Close Variant Monitor
Measures how much of your exact-match spend actually flows through close variants and lists the zero-conversion variants — the most surgical negative keyword candidates in the account.
by Frederick Vallaeys (concept), chiliad (rewrite)·chiliad.io
Overview
Exact match hasn't been exact for years — plurals, synonyms and 'same meaning' rewrites all serve. Close Variant Monitor splits every exact-match keyword's spend into identical-term traffic vs close-variant traffic, reports the account-wide variant share, and lists the variants that spent money without converting. Because each variant is tied to the exact keyword it matched, adding the bad ones as exact negatives is surgical: it removes only that query, nothing else.
Setup
- 1Open your Google Ads account and go to Tools → Bulk Actions → Scripts.
- 2Click the + button to create a new script and paste the code below.
- 3Adjust the two cost thresholds to your account's scale.
- 4Set EMAIL_ADDRESS to receive the report; leave blank for logs only.
- 5Preview once to verify, then schedule monthly.
Configuration Variables
| Variable | Default |
|---|---|
DATE_RANGE | LAST_30_DAYS |
MIN_KEYWORD_COST | 20 |
MIN_VARIANT_COST | 5 |
TOP_N | 30 |
EMAIL_ADDRESS | (empty) |
Expected Output
=== Close Variant Monitor - EXACT match keywords (LAST_30_DAYS) === Spend on identical terms: 2110.40 Spend on close variants: 892.15 (30% of exact-match spend) Keywords analyzed (>= 20 spend): 42 --- Zero-conversion variants by cost (negative candidates) --- "free running shoes" (matched to [running shoes] in Shoes — Generic > Running) cost: 84.20 clicks: 96 "running shoe repair" (matched to [running shoes] in Shoes — Generic > Running) cost: 41.75 clicks: 38 Email sent to you@example.com
Notes
A 20-40% variant share is typical; the number itself isn't the problem — the zero-conversion variants are. Add irrelevant variants as exact-match negatives in the ad group where they matched. Variants with conversions are usually fine to keep (that's the useful side of close matching).