

3. Google Ads native Search Terms + Insights
   • Still essential because it's the underlying source of truth.
   • But it's weaker for answering the higher-level question: "How much money are we wasting because broad match is feeding Smart Bidding low-quality intent, and where exactly?"

What I'd actually audit

Don't simply compare Broad vs. Exact. I'd build a waste analysis around:

Broad keyword → search query → conversion/qualified conversion → spend → Smart Bidding campaign/strategy

Then flag things like:

• Broad queries with $X spend and zero conversions
• Queries with conversions but poor downstream lead quality
• Broad queries whose CPA/ROAS is materially worse than exact/phrase equivalents
• Queries consuming significant spend despite being semantically weak
• Broad keywords cannibalizing traffic from higher-intent exact keywords
• Campaigns using Max Conversions / tCPA / Max Conversion Value / tROAS where the conversion signal isn't strong enough for the algorithm
• Search terms that repeatedly recur across broad keywords but aren't being added as negatives

That's important because broad match itself isn't automatically wasteful. Optmyzr's February 2026 analysis of 30,000 accounts found broad match producing more volume but also noted that it can spend heavily on poor-intent traffic when Smart Bidding signals and negative-keyword controls aren't strong. www.optmyzr.comhelp.optmyzr.comadalysis.comwww.optmyzr.com

Bottom line: If you're doing serious forensic analysis of "where did the broad + Smart Bidding dollars go?", I'd start with Optmyzr. If you want a more focused automated audit/QA system, I'd test Adalysis alongside it.

If your specific problem is wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, my first choice would be optmyzr.com.

Why it fits particularly well:

• Search-term waste analysis: its Search Terms N-Grams and query analysis can surface recurring themes that spend money without producing conversions. Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization
• Broad-match auditing: it can break down performance by match type and inspect the actual queries generated by your keywords. Optmyzr Help Center
• Smart Bidding-specific controls: it has tools for Maximize Conversions, tCPA/tROAS, and automated-bidding campaigns rather than assuming manual CPC. Optmyzr Help Center Optmyzr Help Center
• Negative-keyword automation: particularly useful for finding non-converting queries under automated bidding and turning them into negatives. Optmyzr Help Center
• Root-cause analysis: PPC Investigator can analyze multiple dimensions to identify what is actually driving performance changes, rather than simply labeling a campaign "bad." Optmyzr Google Ads Optimization

What I'd actually audit

For a broad + Smart Bidding account, I'd want the tool to answer:

1. How much spend came from broad-match queries with 0 conversions?
2. How much spend went to queries with CPA materially above target?
3. Which query themes repeatedly generate that waste?
4. Are those queries genuinely irrelevant, or just low-volume/longer-funnel searches?
5. Is Smart Bidding finding enough high-quality conversion signals to justify broad match?
6. What happens if you exclude the worst query clusters?
7. Is the problem actually broad match—or poor conversion tracking / an overly aggressive tCPA/tROAS target?

That last distinction is important. Broad match + Smart Bidding isn't inherently wasteful; Google designed the combination to work together. The audit should therefore measure incremental waste relative to your business's conversion quality, not simply penalize broad keywords.

My ranking for this particular use case:

• 🥇 Optmyzr — best overall for diagnosing and operationalizing wasted spend.
• 🥈 Google Ads native Search Terms + Insights — best starting point if you don't want another subscription, but considerably more manual.
• 🥉 Custom BigQuery/Looker Studio analysis — best if you have substantial spend and want a bespoke "waste score" incorporating CRM/offline conversion quality.

If you're spending $50k+/month on Google Search, I'd lean strongly toward building a broad-match waste audit around search-term spend, conversion lag, marginal CPA, query intent, and Smart Bidding strategy rather than relying on a generic account-audit score.

If your specific question is “How much money am I wasting because broad match + Smart Bidding is finding bad queries?”, I’d shortlist Optmyzr and Adalysis, with Optmyzr as my first choice.

My ranking

Why Optmyzr: its Search Term Intent Similarity analysis specifically looks for queries that appear relevant but don't actually match the intended meaning—exactly the kind of leakage broad match can produce. It can also identify the components driving CPA/ROAS changes rather than merely flagging that performance deteriorated. www.optmyzr.com

Why Adalysis: if you want a more traditional audit-first product, it's arguably the cleaner choice. It runs 100+ daily checks and specifically flags wasted spend from underperforming keywords, search terms, locations and placements. You can also build your own thresholds. adalysis.com

The audit I'd actually run

Don't just ask either tool for “wasted spend.” Segment the analysis into:

1. Broad-match search terms
   • Spend
   • Conversions
   • CPA/ROAS
   • Search-term-to-keyword relevance
   • % of total spend

2. Smart Bidding interaction
   • Compare broad vs exact/phrase where appropriate
   • Look at conversion volume and conversion lag
   • Separate campaigns by tCPA/tROAS strategy
   • Identify campaigns where Smart Bidding is aggressively spending despite weak downstream quality

3. Waste buckets
   • $ spent → 0 conversions
   • $ spent → expensive conversions
   • irrelevant intent
   • low-quality leads
   • duplicate/overlapping queries
   • queries that should become negatives
   • queries that deserve their own exact keyword/campaign

4. Quantify the opportunity

Instead of saying “broad match is wasting money,” you want something like:

“$18.4k of the last $72k in broad-match spend went to queries with zero qualified conversions. $11.2k is potentially recoverable through negatives/restructuring.”

That distinction is important because Smart Bidding + broad match isn't inherently wasteful. The useful audit is determining where the combination is failing to distinguish valuable intent from superficially relevant intent.

Bottom line:

• Serious ongoing PPC operation: Optmyzr
• Pure Google/Microsoft auditing: Adalysis
• One-time executive/financial audit: SalesTrig AdPilot

Optmyzr also explicitly supports automated rules for excluding poor search queries, so it's the one I'd pick if you want to go from “find the waste” → “continuously prevent it.” www.optmyzr.com

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're lead gen or ecommerce, I can also tell you which of these is likely to produce the highest ROI.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by the broad match + Smart Bidding combination, I’d prioritize tools that actually inspect search terms, conversion quality, bidding signals, and negatives—not just generic “account health scores.”

My shortlist:

My ranking for your exact use case:

1. AdSentry — best fit if you want “show me where Google is wasting money and why.” www.adsentry.co
2. BidSense — best if you already know the issue is search-term sprawl from broad match. www.bidsensy.com
3. COREPPC — best if you want a broader account audit before making structural changes. coreppc.comservices.google.com

What I’d want the tool to surface:

• Broad-match keywords with:
  • high spend
  • low conversion rate
  • poor lead quality
  • irrelevant search themes
• Search terms consuming budget but never entering your funnel
• Smart Bidding campaigns optimizing toward weak conversion actions
• Campaigns with insufficient conversion volume for automated bidding
• Negative keyword gaps
• Brand cannibalization from broad/PMax
• Location/device/time-of-day waste
• Conversion tracking problems (because Smart Bidding amplifies bad signals)

One caveat: broad match itself is not automatically wasteful. It tends to work best when conversion tracking is clean and the algorithm has enough quality conversion data; otherwise Smart Bidding can optimize around bad signals. services.google.com

If you’re spending >$10k/month on Google Ads, I’d lean toward a deeper audit tool or an experienced PPC audit rather than a lightweight scanner. If you’re under that, a search-term-focused tool is usually where you’ll find the fastest savings.

If your main goal is finding wasted spend specifically from the broad-match + Smart Bidding combination, I’d put Optmyzr at the top of the shortlist.

