{"id":1062,"date":"2026-09-14T10:53:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/google-ads-keywords-zero-impressions"},"modified":"2026-09-14T11:00:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:00:40","slug":"google-ads-keywords-zero-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/google-ads-keywords-zero-impressions","title":{"rendered":"How Many Google Ads Keywords Get Zero Impressions? 32.2% or 85.6%, Depending on One Filter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tldr\">\n<p><strong>TL;DR abstract.<\/strong> How many Google Ads keywords record zero impressions depends on which keywords you count. Doctor Ads Profit Forensics compared the same 30 managed accounts under two definitions. Counting keywords that were enabled at all three levels, keyword, ad group and Search campaign, in the 10 July 2026 snapshot, the median account had <strong><span data-claim-id=\"PKM-02\">32.2%<\/span><\/strong> with zero impressions in January to June 2026, and more than half were silent in 8 of 30 accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Counting every enabled keyword in the same accounts, whatever the status of its ad group or campaign, the median becomes <strong><span data-claim-id=\"PKM-03\">85.6%<\/span><\/strong>, with more than half in 27 of 30 accounts. Of all the silent enabled keywords in those accounts, <strong><span data-claim-id=\"PKM-10\">90.3%<\/span><\/strong> had a parent ad group or campaign that was paused or removed at extraction. A 2024 Optmyzr study put 84% of accounts under the heading &#8220;Significant Amounts (50%+) Of Low Volume Keywords&#8221;; a similarly high proportion appears under our wider count, though our method differs from theirs. This is a current-status inventory compared with earlier impressions, not a record of each keyword&#8217;s history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"key-stat\">\n<p><strong>In the median of 30 managed Google Ads accounts, 32.2% of keywords enabled at keyword, ad group and campaign level recorded zero impressions in January to June 2026. Counting every enabled keyword in the same accounts raises the figure to 85.6%.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"source-line\">Method basis: statuses from the 10 July 2026 snapshot, impressions for January to June 2026, 30 accounts with at least 50 such keywords and $1,000 of keyword spend. Source: Doctor Ads Profit Forensics.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Google now pauses some silent keywords itself. <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/google-ads\/answer\/14881035\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Positive keywords that were created over 13 months ago and have had zero impressions in the past 13 months may be automatically paused.&#8221;<\/a> That rule makes it worth knowing what a count of silent keywords actually contains. This study does not count keywords that meet the rule, because it covers six months and the export holds no creation dates.<\/p>\n<p>When the rule arrived, Optmyzr checked how exposed accounts were. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.optmyzr.com\/blog\/google-pausing-low-activity-keywords-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">its June 2024 study<\/a>, 7,888 accounts, 84% of those it examined, fell under the heading &#8220;Significant Amounts (50%+) Of Low Volume Keywords&#8221;. We did not find a published count that shows the same accounts under two keyword definitions, which is what this page does.<\/p>\n<h2>Same 30 accounts, two counts: 85.6% and 32.2%<\/h2>\n<p>We took the accounts in a managed portfolio that spent at least $1,000 on keywords in January to June 2026 and held at least 50 keywords enabled at keyword, ad group and Search campaign level in the 10 July 2026 snapshot: <strong>30 accounts<\/strong>. Below we call those keywords live. A silent keyword recorded zero impressions in January to June 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Count every enabled keyword in those accounts, whatever the status of the ad group or campaign around it, and the median account has <strong>85.6%<\/strong> of them silent, with the middle half between 71.9% and 94.0%. More than half are silent in <strong>27 of 30<\/strong> accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Count only live keywords, and the median account has <strong>32.2%<\/strong> silent, with the middle half between 14.9% and 52.3%. More than half are silent in <strong>8 of 30<\/strong>. Leaving any one account out keeps the median between 28.6% and 35.8%.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"chart\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tda-w9-silent-accounts.png\" alt=\"In the same 30 Google Ads accounts, counting every enabled keyword, the median share with zero impressions in January to June 2026 is 85.6% and 27 of 30 accounts are over half; counting only keywords enabled at keyword, ad group and campaign level in the July 2026 snapshot, the median is 32.2% and 8 of 30 are over half.\" title=\"\"><figcaption><strong>Counting every enabled keyword gives a median of 85.6% silent; counting keywords enabled at all three levels in the same 30 accounts gives 32.2%.<\/strong> Statuses from the 10 July 2026 snapshot, zero impressions in January to June 2026. Source: Doctor Ads Profit Forensics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We are calling this <strong>the Parked Majority<\/strong>. Across the same 30 accounts, <strong>90.3%<\/strong> of all silent enabled keywords had a paused or removed parent ad group or campaign at extraction, 9.7% were live, and 13 keywords, under 0.1%, fell into neither group. &#8220;Parked&#8221; here describes their status in July; some of those ad groups or campaigns may have been running earlier in the year.<\/p>\n<h2>Even in ad groups that served, 27.3% of live keywords were silent<\/h2>\n<p>The smaller number is not only a matter of idle ad groups. Restrict the count to ad groups in which at least one live keyword served during the period, and the median account still has <strong>27.3%<\/strong> of its live keywords without any impressions, with the middle half between 10.0% and 43.8%.<\/p>\n<h2>Do you need to delete them?