Workflow · Ad Audit ~15 min run Google Ads · MCP

Find wasted Google Ads spend in 15 minutes.
No GAQL. No CSVs.

A copy-paste Claude prompt that surfaces every campaign where CPA is materially above target, pulls the keywords driving the waste, and returns a prioritized action list with estimated monthly savings. The average B2B SaaS account recovers $18K per month on the first run.

36%
Avg B2B SaaS waste rate
$18K
Avg monthly waste recovered
15min
First-run time
90%
Accounts with recoverable waste
01 The Problem in 60 Seconds

$18K per account. Every month.
Hiding in plain sight.

Across 43 enterprise B2B SaaS Google Ads accounts audited, 36.1% of total spend went to clicks that never had a chance of converting. $11.3M lost, out of $31.2M. Not "could have been optimized better" — clicks that never had a chance.

The pattern repeats in nearly every account. Broad match keywords bleeding into irrelevant searches. Competitor name campaigns routed to the homepage. Mobile spend converting at 1/30th the rate of desktop. English ads running in French-speaking markets. The waste isn't a rounding error. It's a structural failure.

Finding it used to require a senior analyst, 4 hours, and GAQL fluency. This workflow collapses that into a 15-minute Claude conversation. You ask one question. Claude queries Google Ads through the free Growthspree MCP, surfaces the offenders, pulls the search terms driving the spend, and returns a prioritized action list with estimated monthly savings.

02 The Prompt

Copy this prompt into
Claude Desktop.

The two gold variables — target CPA and time window — are the only things you typically change. Everything else stays as-is.

claude_desktop — waste_audit_prompt.md
RoleYou are auditing my Google Ads account for wasted spend. Most B2B SaaS accounts have 30–50% waste hiding in broad match keywords, competitor campaigns, mobile bidding, and geographic targeting drift. Your job is to find it and return a prioritized action list I can execute today. ParametersTarget CPA: [$180] Time window: [last 30 days] Waste threshold: flag any campaign where CPA is 30% or more above target Task1. Pull all campaigns from the last 30 days via growthspree-mcp google_ads connector. Include: campaign name, type, spend, clicks, conversions, CPA, impression share, quality score distribution. 2. Rank campaigns by total wasted spend, defined as: • Spend above what the target CPA would have produced • Formula: actual_spend − (conversions × target_cpa) • Only flag campaigns with conversion volume above 3 (below that, CPA is unreliable) 3. For the top 5 wasteful campaigns, drill in: • Pull the search terms report and rank by spend • Identify broad match keywords triggering irrelevant searches • Flag keywords with >$500 spend and zero conversions • Flag competitor name searches if landing pages aren't comparison/alternative pages • Flag mobile spend if mobile CPA is 2x+ desktop CPA • Flag geographic spend in markets without sales presence 4. Categorize waste into 6 standard patterns: • Broad match bleeding • Competitor bidding without alternative pages • Mobile bid mismanagement • Geographic drift • Dayparting misfires (weekend spend with weekday conversion pattern) • Low quality score multiplier (QS 1–3 paying 3–5x CPC inflation) Output format1. One-line executive summary: total waste identified, biggest single offender 2. Waste leaderboard: top 10 campaigns by monthly waste, with CPA vs target, spend, and waste type 3. Keyword-level waste: top 15 keywords/search terms driving the waste across those campaigns 4. Prioritized action list: 5–8 specific actions I can execute today, ranked by monthly savings 5. For each action: what to do, where in the account, estimated monthly savings // If a campaign has low conversion volume, flag it separately — don't include in main waste rank. // If Quality Score data is missing for some keywords, note it and proceed with the rest. // If the account has offline conversion tracking active, use SQL or opportunity-stage CPA instead of form-fill CPA where available.
i
One connector required. This prompt only needs google_ads via the free Growthspree MCP. If you already have the MCP installed, the audit runs in 60–90 seconds.
03 What Claude Returns

A leaderboard. Keywords.
An action list.

Sample output from a $45K/month B2B SaaS account. Real structure, illustrative numbers. The action list at the bottom is what you act on.