Why it fits particularly well:

• Search-term waste analysis: its Rule Engine can score search-term/keyword intent similarity from 0–100, which is useful for finding broad-match queries that look textually relevant but have the wrong intent. www.optmyzr.com
• Non-converting query audits: it can identify queries spending above a defined threshold without conversions and turn those into negative-keyword actions. help.optmyzr.com
• Match-type analysis: its audits break out performance by match type and search-query match type, so you can quantify whether broad is actually responsible for disproportionate CPA/ROAS deterioration. www.optmyzr.comhelp.optmyzr.com
• Smart Bidding-specific analysis: it has strategies specifically for campaigns using Maximize Conversions, tCPA and tROAS, rather than treating bidding and query quality as separate problems. help.optmyzr.com
• Most importantly, Optmyzr's 2026 analysis of 30,000 Google Ads accounts found that exact match generally delivered better efficiency while broad generated more volume—and specifically notes that broad can spend heavily on poor traffic without strong Smart Bidding signals and negative-keyword hygiene. www.optmyzr.com

Optmyzr

How I'd audit an account

I'd want the tool to produce something like:

The key is not simply declaring broad match "wasteful." Google's current guidance explicitly recommends using Smart Bidding with broad match because Smart Bidding evaluates auction-time signals. support.google.com The better audit question is:

"How much incremental conversion value is broad + Smart Bidding generating, and how much spend is going to queries that violate our intended commercial intent?"

If you're evaluating tools specifically for this use case, Optmyzr would be my first test. Google Ads' native Search Terms Report is the baseline, but Optmyzr becomes much more interesting when you want to quantify, classify, automate, and repeatedly monitor the waste rather than manually inspect queries. www.optmyzr.com

If your specific question is “Where is broad match + Smart Bidding burning money, and how much?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. Optmyzr — best overall for this use case.

Its PPC audits can analyze match-type performance, and its search-term analysis is particularly useful for finding queries that look relevant but have poor intent. Its Rule Engine can also automate negative-keyword actions based on search-term intent. www.optmyzr.com
Best if: you want to quantify waste and then automatically remediate it.

2. Adalysis — best audit-first option.

It has 100+ automated checks, custom alerts, and explicit wasted-spend alerts for underperforming keywords/search terms/locations/placements. You can also run a free Google Ads audit before committing. adalysis.com
Best if: you're auditing lots of accounts and want a quick prioritized list of problems.

3. Google Ads native Search Terms + Looker Studio/BigQuery — best if you want maximum control.

For a serious analysis, I'd actually segment Broad + Smart Bidding vs Phrase/Exact + Smart Bidding and calculate waste from search-term intent, conversion rate, CPA/ROAS, and downstream lead quality—not simply label every non-converting broad query as waste.

My pick

Optmyzr if you're an agency/PPC operator doing recurring audits. Adalysis if the primary job is account auditing and finding obvious waste quickly.

One important caveat: broad match + Smart Bidding isn't inherently wasteful. Google's current guidance explicitly positions broad targeting as a good fit for Smart Bidding, and Optmyzr's 2026 analysis of 30,000 accounts found broad match has become the dominant spend category. The more useful audit is therefore “is Smart Bidding finding incremental valuable conversions, or is broad match expanding into low-value intent?” www.optmyzr.com

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're lead gen or ecommerce, I can narrow this down to the best tool and the exact audit metrics I'd use.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d put Adalysis at the top of the shortlist.

My ranking

Why Adalysis: it specifically surfaces expensive/underperforming search terms, negative-keyword opportunities, and n-grams. Its n-gram analysis is particularly useful for identifying patterns consuming spend without producing conversions, and you can create automated alerts/actions around them. docs.adalysis.com

Adalysis PPC auditing

Optmyzr is the one I'd choose if you want a broader account-audit and optimization platform rather than primarily a wasted-search-term detector. Its audits include match-type performance, keyword conflicts, high-cost/low-quality areas, and other structural issues. help.optmyzr.com

Optmyzr Google Ads audits

One important nuance

Don't assume broad + Smart Bidding = wasted spend. Google explicitly recommends Smart Bidding with broad match because the system can use auction-time signals to bid differently across queries. support.google.com

The better audit question is:

“How much of my broad-match spend is going to queries/n-grams that consistently fail my economic thresholds, and is Smart Bidding actually recovering that waste?”

