About ClearSpend
ClearSpend is a free audit tool for Google Ads advertisers. You export your keywords report, drop the CSV into the browser, and get back a plain-English list of where money is leaking and where your account may be running into advertising policy trouble. There is no account to create, no sales call, and no data stored anywhere.
Why we built it
Two problems come up again and again in paid search accounts. The first is quiet waste: keywords that keep spending month after month without ever producing a conversion, and converting keywords whose cost per acquisition is several times the account average. The second is policy risk. Advertisers in categories such as financial services, crypto, gambling, health claims or debt relief often only discover a restriction after a disapproval or an account suspension — and some categories are suspended with no warning at all.
Most audit tools solve the first problem and ignore the second. ClearSpend covers both in a single pass over the same export.
How the audit works
- Wasted spend — keywords with zero conversions and at least $150 of cost, ranked by spend.
- CPA outliers — converting keywords whose cost per conversion is at least twice the account average.
- Quality Score — keywords scoring 4 or below, when that column is included in your export.
- Budget concentration — the share of total spend sitting in your top 20% of keywords.
- Policy screening — keyword, ad group and campaign names matched against documented Google Ads, Meta and TikTok policy categories, each labelled with an enforcement tier, the certification it requires, and how difficult an appeal typically is.
Every calculation is deterministic and runs on the numbers in your own export. Nothing is estimated or modelled, and no benchmarks from other advertisers are used.
Independence and limits
ClearSpend is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by Google, Meta or TikTok. The policy screening reflects our reading of the platforms' publicly published advertising policies and is a risk indicator, not a compliance ruling or legal advice. Platforms change their policies frequently and enforce them at their own discretion, so treat every flag as a prompt to check the platform's current policy documentation for your category.
Privacy by design
The CSV you select is read in your browser and discarded when you close the tab. It is never transmitted to a server, and neither is the business name you type. The PDF report is generated on your own device. Full detail is in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Who operates ClearSpend
ClearSpend is operated as an independent software project based in Virginia, United States, and is available worldwide. Questions, corrections to our policy research, and feature requests are welcome at support@clearspend.dev. See the contact page for what to include.