The search term report is the most valuable report in Google Ads. It shows you the exact queries users typed into Google before clicking your ad — not the keywords you’re bidding on, but the actual search strings that triggered an impression. Most advertisers check it quarterly, if at all. That’s a mistake that compounds over time.
Every week you ignore the search term report, you’re paying for traffic based on assumptions about what triggered your ads rather than evidence. In accounts running broad or phrase match keywords, 20–40% of spend is often going to queries that have nothing to do with the core business.
Where to Find the Search Term Report
In Google Ads: Campaigns → Keywords → Search Terms
Or: Reports → Predefined Reports → Basic → Search Terms
The data is filterable by date range, campaign, ad group, and keyword. For analysis purposes, pull a minimum of 30 days of data. Ninety days gives you a more complete picture of match behavior.
Note: Since 2020, Google has withheld search term data for queries with low impression volume, citing privacy protections. This means you won’t see 100% of the queries that triggered your ads — only those with “significant activity.” In practice, the hidden queries tend to be low-volume and less actionable, but the data gap is real.
The Four Things You’re Looking For
1. Irrelevant Queries That Are Spending Budget
These are the most urgent findings. Sort the search terms by cost, highest to lowest. Look at the top 20–30 by spend. For each one, ask: “If someone searched this, would I want to pay for that click?”
Common categories of wasteful queries:
- Job seekers: “digital marketing agency jobs,” “[industry] career,” “entry level [service].” Add “jobs,” “careers,” “hiring,” “salary,” “internship” as negatives.
- Competitor brand searches: If you’re not intentionally running competitor campaigns, your broad match keywords may be triggering for “[Competitor] reviews” or “[Competitor] pricing.”
- DIY and informational intent: “how to do [service] yourself,” “free [tool] template,” “DIY [product].” These users aren’t buying — they’re researching.
- Adjacent but irrelevant industries: A web design agency might trigger for “design school,” “graphic design software,” or “Canva templates.”
- Geographic mismatches: If you serve a specific city and you’re seeing searches from across the country, your geographic targeting needs tightening.
2. High-Performing Queries Worth Promoting to Keywords
Sort by conversions, highest to lowest. Any search term that:
- Generated 2+ conversions
- Has a CPA at or below your target
- Appears multiple times across different sessions
…is a candidate to add as an exact or phrase match keyword in your standard campaign. This is keyword harvesting — using broad match as a discovery tool and graduating the winners into your managed keyword list.
Adding these as keywords gives you more control: you can set specific bids, write tailored ad copy, and direct users to the most relevant landing page rather than relying on Google’s automatic matching.
3. Match Type Behavior — Is It What You Expected?
Look at which keywords are triggering which queries. In 2021, Google expanded exact match to include “close variants” — misspellings, plurals, stemming, and implied words. In 2023, Google further expanded phrase and broad match behavior.
What this means in practice: if you’re bidding on [web design services], you might also trigger for “website design company,” “web developer for hire,” or “website creation agency.” Some of those are fine. Others may not be.
Check the “Match Type” and “Keyword” columns in the search term report to understand which of your keywords is triggering off-target queries. If a broad match keyword is the consistent source of junk traffic, either change it to phrase match, add negatives, or remove it entirely. For a deeper dive on match types, see our guide to Google Ads exact match vs. phrase match.
4. Patterns That Inform New Ad Copy
Beyond keyword and negative management, the search term report tells you how your audience describes their own problem. They may use terminology your keyword list doesn’t capture. They may phrase their need differently than you assumed.
A law firm bidding on “business attorney” might see high-volume terms like “contract dispute lawyer,” “LLC legal advice,” or “small business legal help.” Those phrasings belong in your ad copy and potentially in new dedicated ad groups.
How to Act on What You Find
Add Negatives at the Right Level
You can add negative keywords at three levels: account, campaign, and ad group. The level matters.
- Account negatives: Apply to every campaign. Use for things you never want to appear for (competitors you don’t want to challenge, employment queries, obvious irrelevants).
