Here's an uncomfortable truth: a significant portion of your Google Shopping budget is likely going to products that will never convert. These products rack up clicks, consume budget, and deliver exactly zero sales. It's money walking out the door every single day.
Account audits consistently find that 20-40% of Shopping spend goes to products with zero conversions. For a $10,000/month budget, that's $2,000-$4,000 in pure waste. The good news? This is fixable—once you know where to look.
This guide shows you exactly how to find wasted spend in your Shopping campaigns, analyze whether action is needed, and implement strategies to eliminate it. If you're new to product-level analytics, start with our Google Shopping analytics guide for foundational context.
What is Wasted Ad Spend?
Wasted ad spend in Google Shopping refers to money spent on products that generate clicks but produce zero conversions. These products are consuming your budget without contributing any revenue.
Wasted Spend = Cost on Products with Zero Conversions
If a product has spent $500 over 60 days and generated 0 sales, that $500 is wasted spend.
Why does this happen? Common causes include:
- Uncompetitive pricing: Your price is higher than competitors, so users click but buy elsewhere
- Poor product listings: Bad images, weak titles, or missing information
- Landing page issues: Slow pages, poor mobile experience, checkout friction
- Wrong audience: Irrelevant search queries triggering your ads
- No demand: Some products simply don't sell well online
The problem compounds over time. A product wasting $5/day doesn't seem urgent—until you realize that's $150/month, $1,800/year. Multiply that across dozens or hundreds of non-converting products, and you're looking at serious budget leakage.
How Much Are You Actually Wasting?
Most advertisers don't know their wasted spend number. They see overall ROAS and assume things are fine. But aggregate metrics hide product-level problems.
Quick Calculation Method
To estimate your wasted spend:
- Export product performance data for the last 30-60 days
- Filter for products where Cost > $0 and Conversions = 0
- Sum the cost column for these products
- Divide by total spend to get your waste percentage
Example: If filtered products show $3,200 in cost, and total campaign spend was $12,000, your waste rate is 26.7%.
Industry Benchmarks
| Waste Level | Percentage | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Excellent | < 10% | Well-optimized account with active management |
| Average | 10-25% | Room for improvement; typical for most accounts |
| High | 25-40% | Significant optimization opportunity |
| Critical | > 40% | Urgent action needed; likely unmanaged account |
How to See Which Products Are Wasting Budget in Google Shopping
Step-by-Step: Find Products Wasting Budget
Here's exactly how to see which products are wasting budget in Google Shopping:
- Navigate to your Shopping campaign
- Click "Products" in the left sidebar to see product-level data
- Set your date range to at least 30 days (60-90 preferred for accuracy)
- Add a filter: Conversions = 0
- Add another filter: Cost > 0
- Sort by Cost descending to see biggest budget drains first
- Export the data for analysis
This gives you a list of all products consuming budget without converting. The products at the top of this list (highest cost, zero conversions) are your priority targets.
Using Product Groups
Product groups in Google Ads let you segment products by attributes (brand, category, custom labels). You can identify which segments have high waste:
- Check product groups with low or zero conversion rates
- Compare waste rates across brands or categories
- Identify if certain product types consistently underperform
Limitations of Manual Tracking
The manual approach works but has significant drawbacks:
- Time-consuming, especially for large catalogs (1000+ products)
- Requires regular exports and spreadsheet analysis
- No historical trending or alerts
- Doesn't combine with Merchant Center data (pricing, attributes)
Tools designed for product-level analytics streamline this process. SKU Analyzer, for example, includes a dedicated wasted spend tracker that automatically identifies products consuming budget without conversions and tracks waste trends over time—no manual exports required.
Analyzing Your Wasted Spend
Not All Zero-Conversion Products Are Bad
Before taking action, consider context. Some products with zero conversions shouldn't be paused. For a deeper dive into this topic, see our dedicated guide on zero-conversion products. And if a product has zero impressions, that's a different problem entirely—see our guide on products not getting impressions.
- Conversion lag: Google Ads can take 7-30 days to attribute conversions. Recent spend may convert later.
- New products: Items just added to campaigns need time to accumulate data.
- Assisted conversions: Some products help users discover your brand even if they buy something else.
- Seasonal items: Off-season products naturally have lower conversion rates.
- High-consideration products: Expensive items have longer purchase cycles.
Important
Don't make decisions based on the last 7 days of data. Conversion lag means recent performance always looks worse than reality. Use 30-60 day windows minimum.
The Decision Framework
Use this framework to decide what action to take:
| Scenario | Criteria | Action |
|---|---|---|
| High Priority | Cost > 3x target CPA, 60+ days, 0 conversions | Pause or exclude immediately |
| Medium Priority | Cost > 2x target CPA, 30-60 days, 0 conversions | Lower bids significantly or investigate |
| Monitor | Cost < 2x target CPA, < 30 days | Continue monitoring, gather more data |
| Investigate | High clicks, 0 conversions, good price | Check landing page, search queries, competition |
Example: If your target CPA is $25, a product that has spent $75+ over 60 days with zero conversions is a clear candidate for pausing. A product that's spent $30 over 2 weeks needs more time.
How to Fix Google Ads Wasted Spend: 5 Strategies
1. Exclude Chronic Non-Performers
For products with a consistent track record of waste (90+ days, significant spend, zero conversions), exclusion is often the right call.
Pausing vs. Excluding:
- Pause: Temporarily stops ads; easy to reverse. Good for testing or seasonal items.
- Exclude: Removes product from campaign via inventory filters. More deliberate; use for confirmed non-performers.