Claude · via Growthspree MCP

Auditing the account now.

growthspree.google_ads.get_campaigns { window: 30d, metrics: [spend, conv, cpa, qs, is] }
growthspree.google_ads.get_search_terms { campaign_ids: [top_5_wasteful], window: 30d }

Found $14,280 in monthly waste across 5 campaigns. Account total spend: $45,100. Waste rate: 31.7%.

Top Waste Campaigns · 30 days Target CPA: $180
Campaign
Spend
CPA
Waste
Non-Brand · Broad Match US
$9,840
$493
$6,240
Brand · Competitor Alternative
$5,200
$433
$3,040
PMax · Site Acquisition
$6,400
$320
$2,800
Remarketing · Mobile-Heavy
$3,200
$267
$1,440
Category Search · Exact
$2,880
$240
$760

Top keywords driving waste (from the Non-Brand Broad Match US campaign):

Search Terms Driving Waste 0 conv · 30d spend
"project management software"
2,140 clicks
$1,820
broad match
"best saas tools"
1,720 clicks
$1,460
broad match
"surveys online"
820 clicks
$697
broad match
"what is [your category]"
640 clicks
$543
educational intent
"[competitor name] pricing"
410 clicks
$392
no comparison page
Prioritized Action List · Est Monthly Savings
01
Pause 5 broad match keywords in Non-Brand Broad Match US campaign. Zero conversions across 5,320 clicks and $4,520 spend in 30 days.
~$4,520/mo
02
Pause competitor-name bidding until a dedicated comparison page is built. Current flow sends competitor searchers to homepage — $2,400/mo converting at 1.2%.
~$2,400/mo
03
Add 40+ negative keywords from the search terms report. Covers educational queries ("what is", "how to"), job-role queries ("free", "cheap"), and unrelated verticals.
~$2,100/mo
04
Apply -70% mobile bid adjustment on Remarketing · Mobile-Heavy campaign. Mobile CPA is $412 vs desktop $147. Traffic quality doesn't justify the spend mix.
~$1,920/mo
05
Exclude Tier 2–3 geographic regions from PMax Site Acquisition. Current spread: 28% of spend in markets with 0 closed deals in last 90 days.
~$1,800/mo
06
Tighten weekend dayparting across all non-brand. Weekend CPA is 2.3x weekday. Reduce weekend bids by 50%.
~$940/mo
07
Fix landing page QS for top 3 keywords with QS 1–3. Currently paying 3–5x CPC inflation on $4,800/mo of spend.
~$1,600/mo
Total recoverable waste: $15,280/month. That's 34% of current spend. Actions 01–03 are zero-risk — paste the negative keywords, pause the broad match, pause competitor bidding. Everything else requires a minor campaign change but no creative or landing page rebuilds. Want me to generate the specific negative keyword list for action 03?
TIME ELAPSED: 58 SECONDS   ·   SAME AUDIT BY HAND: 4 HOURS
04 Setup

Four steps. Under fifteen minutes.

First run only. Every run after that takes under 2 minutes.

01
Install · 3 min

Install the free Growthspree MCP

Head to growthspreeofficial.com/mcp. Click install and authorize Google Ads access through the OAuth flow. Read-only permissions only — no changes can be made to your account through this workflow.

Install now →
02
Verify · 1 min

Confirm Google Ads is connected

Open Claude Desktop. Click the tools icon. You should see growthspree-mcp with google_ads showing green. If it's red, re-run the OAuth flow.

03
Paste & configure · 2 min

Paste the prompt and set your target CPA

Copy the prompt from section 02. Set the target CPA to whatever your account aims for. Adjust the 30-day window if your account has low conversion volume — try 60 or 90 days for more stable CPA calculations.

04
Act · 8 min

Review, prioritize, execute actions 01–03

Claude returns the waste leaderboard, search terms, and action list in 60–90 seconds. Execute actions 01–03 immediately — they're zero-risk and typically recover 50–60% of the total waste identified. Save actions 04+ for your weekly optimization session.

05 When to Use This

Two ways to audit. Different jobs.

GrowthSpree publishes two Google Ads audit tools. They're not competing — they solve different problems. Use the one that matches what you're trying to do today.

This Workflow · Operator Craft

Run the audit yourself in Claude

You run the prompt in your own Claude session, see the live data, and ask follow-up questions until you're satisfied. You control the analysis — tweak the target CPA, drill into a specific campaign, ask "what about display?" mid-conversation.