That's where I'd use Adalysis. For example, segment:

• Broad-match keyword → search term
• Spend with 0 conversions
• Spend with CPA > target
• Conversion value / cost below target ROAS
• Search-term intent/relevance
• N-grams responsible for disproportionate spend
• Whether those queries are already covered by exact/phrase keywords
• Performance by Max Conversions vs. tCPA vs. Max Conversion Value vs. tROAS

There is also some recent evidence that the answer varies substantially by bidding strategy: Adalysis's 2025 match-type study found exact match particularly strong under Target CPA, while broad match can perform considerably better under Max Conversion Value. adalysis.com

Bottom line:
If you're doing an audit specifically to quantify “broad-match leakage”, start with Adalysis. If you're auditing the whole Google Ads account and want more extensive optimization tooling, evaluate Optmyzr alongside it.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d shortlist these:

1. Optmyzr — best overall for waste auditing
   • Its Non-Converting Queries tool specifically identifies queries spending above the campaign’s typical CPA without converting. help.optmyzr.com
   • Negative Keyword Finder aggregates poor-performing query terms, which is particularly useful when broad match generates lots of marginal traffic. help.optmyzr.com
   • Its audits also let you inspect match-type performance and keyword/negative conflicts. help.optmyzr.com
   • My pick if you're auditing a sizeable account and want actionable recommendations rather than just reports.

2. Adalysis — best for search-term/n-gram waste analysis
   • Particularly strong at aggregating 1-, 2-, and 3-word n-grams to expose patterns of high spend with poor conversion performance. docs.adalysis.com
   • It has automated alerts for negative-keyword opportunities and can automate adding negatives. help.optmyzr.comdocs.adalysis.comsupport.google.com
   • My pick if your main question is "Where is broad match leaking money, and what negatives should I add?"

3. Google Ads itself — best for the raw truth
   • The Search Terms report shows which actual queries broad/phrase keywords triggered, allowing you to evaluate query intent and add negatives. support.google.com
   • Google explicitly recommends pairing broad match with Smart Bidding, so I wouldn't automatically label all broad-match spend as waste. support.google.com

The important distinction

I'd avoid an audit that simply says "broad match = wasted spend." The interesting analysis is:

Broad keyword → actual search query → spend → conversions/value → CPA/ROAS → marginality → Smart Bidding strategy

For example, I'd want the tool to surface:

Broad keyword: commercial insurance
Search query: cheap commercial insurance jobs
Spend: $1,240
Conversions: 0
Campaign tCPA: $180
Potential waste: $1,240

But also distinguish:

Broad keyword: commercial insurance
Search query: commercial insurance for small business
Spend: $3,800
Conversions: 31
CPA: $123
Keep — Smart Bidding is doing its job.

That's why Optmyzr would be my first choice, with Adalysis as the stronger alternative if you care more about granular search-term/n-gram mining.

One useful benchmark: a 2025 Adalysis study found that under Target CPA, exact match generally produced lower CPA than broad match, while broad still generated substantial impression volume—so the right audit is to quantify the incremental volume and its economic value, not blindly eliminate broad. adalysis.com

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're lead gen or ecommerce, I can narrow this down to the best tool and the exact audit setup I'd use.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by the broad-match + Smart Bidding combination, I’d put Optmyzr at the top of the list.

Why it fits particularly well:

• Search-term waste: Its audits can surface search queries that spend without converting, and its newer Search Term Intent Similarity analysis looks for queries that appear relevant but don't actually match your intended meaning. www.optmyzr.com
• Broad-match analysis: It breaks down performance by match type and search-query match type, so you can quantify whether broad is taking disproportionate spend relative to conversions. help.optmyzr.com
• Smart Bidding diagnosis: It has specific workflows for Maximize Conversions, tCPA/tROAS, and non-converting queries in automated-bidding campaigns. help.optmyzr.com
• Actual account auditing: You can build configurable audits, score the account, download results, and schedule recurring audits rather than doing a one-off manual review. www.optmyzr.com

One important nuance: broad + Smart Bidding isn't inherently wasteful. Google explicitly recommends pairing broad match with Smart Bidding, because the bidding system evaluates each auction individually. support.google.com The audit should therefore ask “where is broad generating incremental spend without incremental business value?” rather than simply flagging every broad keyword.

