How do I find and remove duplicate keywords in Google Ads?

A duplicate keyword is one you’ve added more than once with the same words and the same match type: leather sofa in phrase match in two ad groups, say. It often comes from copying an ad group to start a new one, or from pasting one keyword list into several ad groups.

Google is plain about what happens next. When several of your keywords could match one search, they don’t compete with each other in the auction, and only one of them can trigger an ad. Its page on match types says adding very similar keywords won’t affect your costs or performance, and that you’ll have only one bid in the auction.

So a duplicate doesn’t raise your cost per click. What it does cost is harder to see:

• Google chooses the copy. Between two identical keywords it goes by how relevant each ad group is to the search, then by Ad Rank. The search can land on the ad and landing page of the ad group you didn’t build for it.
• The history splits. Each copy reports its own clicks, conversions and Quality Score, so each looks thinner than the keyword really is, and a decision made on one copy’s numbers is made on part of the data.
• Every change has to be made in each place. A new bid, a pause or a new final URL on one copy leaves the other as it was, and the two drift apart.

None of this wastes money by itself. It’s cleanup, and the account is easier to read and to change once it’s done.

Google Ads Editor has a tool built for this:

1. 01Open the account in Google Ads Editor.
2. 02Select Tools › Find duplicate keywords.
3. 03Tick the account name to search the whole account, or pick the campaigns or ad groups you want.
4. 04Set the criteria: Word order, Match types and Location of duplicates. Strict settings find exact copies. Looser ones also find the same words in another order, which Google treats as duplicates in broad match.
5. 05Click Find duplicate keywords. The duplicates appear as a list you can sort, edit or remove.

To select many at once, Select duplicates by… picks copies by a measure you choose, such as the lowest CTR. Use it with care: the copy to keep is the one in the right ad group, which a metric can’t tell you.

Without Editor, a download of the keyword table gets you the same list:

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords, with all campaigns in view.
2. 02Use the filter button above the table to show enabled keywords only.
3. 03Click the download icon above the table, then Download, and choose a format such as .csv or Google Sheets.
4. 04In the sheet, count how often each campaign, keyword and match type appear together. Lowercase the keywords first, so a stray capital doesn’t hide a copy. Any count above one is a set of duplicates.

For each set, decide which ad group the keyword belongs in: the one whose ads use its words and whose final URL is the page a searcher wants. That copy stays. If the history matters to you, note which copy has the most of it first, and weigh that against the fit.

Then remove the others:

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords.
2. 02Tick the box next to each copy you’re removing.
3. 03Select Edit at the top of the table, then Remove, and confirm.

In Editor, select the copies in the duplicates list, click Remove, and post the changes to your account. Removing a keyword doesn’t delete its past: its statistics stay in your reports when you change the filter to include removed keywords.

Two kinds of repeat are fine to keep:

• The same words in different match types. Google says this shouldn’t increase your costs or lower performance, and an exact match keyword identical to the search is preferred when it’s eligible.
• The same keyword in campaigns that serve different places or languages. A search can only match the campaign that serves where it came from, so the two copies never meet.

Every week, Goldbeater reads every enabled keyword in every enabled campaign. It raises a finding when a keyword’s words, ignoring case and spacing, and its match type are also enabled in another ad group of the same campaign: one finding for each extra copy, grouped by keyword.

It names one copy to keep and drafts removing the other. It picks the keeper by a fixed rule, so the choice is the same every week, but the rule doesn’t know which ad group fits the keyword best. Read both ad groups before you approve it.

Why should you avoid duplicate keywords across ad groups?

Because Google, not you, decides which copy serves each search, so the ad and landing page a searcher sees may be the ones meant for something else. The keyword’s results are split between the copies, and every change has to be made in each. Google says duplicates don’t raise your costs. The reason to remove them is control.

Do duplicate keywords compete against each other?

No. Google says keywords in your own account that could match the same search don’t compete in the auction. Only one ad from your account enters each auction.

Are the same words in exact and phrase match duplicates?

Google doesn’t treat them as a problem. It says having the same keyword in different match types shouldn’t increase your costs or lower performance, and an identical exact match keyword is preferred when it’s eligible.

Do I lose the keyword’s history when I remove a copy?

No. The copy you keep has its own history, and the removed copy’s statistics stay in your reports when you include removed keywords in the filter.