← Back to Blog
Optimization•November 20, 2025•6 min read

Stop Wasting Money on "Zombie" Keywords: How to Automate Negative Keyword Discovery

Humans are bad at scanning 1,000 search terms to find waste. AI agents are perfect at it. Here is how to set up an auto-cleaning agent.

Stop Wasting Money on "Zombie" Keywords: How to Automate Negative Keyword Discovery

"Zombie" keywords are the search terms that eat your budget without ever bringing you a conversion. They aren't obvious irrelevant terms (like "free" or "cracked"); they are subtle mismatches that look okay at a glance but kill your ROAS.

The Human Limit

Every week, a diligent media buyer downloads a "Search Terms Report." It contains thousands of rows.

You scan it.

  • "best running shoes" - Good.
  • "running shoes for flat feet" - Good.
  • "running shoes repair near me" - Bad. (Add to negatives).

The problem? You get tired. After row 50, your eyes glaze over. You miss things. And you only do this once a week at best. In the meantime, you're bleeding money.

AI Agents Don't Get Tired

This is the perfect use case for an AI Agent. An LLM can read 10,000 search terms in seconds and understand the intent behind every single query.

With Adspirer, you can set up an Automated Negative Keyword Audit.

The Workflow:

  1. Ingest: The agent pulls the last 30 days of search terms from Google Ads.
  2. Analyze: The agent analyzes each term against your "Ideal Customer Profile" and product offering.
  3. Filter: It identifies terms that are:
    • Informational: "how to fix..." (When you sell new products)
    • Competitor: "Nike alternatives" (If you don't want to bid on competitors)
    • Irrelevant: "cheap..." (If you are a luxury brand)
  4. Execute: The agent presents a list of 50 candidates for "Negative Keywords." You just say "Apply."

Real World Example

We ran this for a B2B SaaS client selling "Project Management Software."

The Human Audit: Found 12 negative keywords in 30 minutes. The AI Audit: Found 143 negative keywords in 2 minutes.

The AI found subtle waste like:

  • "project management software course" (User wants to learn, not buy)
  • "project management software pdf" (User wants a template)
  • "open source project management" (User wants free)

By adding these 143 negatives, the client saved $1,200/month in wasted spend immediately.

Stop Paying for Zombies

You shouldn't be paying for traffic that has zero intent to buy. But you also shouldn't spend your Friday nights reading Excel spreadsheets.

Let the machines sweep the floor so you can focus on building the house.

Related Articles: