The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.
Google picks which copy serves, not always the one you meant.
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 ad group guide has Google’s order in full.
- 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. The keyword guide covers judging a keyword against the rest of its campaign.
- 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.
How to find duplicates in Google Ads
Google Ads Editor has a tool built for this:
- Open the account in Google Ads Editor.
- Select Tools › Find duplicate keywords.
- Tick the account name to search the whole account, or pick the campaigns or ad groups you want.
- Set 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.
- Click 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:
- Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords, with all campaigns in view.
- Use the filter button above the table to show enabled keywords only.
- Click the download icon above the table, then Download, and choose a format such as .csv or Google Sheets.
- In 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.
With the campaign in column A, the keyword in C and the match type in D, this counts the copies of the keyword on row 2: =COUNTIFS(A:A,A2,C:C,C2,D:D,D2)
| Campaign | Ad group | Keyword | Match type | Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sofas — Phrase | Leather sofas | leather sofa | Phrase | 2 |
| Sofas — Phrase | Sofas — general | leather sofa | Phrase | 2 |
| Sofas — Phrase | Sofas — general | corner sofa | Phrase | 1 |
| Sofas — Phrase | Corner sofas | corner sofa | Exact | 1 |
Keep the copy that belongs, and remove the rest
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. Where the copies sit in a catch-all ad group, the keywords per ad group guide shows how to split it by theme.
Then remove the others:
- Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords.
- Tick the box next to each copy you’re removing.
- Select 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. Under Smart Bidding its advice differs: its guidance on account structure says the copies split the data Smart Bidding works with and can reduce performance. The keywords per ad group guide has that advice.
- 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.
What it looks like when Goldbeater finds one
Every day, 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 sets the copies side by side, each with its last 30 days: spend, conversions, cost per conversion, click-through rate, Quality Score, clicks and impressions. The copy that leads the other by more than chance, on conversions first, then cost per conversion, then click-through rate, then Quality Score, is the winner, and it drafts pausing the other and says what the winner won on. Where no copy leads, or the figures point different ways, it says so and leaves the choice to you. Removing a copy, or keeping the other one, is offered beside the pause. The figures can’t say which ad group’s ads fit the keyword best, so read both before you approve it.
"leather sofa" is live in 2 ad groups of one campaign
Sofas — Phrase › Sofas — general
The same phrase keyword is also in Leather sofas.
Each copy, the last 30 days
| Figure | Leather sofas (winner) | Sofas — general (loser) |
|---|---|---|
| Spend | $227 | $61 |
| Conversions, beyond chance | 8 | 0 |
| Cost per conversion | $28.35 | — |
| Click-through rate | 9.6% | 6.2% |
| Quality Score | 7 | 5 |
| Clicks | 142 | 38 |
| Impressions | 1,480 | 610 |
Leather sofas
Sofas — Phrase
Sofas — general
Sofas — Phrase
| Leather sofas | cedarandpine. | above average | above average | above average |
| Sofas — general | cedarandpine. | average | below average | average |
Only one copy can show on a search, and Google picks which, so the ad and page that serve may not be the ones you meant. The history splits between the copies, and every edit has to be made in each. Broad keywords whose words differ only in order, spacing or a plural are copies too, since broad match buys the same searches for both. Across two campaigns serving the same places and languages, where one copy takes every click, too many to be chance, the other is only a second set of settings to keep in step.
Pause this copy. The one in Leather sofas won on conversions, 8 against none in the last 30 days. Both bid on the same searches, so pausing this one leaves them to the copy that does better with them. It's the change below.
- Pause the keyword"leather sofa"Ad groupSofas — Phrase › Sofas — general
It reaches your account when you approve it in the change set and press Apply. An applied change can be undone.
This is “The same keyword in two places” on a sample account. See what it finds in your own account and what the fix is worth, and ask your AI analyst about any finding.
Get a free first lookQuestions
- 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.