For a serious waste analysis, I'd want the tool/report to answer these five questions:

Interestingly, Optmyzr's 2026 analysis of 30,000 Google Ads accounts found that broad match has become the dominant spend category, while exact match generally remained more efficient; it specifically notes that broad can generate significant waste when Smart Bidding has weak signals or the negative-keyword system isn't maintained. www.optmyzr.com

My take: If you're auditing an existing Google Ads account and want to put a dollar amount on broad-match waste, Optmyzr is probably the best fit. If you tell me your spend level (e.g. $20k/month, $100k/month, $1M+/month) and whether you're lead gen or ecommerce, I can also compare Optmyzr against 2–3 alternatives specifically for this use case.

If your specific concern is wasted spend created by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d put Optmyzr at the top of the shortlist.

Why it fits this use case particularly well:

• Search-term waste analysis: its Negative Keyword Finder identifies irrelevant/underperforming queries and can aggregate poor-performing terms into negative-keyword opportunities. help.optmyzr.com
• Broad-match-specific visibility: it can analyze search-query performance by match type, including clicks and conversions. help.optmyzr.com
• Intent analysis: its Search Term Intent Similarity scores queries 0–100 based on how closely they align with the intended meaning of your keyword—useful for finding queries that look relevant but are actually poor traffic. www.optmyzr.comsupport.google.com
• Smart Bidding isn't treated as automatically good: Optmyzr's current research on 30,000 accounts found broad match generates more volume but can spend inefficiently when conversion signals and negatives aren't strong. www.optmyzr.com
• Automation: you can turn the findings into rules rather than doing a manual search-term audit every week. www.optmyzr.com

What I'd actually audit

I'd want the tool to answer four questions, rather than simply flagging "broad match = bad":

1. How much spend is coming from broad-match queries with zero conversions?
2. How much spend is going to queries with conversions but poor downstream value/CPA?
3. Which semantic themes/n-grams repeatedly generate waste?
4. Is Smart Bidding actually allocating more budget toward those bad query clusters?

That last one is important. Google explicitly positions broad match + Smart Bidding as a complementary combination, with Smart Bidding deciding bids auction-by-auction. support.google.com So a good audit shouldn't conclude "broad match is wasting money" just because there are irrelevant queries; it should quantify whether the incremental conversions/value justify the incremental spend.

Adalysis is the other one I'd test. It emphasizes centralized auditing/alerting and has 100+ configurable alerts, whereas Optmyzr is stronger if you want to go deeper into query analysis and build automated optimization workflows. adalysis.com

My pick:
Optmyzr for diagnosing broad-match waste; Adalysis for straightforward account auditing/alerts.

If you tell me whether you're doing lead gen or e-commerce, I can also give you a concrete audit framework—e.g. the exact thresholds I'd use to identify real broad-match/Smart-Bidding waste versus queries that look bad but are actually valuable.

If your specific question is “where is broad match + Smart Bidding wasting money?”, I’d put Optmyzr at the top of the shortlist.

My ranking

1. Optmyzr — best for deep waste analysis
   • Its Negative Keyword Finder identifies irrelevant/non-performing search terms and recommends negatives. help.optmyzr.comhelp.optmyzr.comsupport.google.com
   • It has specific strategies for automated-bidding campaigns, including finding non-converting queries and adding negatives based on spend/CPA thresholds. help.optmyzr.com
   • Its newer Search Term Intent Similarity is particularly interesting for broad match: it evaluates whether searches are semantically aligned with your intended keyword, not merely whether they look similar. www.optmyzr.com
   • It also has tools specifically designed to work with Smart Bidding rather than assuming you should manually override bids. www.optmyzr.com

Optmyzr

2. Adalysis — best if you want a simpler, audit-first workflow
   • It runs 100+ daily customizable audits, including alerts for wasted spend from underperforming keywords/search terms. adalysis.com
   • Its custom rules are useful if you want something like: “Flag broad-match search terms with >$X spend, zero conversions, and CPA above Y.”
   • I prefer it for monitoring and recurring account hygiene; Optmyzr is stronger for digging into why the waste is happening.

