Tutorial: How to fix duplicate keywords and search terms

Consolidate duplicate keywords/search terms to keep control of ad serving and protect your data.

What happens when the same keyword exists in several ad groups, or the same search term triggers different ad groups? You lose ad serving control and have to depend on Google to choose ads and landing pages for you.

This can lead to:

Different ads and landing pages serving for the same term
Split data across ad groups
Less reliable bidding and conversion data
An inconsistent user experience

Consolidating duplicates keeps performance data focused and easier to manage.

How to fix duplicate keywords

Adalysis alerts you to duplicate keywords in your account via the Audit screen.

First, expand the alert to view quality score data and performance metrics.

Decide which version should remain active based on performance (for example, lowest cost per conversion).

Then, pause the remaining duplicates so the keyword serves from one clear location.

If you have many duplicates:

Select several keywords at once
Open the bulk pause tool
Pause keywords based on your chosen metric, keeping the strongest performer active
If pausing a keyword leaves an ad group empty, pause the ad group to maintain a clean account structure

How to fix duplicate search terms

Adalysis also alerts you to duplicate search terms via the Audit screen.

Click the alert to see the search term and the ad groups it triggered.

To prevent this, add the search term as an exact match negative keyword in the relevant ad groups. In other words, the negative should be added to ad groups you don't want to show for this term.

If you have many duplicates:

Bulk select your search terms
Add exact match negatives with the Add duplicate search terms as negative keywords tool, based on your chosen condition

Customize your alert settings

You can also customize your alerts. For example, in a large account, you may only want to see duplicate search term alerts above a certain impression threshold.

You can access your settings straight from the alert screen or via Audit > Audit settings > Prebuilt.