Create an "exclusion list" in your Merchant Center or use campaign inventory filters to systematically remove products that have proven they don't convert.
2. Adjust Bids Strategically
Not every non-converting product needs to be paused. Some may convert at lower bid levels where cost-per-click is reduced.
Tiered bid strategy:
- Top performers: Highest bids to capture maximum impression share
- Moderate performers: Standard bids
- Low/no converters: Minimal bids (let them run but don't invest heavily)
Use custom labels to segment products by performance tier and apply different bids to each group. This keeps products eligible to show while limiting their budget consumption.
3. Fix the Root Cause
Before writing off a product, investigate why it's not converting:
- Pricing: Check price competitiveness in Merchant Center. If you're 20% above benchmark, that's likely the issue. Our pricing strategy guide covers this in detail.
- Images: Poor quality or non-compliant images reduce click-through and conversion rates.
- Titles: Missing key attributes or confusing product names hurt relevance. Follow our product title optimization guide to fix this.
- Landing pages: Slow load times, mobile issues, or checkout friction kill conversions.
- Availability: Out of stock or long shipping times deter buyers.
Sometimes a product isn't a waste problem—it's a listing or pricing problem. Fixing the root cause can turn a non-converter into a winner.
4. Use Negative Keywords
Check the search terms report for products with wasted spend. You may find they're being triggered by irrelevant queries. For a complete strategy, see our negative keywords guide.
Common negative keyword opportunities:
- "Free" - Users looking for free items won't buy
- "DIY" or "homemade" - Signals they want to make it, not buy it
- Competitor brand names - If you're not competitive on those searches
- Informational queries - "How to," "what is," "reviews of"
Adding negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level can eliminate wasted clicks before they happen.
5. Segment with Custom Labels
Use custom labels in your product feed to segment products by performance and manage them differently. This approach aligns with Smart Bidding best practices recommended by Google:
- Custom Label 0: Performance tier (Star, Solid, Underperformer, Zero-converter)
- Custom Label 1: Margin tier (High, Medium, Low)
- Custom Label 2: Priority (Hero products, Standard, Low priority)
Then create separate product groups or campaigns for each segment with appropriate bid strategies. High-performers get aggressive bids; zero-converters get minimal bids or exclusion.
Setting Up Ongoing Wasted Spend Monitoring
One-time cleanup isn't enough. New products get added, market conditions change, and previously good products can become budget drains. Set up a system for ongoing monitoring:
Weekly Review Cadence
- Export product performance data (or use a dashboard that updates automatically)
- Filter for products with cost > threshold and zero conversions
- Review the list against your decision framework
- Take action on high-priority items
- Track total wasted spend trend week-over-week
Thresholds to Set
Define clear thresholds for action based on your economics:
- Alert threshold: Any product that spends 2x your target CPA without converting
- Action threshold: Products that reach 3x target CPA with zero conversions over 30+ days
- Exclusion threshold: Products that hit 5x target CPA over 60+ days with zero conversions
Key Takeaway
The goal isn't to eliminate all zero-conversion products immediately—it's to systematically identify and address chronic budget drains while giving new products time to prove themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I see which products are wasting budget in Google Shopping?
In Google Ads, go to your Shopping campaign, click "Products" in the left sidebar, set the date range to 30-60 days, then add filters for Conversions = 0 and Cost > 0. Sort by Cost descending to see your biggest budget drains first. These are products consuming budget without generating any sales.
How do I fix Google Ads wasted spend?
To fix wasted spend: 1) Pause or exclude products that have spent 3x your target CPA with zero conversions over 60+ days, 2) Lower bids on underperforming products instead of pausing them entirely, 3) Check if pricing, images, or landing pages are causing the issue, 4) Add negative keywords to prevent irrelevant search queries, and 5) Use custom labels to segment products by performance tier.
What percentage of Shopping budget is typically wasted?
Studies and account audits typically find that 20-40% of Google Shopping budget goes to products that generate clicks but zero conversions. The exact percentage varies by industry, catalog size, and how actively the account is managed.
Should I pause all products with zero conversions?
Not immediately. Consider how long the product has been running (wait at least 30 days), how much has been spent (set a threshold like 2-3x your target CPA), and whether there's conversion lag. Only pause products that have had sufficient time and spend without converting.
How often should I check for wasted spend?
Review wasted spend weekly as part of your optimization routine. For large catalogs, consider using automated tools that continuously monitor for waste and alert you when products exceed spending thresholds without converting.
What causes products to waste budget without converting?
Common causes include: uncompetitive pricing, poor product images or titles, landing page issues (slow load, bad mobile experience), wrong audience targeting (irrelevant search queries), and products that simply don't have demand online.
What's the difference between pausing and excluding a product?
Pausing a product group stops ads temporarily and can be reversed easily. Excluding a product removes it from a campaign entirely using inventory filters. Use pausing for temporary issues; use exclusions for products you're confident shouldn't advertise.
Conclusion
Wasted ad spend is one of the most fixable problems in Google Shopping. The challenge isn't the solution—it's visibility. Most advertisers don't track product-level performance closely enough to see where money is being wasted.
The key actions to take:
- Calculate your current waste rate to understand the scope of the problem
- Set clear thresholds for when to monitor, investigate, and take action
- Review weekly to catch new waste early before it compounds
- Fix root causes where possible rather than just pausing products
- Use segmentation to bid differently based on performance tiers
Every dollar you recover from wasted spend can be reinvested in products that actually convert—improving both your ROAS and total revenue. For strategic guidance on reallocating that recovered budget, see our budget allocation guide.