<\/h2>\n<p>It depends on why they are silent, and this export does not record eligibility status, such as low search volume or not eligible. If a keyword&#8217;s status is low search volume, Google says the status <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/google-ads\/answer\/2616014\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;is unrelated to quality score, bid, or creatives&#8221;<\/a>. It adds: &#8220;There&#8217;s no negative impact of having keywords with low search volume status in your account, however you may want to remove them if you&#8217;re hitting account limits.&#8221; A keyword with no impressions also has no clicks to pay for.<\/p>\n<p>What silent keywords cost is legibility. When a large share of a live keyword list records zero impressions, the list is harder to read. Google may later auto-pause some live keywords that stay silent for 13 months and are old enough to qualify; this export cannot tell which ones.<\/p>\n<h2>When this does not apply<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Your keywords or campaigns changed status this year.<\/strong> We do not know each keyword&#8217;s history. Statuses come from the July snapshot and impressions from the six months before it, and creation dates are not in the export. A keyword added this spring, or one whose campaign was paused in March, is counted by its July status.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You keep seasonal campaigns parked on purpose.<\/strong> Then the wider count is your real list, and the parked share is a design choice rather than clutter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You are comparing with Optmyzr&#8217;s 84%.<\/strong> This is not a replication of Optmyzr. Optmyzr counted accounts above a threshold with its own criteria; our figures are medians of shares under two stated definitions, so the comparison is one of order.<\/p>\n<h2>How to check yours in two minutes<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>In the Keywords view, filter to enabled keywords and add filters for enabled ad groups and enabled campaigns. Skipping those two filters gives you the wider count.<\/li>\n<li>Set the date range to the last six months and filter to impressions equal to zero. Divide by your live keyword count.<\/li>\n<li>Read the status column on the silent keywords before touching anything: low search volume and not eligible mean different things.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In the median of 30 accounts, <strong>32.2%<\/strong> of live keywords recorded zero impressions in January to June 2026; more than half were silent in <strong>8 of 30<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Counting every enabled keyword in the same accounts gives <strong>85.6%<\/strong>, and more than half silent in <strong>27 of 30<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>90.3%<\/strong> of those silent enabled keywords had a paused or removed parent ad group or campaign in the July snapshot.<\/li>\n<li>Inside ad groups that served, the median account still had <strong>27.3%<\/strong> of live keywords silent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!-- cta-anchor --><\/p>\n<h2>Researcher&#8217;s take<\/h2>\n<p>When I open an unfamiliar account, the keyword count is often the first number someone quotes, and it often includes everything parked. My working rule, not a finding, is to audit the live list only, and to treat its silent keywords as a list of questions about why they did not serve: search volume, eligibility, a competing keyword or the setup. The parked keywords often answer themselves once you look at what they sit in.<\/p>\n<p><em>Igor Ivitskiy, Doctor Ads<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Method<\/h2>\n<p>Data statement v.2026.09. Source: keyword, ad group and campaign settings for a managed Google Ads portfolio analysed by Doctor Ads Profit Forensics, snapshot dated 10 July 2026, with keyword performance for January to June 2026. Of the 42 accounts with at least $1,000 of keyword spend in that window, 39 hold live keywords: 60,004 of them, in 1,287 ad groups, carrying $1.65M. Per-account figures use the 30 accounts with at least 50 live keywords. Accounts are pseudonymised, and no keyword text, ad group, campaign or vertical name is published.<\/p>\n<p>Definitions. A live keyword is a positive keyword enabled at the snapshot inside an ad group and a Search campaign that were both enabled at the snapshot. The wider count is every enabled positive keyword in the same accounts regardless of ad group or campaign status; across all 40 accounts with at least 50 such keywords it gives a median of 86.6%, with 36 of 40 over half silent. Silent means zero impressions in the window. Pooled across all 39 accounts, 62.8% of live keywords were silent, but the largest account holds 40.3% of live keywords, and without it the pooled share is 58.7%, which is why medians lead.<\/p>\n<p>Limitations. Three. Statuses come from a July snapshot and impressions from the six months before it, and keyword creation dates are not in the export. The reason a keyword was silent is not recorded. And the portfolio is agency-managed, not a random sample of advertisers.<\/p>\n<p>Changelog. First published September 2026. Recomputed quarterly against the live claim registry.<\/p>\n<h2>What to read next<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/google-ads-broad-match-share-of-spend\">How broad match share moved inside the same portfolio<\/a>, on how the same accounts split their keyword spend between match types.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/google-ads-quality-score-vs-cpc\">Quality Score and CPC inside the account<\/a>, on what the displayed score of the keywords that do serve lined up with.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/google-ads-duplicate-negative-keywords\">Half the median account&#8217;s negative keywords are duplicates<\/a>, the other side of keyword list hygiene.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the median account, 32.2% of live keywords got zero impressions in January to June 2026. Count every enabled keyword in the same 30 accounts and it is 85.6%, because 90.3% of silent keywords sit inside paused or removed ad groups and campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-keywords","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1070,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions\/1070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}