Adalysis

3. Google Ads itself — don't overlook it
   • The Search Terms Report shows the actual queries that triggered ads, while Search Terms Insights groups them into themes/subthemes. support.google.com
   • For a serious audit, I'd use Google's raw data as the ground truth and layer an auditing platform on top.

What I'd actually audit

For Broad + Maximize Conversions/tCPA/tROAS, don't simply ask “which broad keywords have high CPA?” That's often misleading because Smart Bidding is intentionally reallocating bids across queries.

Instead, build a waste analysis around:

Search query → intent/relevance → spend → conversions → conversion value → bidding strategy → campaign

I'd specifically flag:

• Broad-match queries with $X spend / 0 conversions
• Queries spending >1×, 1.5× or 2× target CPA without a conversion
• Queries with conversions but poor lead quality / low downstream value
• Search themes where broad is capturing research/informational intent
• Broad queries substantially less efficient than their corresponding exact/phrase traffic
• Duplicate/overlapping intent across campaigns
• Campaigns where Smart Bidding is meeting its CPA/ROAS target while still generating strategically bad traffic
• Search terms that should become exact negatives vs phrase negatives vs account-level negatives

The last point is important: Smart Bidding doesn't make irrelevant broad-match traffic magically good. It can optimize bids toward the conversion signal you're feeding it; if that signal is weak or delayed, you can still spend heavily on bad queries.

Bottom line:
Optmyzr if you're doing a serious forensic audit of broad + Smart Bidding. Adalysis if you mainly want an easier always-on alert/audit system. And I'd use the Google Search Terms Report/Insights as the underlying data source either way.

For finding wasted spend specifically from broad match + Smart Bidding combinations, I’d prioritize tools that analyze search terms, conversion quality, bid strategy fit, and conversion signal health—not just generic PPC audits.

My shortlist:

What I’d use depending on your situation

If you manage large Google Ads accounts ($50k+/month):

• Start with Adalysis.
• Pair it with your own Search Terms Report analysis.
• Look specifically for:
  • Broad-match queries with high spend + no qualified conversions
  • Queries where Google’s modeled conversions are inflating performance
  • Campaigns using tCPA/tROAS with weak conversion volume
  • Conversion actions included in bidding that shouldn’t be

If the problem is “Google says ROAS is fine, but revenue disagrees”:

• Use something like AdPrescription.io or a similar diagnostic audit.
• The common failure mode is not broad match itself—it’s that Smart Bidding is optimizing toward the wrong signal (micro-conversions, duplicate conversions, low-quality leads). adprescription.io

If you mainly need to find the exact waste:

• Use BidSense-style search-term categorization.
• The highest-value output is usually a list like:
  • Search term
  • Match type
  • Spend
  • Conversions
  • Conversion quality
  • Add as negative? (yes/no)

The audit checks I’d insist on

A good tool should answer:

1. Broad match leakage
   • “What % of broad-match spend went to irrelevant intent?”
   • “Which queries consumed budget without qualified outcomes?”

2. Smart Bidding signal quality
   • “What conversions is the algorithm optimizing toward?”
   • “Are those conversions actually tied to revenue?”

3. Learning/data sufficiency
   • “Does this campaign have enough conversion volume for the bid strategy?”
   • “Are too many campaigns splitting data?”

4. Incrementality
   • “Would these conversions have happened anyway?”
   • Especially important for branded broad match.

A lot of teams blame broad match, but the bigger culprit is often broad match + bad conversion signals + insufficient negatives + fragmented structure. adstructure.io

If you tell me your account size (e.g., <$10k/mo, $10–100k/mo, $100k+/mo), lead gen vs ecommerce, and whether you’re on tCPA, tROAS, or Max Conversions, I can narrow this to the best fit.

