Check these on every Search campaign. They take minutes and they're where most budget goes missing.
| Setting | Set it to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Networks: Search Partners | Off at launch | Ads show on non-Google sites. Quality varies widely and you can't control placements individually. |
| Networks: Display Network | Off | A Search campaign with Display on shows text ads on websites and apps. For B2B lead gen this is mostly low-intent, accidental traffic. |
| Location options | Presence | The default "Presence or interest" shows ads to people outside your target countries. See Geographic targeting. |
| Excluded locations | Countries you don't sell to | Without exclusions, a broad target (or "interest") can still reach them. |
| Auto-applied recommendations | Off, or only ones you've reviewed | Some recommendations add broad match keywords, raise budgets or switch bid strategies without asking. |
| AI Max, broad match, automatically created assets | Off at launch | They expand where and how you show. Useful later with good conversion data; costly before. As of October 2026 |
| Conversion goals | Only the conversions you value set as primary | If page views or "contact" clicks are primary, Smart Bidding chases cheap junk. |
The Search Partner Network covers other search engines, site search boxes and some content sites that show Google Search ads.
Since August 2025, Google reports placements on Search Partners in full, so you can now see which sites your ads appeared on and how they performed.
From 10 February 2026, Google also stopped serving ads on parked domains through the network. As of October 2026
Our advice: leave it off at launch. After a month or two, if you want more volume, turn it on in one campaign, then check the placement report after two weeks.
Keep it only if conversions from partners hold up on quality (SQLs, activated trials), not just form fills. Partner traffic tends to produce form fills that never answer the phone.
On a Starter budget, keep it off. You don't have enough conversions to tell good partner traffic from bad.
A Search campaign only reaches websites and apps if the Display Network box is ticked. Untick it.
The real exposure to low-quality placements comes when you add Performance Max or Demand Gen campaigns, which run on YouTube, Display, Gmail and Discover as well as Search.
For those campaigns, set up account-level protections before launch:
Performance Max has more on this in Beyond Search.
## Search terms and negative keywordsThe search terms report shows what people actually typed before clicking.
In B2B software, a lot of it will be irrelevant:
Build the habit:
"jobs", "free download") and exact match negatives for single queries you want to block without blocking related ones.Watch out
Negatives work differently from keywords: they don't match close variants or synonyms. If you block "job", also add "jobs" and "careers".
And check a negative won't block good traffic: "free" would block "free trial" searches, which you may want if your goal is a trial.
Free trial goal: don't add "free" as a broad negative. Instead block "free download", "freeware", "open source" (unless you have an open-source edition) and "crack".
Broad match and AI Max for Search match by meaning, which can wander far from your keyword. "Invoice approval software" can end up matching "invoice template", "accounts payable jobs" or a competitor's support pages.
If you turn either on, check the search terms report and the AI Max "search terms and landing pages" view weekly, and keep an eye on whether conversions are real (see junk leads below). As of October 2026
## Invalid clicks and click fraudGoogle filters clicks it judges invalid (bots, repeated clicks, known bad sources) before you're charged, and credits you for invalid clicks it detects afterwards.
You can see this: add the Invalid clicks and Invalid click rate columns at campaign level. A few percent is normal. Credits for invalid activity appear on the Billing summary page.
What fraud usually looks like in B2B Search accounts:
When to ask Google for an investigation: when you have specific evidence that Google's filters missed, for example a sudden click spike from one source with no engagement.
Collect the dates, campaigns, IP ranges or locations and analytics evidence, then submit the invalid click investigation form from the Google Ads help centre.
Don't expect a response to vague complaints that CPCs are high.
Third-party click-fraud tools exclude suspicious IP addresses automatically.
For most B2B accounts below the Advanced band, they're not worth it yet:
Spend the money on better lead qualification instead.
They can be worth testing if you're in the Advanced band, run Performance Max or Display at scale, or see repeated fraud patterns from competitors or bots.
Judge them on whether lead quality improves, not on the number of "fraudulent clicks blocked" they report.
A fake form fill is worse than a fake click. It's recorded as a conversion, and Smart Bidding then looks for more people like it. Stop junk at the form and don't let it count.
Add this to your form component. The field is hidden from people and screen readers but bots fill it in.
```html readonly title="src/components/DemoForm.astro" --- // src/components/DemoForm.astro --- ```And on the server (wherever your form posts: an Astro endpoint, a serverless function or your form provider's webhook):
```js readonly title="JavaScript" // Reject silently if the honeypot was filled or the email is disposable. const FREE_OR_DISPOSABLE = ['mailinator.com', 'tempmail.com', '10minutemail.com', 'guerrillamail.com']; const data = await request.formData(); if (data.get('website')) return new Response(null, { status: 204 }); // bot const email = String(data.get('email') || '').trim().toLowerCase(); const domain = email.split('@')[1] || ''; if (!/^[^@\s]+@[^@\s]+\.[^@\s]+$/.test(email) || FREE_OR_DISPOSABLE.includes(domain)) { return new Response('Please use your work email', { status: 400 }); } // ...save the lead (with gclid and UTM fields), then redirect to the thank-you page ``` ## Auto-applied recommendationsGoogle's Recommendations page suggests changes: new keywords, broad match, higher budgets, different bid strategies, new assets. Some can be set to apply automatically, and Google may offer that during setup.
Auto-applied changes that add broad match keywords, raise budgets or switch bidding are a common reason a stable B2B campaign suddenly spends more on worse searches.
Treat optimisation score as a list of ideas, not a target. A score of 100% means you accepted Google's suggestions, not that the account is performing.
Review the Recommendations page once a month as part of the waste check below. As of November 2026
## Where to look: a monthly waste check| Report | Where | What you're looking for |
|---|---|---|
| Search terms | Insights and reports, then Search terms | Irrelevant queries, competitor support searches, jobs, students, free tools. |
| Where ads showed | Insights and reports, then When and where ads showed | Search Partner, Display or app placements with clicks but no quality conversions. |
| Matched locations | Insights and reports, then When and where your ads showed, then the Matched locations tab | Clicks from countries you don't target or don't sell to. See how to read it. |
| Conversions by hour and country | Segment conversions by hour of day and by country | Bursts of conversions at odd hours or from one place: often bots. |
| Invalid clicks | Add Invalid clicks columns at campaign level | A jump in invalid click rate, or one campaign much higher than others. |
| Lead quality | Your CRM export | Share of ad leads that are junk, by campaign and keyword. |
| Change history | Change history | Changes you didn't make (auto-applied recommendations, colleagues). |
Use your LLM
Review every negative the LLM suggests before adding it. LLMs tend to over-block, for example flagging "pricing" or "free trial" as low intent when, for B2B software, they are often the highest intent you'll get.