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Paid Search Β· Free Calculator

Where is the ad budget
actually going?

Six numbers off your own account. No invented coefficients and no "unmanaged broad match wastes 43% of spend" β€” we show you arithmetic on your figures and separate what we can stand behind from what merely deserves a look.

From Your Ads Account
Last 30 days is fine. Nothing leaves your browser.
Leads or sales β€” whatever you count as a conversion.
For lead gen, use lead value: closing rate Γ— average deal.
Searches that include your company name.
Your own goal, not ours. Used to value the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Why there is no single waste number

!
You will have seen calculators that print one big scary figure. We deliberately do not, because getting to a single number requires assuming coefficients nobody can support β€” "broad match loses 34%", "branded search is 100% waste". Those are invented, and the first person who checks them against their own search-terms report stops trusting everything else on the page. So this splits into what is arithmetic and what is judgement, and labels which is which.

Arithmetic stands behind it

Spend on non-converting clicks is just CPC Γ— clicks that produced nothing. It is exact. It is also not all recoverable β€” no account converts every click β€” but it is the pool your negative keywords and landing-page work come out of, and it is the honest denominator for "how much room is there".

Judgement worth reviewing

Branded spend may or may not be waste β€” it depends entirely on whether competitors bid on your name and how much of that traffic you would keep organically. The only way to know is a controlled pause. Broad match without negatives is a real structural leak, but the share lost varies enormously by vertical. Both are shown separately and excluded from the headline.

The conversion-rate gap

Measured against your target, not an industry average. If you convert 2% and want 3%, the calculator values the extra conversions you would get from the clicks you are already buying. That is usually the largest single number on the page, and the one that has nothing to do with the ads.

What this cannot see

It has no access to your account, so it cannot name the specific search terms burning money, spot a broken conversion tag, or see impression share lost to budget. Those need the account itself. This tells you whether it is worth opening.

What to do with this result

Use the result to decide which campaigns to pause or restructure first, then see whether the economics hold with the LTV:CAC Calculator. Sending paid traffic to a weak page wastes the rest, so score the landing page with the Landing Page Friction Score. Our services and pricing page shows how we can help.

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