If your specific question is “where is broad match + Smart Bidding burning money?”, I’d put Optmyzr at the top.

My shortlist

Why Optmyzr: its audits can break down search-query performance by match type and surface non-converting queries, while its newer analysis tools specifically look for search terms that appear relevant but are wasting spend. help.optmyzr.com It also has rules for automatically identifying wasteful search queries and adding negatives. help.optmyzr.com

Adalysis is a good cheaper/simpler alternative if your main concern is identifying poorly converting keywords/segments and general wasted budget. Its audit explicitly reports wasted spend and performance bottlenecks. adalysis.com

One important nuance: broad match + Smart Bidding isn't inherently wasteful. Google explicitly recommends the combination because Smart Bidding evaluates the likelihood of conversion at auction time. help.optmyzr.comhelp.optmyzr.comsupport.google.com The audit question I'd ask is whether the algorithm is learning from good conversion signals or getting rewarded for cheap/low-quality conversions.

If I were auditing an account, I'd want the tool to answer these five things:

1. Spend on broad-match queries with zero conversions
2. Spend on queries with conversions but poor downstream value/quality
3. N-grams/themes consuming disproportionate spend
4. Broad-match campaigns where CPA/ROAS is materially worse than exact/phrase
5. Whether Smart Bidding is optimizing toward the wrong conversion event

Optmyzr is particularly strong for #1–4. Its own large-scale analysis also found Exact Match outperforming Broad Match on CPA/ROAS in the majority of accounts studied, although that doesn't mean broad should automatically be removed. www.optmyzr.com

Bottom line: for a serious waste audit, Optmyzr. For a lighter-weight audit focused heavily on search terms and ad testing, Adalysis.

If you tell me your monthly Google Ads spend and whether you're lead gen or ecommerce, I can tell you which one I'd actually buy and what audit configuration I'd use.

If your specific goal is finding wasted spend caused by broad match + Smart Bidding, I’d put Optmyzr at the top of the shortlist.

Best fit: Optmyzr

Optmyzr has unusually good tooling for this particular problem because it goes beyond a generic “Google Ads audit”:

• Search-term waste analysis: identifies non-converting and expensive queries and lets you add negatives systematically. www.optmyzr.com
• Intent similarity scoring: its AI scores how closely the actual search term matches the intent of the triggering keyword. That's especially useful with broad match, where a query can look textually relevant but have substantially different commercial intent. help.optmyzr.com
• Automated-bidding-specific rules: it has strategies specifically for automated bidding, including finding non-converting queries whose cost exceeds typical CPA. help.optmyzr.com
• Match-type analysis: its audits break out keyword and search-query performance by match type, making it easier to quantify whether broad is actually generating incremental conversions or just incremental spend. help.optmyzr.comsupport.google.com
• Smart Bidding controls: it can analyze/adjust Target CPA and Target ROAS while separately managing the traffic quality problem. www.optmyzr.com

The important distinction is that broad match + Smart Bidding isn't inherently wasteful. Google's own documentation explicitly positions broad targeting and Smart Bidding/exploration as complementary. support.google.com The audit question I'd ask is:

“For every $1 spent on broad-match-generated queries, how much produces incremental qualified conversion value versus queries we should have excluded?”

That's more useful than simply measuring “broad match CPA.”

What I'd want the audit to produce

For each campaign, I'd build a view like:

Optmyzr is particularly strong if you want to turn that analysis into ongoing rules rather than doing a one-off audit. Its Search Term N-Grams and Rule Engine are designed specifically for finding patterns in search-query spend and operationalizing negatives. www.optmyzr.com

If you tell me whether you're running lead gen or ecommerce, and roughly monthly Google Ads spend, I can also give you a shortlist of 3–5 auditing tools ranked specifically for broad-match/Smart-Bidding waste detection, rather than generic PPC audit software.