  • Full operator control over the audit
  • Ask follow-ups without starting over
  • Drill into specific campaigns in real time
  • Copy actions into your execution doc
Use this workflow →
Google Ads Health Checker · Automated Tool

One-click automated audit report

Connect your account via OAuth. In 90 seconds you get a polished PDF report covering 15+ metrics — Quality Scores, impression share, conversion setup, negative keywords, targeting. Zero interaction required.

  • Fastest path to a shareable deliverable
  • Great for sales-ops sharing internally
  • No Claude Desktop install needed
  • 90-second end-to-end
Use the Health Checker →
06 Prompt Variations

Three ways to sharpen the audit.

Same prompt, different lens. Useful when you want a tighter answer to a specific question.

01 / Match-type deep dive

Compare broad vs phrase vs exact performance

Broad match is the single biggest source of B2B SaaS waste. Run this variation to get the match-type split for every campaign and surface exactly where broad match is bleeding.

Tweak Add: "Group keyword performance by match type (broad, phrase, exact). Calculate CPA and conversion rate for each match type across the account."
02 / Device & geo audit

Surface mobile and geographic waste specifically

For accounts where mobile and geography are the suspect waste categories. Returns device splits and geo breakdowns with bid adjustment recommendations.

Tweak Add: "Focus the audit on device performance and geographic targeting. Return device-level CPA splits and country/region-level performance with recommended bid adjustments."
03 / Closed-won CPA

Audit against revenue, not form fills

If offline conversion tracking is active, run the audit against closed-won CPA instead of form-fill CPA. Changes the answer dramatically — campaigns that look fine on form fills often look terrible on closed-won.

Tweak Change target metric to: "Use closed-won CPA from HubSpot offline conversions instead of form-fill CPA. If a campaign has no closed-won events, note it separately."
08 Frequently Asked

Quick answers on the workflow.

The prompt instructs Claude to query your Google Ads account via the Growthspree MCP and return every campaign where cost per acquisition is materially above target — typically 30% or more above. For each offender, Claude pulls the search terms, match types, and keyword-level performance driving the waste. The output is a prioritized list: which campaigns to pause, which keywords to negative-match, and how much you could save per month.
No. Claude writes all the underlying GAQL (Google Ads Query Language) queries for you. You describe the audit in plain English, the Growthspree MCP exposes the Google Ads data model to Claude, and Claude constructs and executes the queries. You never see the query syntax unless you ask for it.
The Health Checker is a one-click automated tool that scans your account and returns a 90-second PDF report. Use it when you want a fast, polished deliverable. This workflow is the operator-craft version — you run the audit yourself inside Claude, ask follow-up questions, drill into specific campaigns, and iterate the analysis in real time. Use this when you want to think alongside the data rather than read a report.
Across 43 enterprise B2B SaaS accounts audited, the average waste rate was 36.1% — meaning about $1 in $3 of Google Ads spend went to clicks that never had a chance of converting. Most teams discover they have 30–50% waste the first time they run a proper audit. The waste usually concentrates in broad match keywords, competitor bidding without comparison landing pages, mobile spend, and geographic targeting drift.
It does both. For each campaign flagged as wasting budget, Claude returns specific recommendations — pause these keywords, add these negative match terms, shift budget to this better-performing campaign. The prompt explicitly asks for prioritized actions with estimated monthly savings so the output is ready to act on, not just ready to read.
30 days is the default and works for most accounts. Use 60 or 90 days if your account has low conversion volume — more data stabilizes the CPA calculations. Use 14 days if you recently made significant campaign changes and want to evaluate the new state. The workflow supports any window.
Weekly for accounts spending $20K+ per month. Monthly for accounts spending under $20K. Waste patterns shift as Google's algorithm learns, broad match drifts into new search terms, and seasonality changes. Teams running this weekly consistently recover 15–25% more budget than teams running it monthly. Add it to your operating rhythm, not your emergency rhythm.

Run the audit
this afternoon.

Install the free Growthspree MCP, paste the prompt, see your waste in under 15 minutes. Or have senior GrowthSpree operators run it weekly as part of your managed spend.

300+ Accounts on MCP
4.9/5 G2
$60M+ Managed SaaS Spend
Month-to-Month