- Campaign negatives: Apply to one campaign. Use for terms that are relevant in one context but not another (e.g., “free” is a good negative for a paid services campaign but might be fine in a brand awareness campaign).
- Ad group negatives: Most granular. Use when a term is relevant to the campaign but not to a specific ad group (e.g., “residential” in a commercial services ad group).
Match type applies to negative keywords too. A broad match negative for “plumber” blocks any query containing “plumber” — including “emergency plumber.” Use negative exact match [emergency plumber] to only block that exact phrase.
Build a Negative Keyword List From Scratch
If you’ve never done a systematic search term audit, start here:
- Pull 90 days of data, sorted by cost
- Export to a spreadsheet
- Create three columns: “Add as Keyword,” “Add as Negative,” “Monitor”
- Go line by line through the top 100–200 terms by spend
- At the end, add all “negative” terms to a shared negative keyword list
Apply the shared list to all active campaigns. Set a calendar reminder to repeat this process monthly.
Segment by Time Period to Find Drift
As Google’s match types expand over time, the queries triggering your ads change. A search term audit that was clean six months ago may have drifted. Pull the most recent 30 days and compare to the previous 30 days — look for new irrelevant terms that didn’t appear before.
This drift tends to accelerate when you switch to Smart Bidding or change your keyword match types. After any significant campaign structure change, do an immediate search term audit rather than waiting for your next scheduled review.
The Privacy Data Gap
Since September 2020, Google has withheld search terms that don’t meet an unspecified volume/privacy threshold. Estimates suggest 20–30% of query data is now hidden from the report. You’re working with an incomplete picture.
This makes the data you do have more important to act on, not less. And it’s a strong argument for using the tightest match types that still give you adequate volume — exact and phrase match give Google less latitude to match to queries you’d never have approved.
How Often Should You Review the Search Term Report?
- First 30 days of a new campaign: Weekly. Match behavior is unpredictable early on, and you’re still building your negative keyword list.
- Established campaigns with phrase/broad match: Bi-weekly minimum.
- Exact match only campaigns: Monthly. Exact match (with close variants) still drifts, but more slowly.
- After any campaign structure change: Immediately, and then weekly for the following month.
Setting a recurring calendar block for search term review is more reliable than doing it when you “have time.” It never rises to urgent enough to act on — until you notice $800 went to job seekers last month.
FAQ
Why don’t I see all search terms in the report? Google hides low-volume queries citing user privacy. This has been the policy since 2020 and affects most accounts — typically 15–30% of spend has no search term attribution. Use tight match types and strong negative keyword lists to mitigate the impact.
Can I add search terms as keywords directly from the report? Yes. Check the box next to any search term in the report and click “Add as keyword.” You can set the match type and the bid at the time of adding.
What’s the difference between a search term and a keyword? A keyword is what you’re bidding on — what you’ve told Google to match your ads to. A search term is what the user actually typed. With broad and phrase match, many search terms can be triggered by one keyword.
How do I add a search term as a negative keyword? Check the box next to the term in the search term report → “Add as negative keyword.” You can add it at the ad group, campaign, or account level.
Should I add every irrelevant term as a negative keyword? Focus on terms with spend or volume. Adding thousands of micro-volume negatives creates a bloated list that’s hard to maintain. Prioritize terms that: (a) have already generated cost without conversions, or (b) represent a pattern of irrelevant searches (add the category, not every individual term).
Does the search term report show data for Dynamic Search Ads? Yes. DSA search terms appear in the report alongside standard keyword-triggered terms. The “Match Type” column shows “Broad” for DSA matches. For DSA-specific analysis, filter by campaign.
The search term report is where budget waste lives — and where your best new keywords hide. Reviewing it weekly is a core practice in our Google Ads management engagements. We pull it, add negatives, harvest winners, and report on what changed — every month, without being asked. Get started or audit your current account’s negative keyword coverage at honest.designodin.com.