Every click in your account starts with a real person typing a real query, and the search terms report is the only place that shows you what those queries were. Keywords tell Google what you hoped to match. The search terms report tells you what actually matched, how much it cost, and whether it produced a lead or a sale. Reviewing it regularly is one of the fastest ways to cut wasted spend and find new keywords that already work.
What the Search Terms Report Shows
The search terms report lists the actual searches that triggered your ads. According to Google’s help documentation, it shows terms that a significant number of people searched, which means very rare queries are grouped together under an “other search terms” row instead of being listed one by one. You can find it in your account under Insights and reports, then Search terms.
The report matters because match types are loose by design. A phrase match or broad match keyword can trigger on searches that share the meaning of your keyword without sharing its words. Sometimes that is useful. Sometimes it means a keyword for “accounting software” is spending money on “free accounting course”.
Set Up the Report So It Is Easy to Scan
The default view hides the numbers that matter. Before reading anything, add these columns: cost, clicks, conversions, conversion rate, cost per conversion and conversion value. Then pick a date range long enough to contain a meaningful number of clicks, usually the last 30 days for an active account and 60 to 90 days for a low-volume one.
Sort by cost, highest first. The terms that consumed the most budget deserve attention before anything else, because a small fix there releases the most money.
A Four-Step Routine for Reading It
1. Find expensive terms with no conversions
Filter for terms with clicks above a threshold you are comfortable with and conversions equal to zero. For each one, ask whether the intent matches what you sell. A term with high spend, no conversions and clearly wrong intent is a negative keyword candidate. A term with the right intent and no conversions yet may need a better landing page or more time, so check the landing page mistakes that hurt Google Ads ROI before blocking it.
2. Find the terms that already convert
Now sort by conversions. Any search term that converts well and is not yet a keyword in your account should be added as an exact match keyword with its own bid. This gives you direct control over a query that has proven itself, instead of leaving it to the mercy of broad matching.
3. Look for patterns across terms
Individual queries are noisy. Patterns are useful. If five different irrelevant terms all contain “jobs”, “salary” or “free”, the right move is to block that single word, not five separate phrases. Scan for recurring words that signal research, job seekers, students, do-it-yourself intent or competitors you do not want to bid on.
4. Check the match type behind each term
The report shows which keyword and match type triggered each search. If one broad match keyword is responsible for most of the junk, tightening that keyword to phrase or exact match often works better than writing long lists of negatives.
Turning Findings Into Negative Keywords
Negative keywords stop your ads from showing on searches containing certain words. Google’s documentation notes that negatives added from the search terms report default to exact match, and that negative keyword match types work differently from positive ones because they do not match to close variants. A negative of “free” blocks searches containing “free”, but it will not automatically block “freebie” or a misspelling.
That has three practical consequences:
- Choose the match type on purpose. Use broad match negatives for single words that should never appear in a relevant search, such as “jobs” or “salary”. Use phrase or exact match negatives for specific queries where the same words could appear in a good search.
- Choose the level. Add a negative at the campaign level when it applies to everything in that campaign, and at the ad group level when you only want to separate themes within a campaign.
- Use shared lists. Words such as “free”, “cheap”, “diy” and “jobs” apply to many accounts and campaigns. A shared negative keyword list keeps them consistent and saves repeated work.
Mistakes That Make the Report Backfire
- Blocking too broadly. A single-word negative can remove profitable traffic. Before adding “cheap” as a broad negative, check whether any converting terms contain it.
- Judging terms on too little data. One click and no conversion proves nothing. Wait until a term has enough clicks to be judged against your normal conversion rate.
- Ignoring conversion tracking quality. If conversions are missing or inflated, every decision in the report is skewed. Confirm your setup against the guide to tracking conversions in Google Ads.
- Forgetting to look at winners. Many accounts only use the report defensively. Adding converting terms as keywords is half of its value.
- Never going back. Negatives added once and forgotten drift out of date as products, offers and search behaviour change.
How Often to Review It
Review the report weekly for new campaigns and for accounts spending heavily on broad match or automated bidding. Stable accounts with tight match types can move to a fortnightly or monthly review. After any big change, such as a new campaign, a new match type or a budget increase, check it within a few days.
The report also feeds other metrics. Cleaner traffic lifts your expected click-through rate, one of the components behind your Google Ads Quality Score. Higher relevance in turn helps in the auction, as explained in how the Google Ads auction works. To see how click-through rate fits in, read what counts as a good click-through rate in Google Ads.
Final Thoughts
The search terms report turns guesswork into evidence. Open it with cost and conversion columns visible, block the queries that waste money, promote the ones that convert, and repeat the review on a fixed schedule. Done consistently, it lowers your cost per conversion without touching a single bid.
If you would like a second pair of eyes on where your budget is going, Marquee can audit your search terms and build a clean negative keyword structure.
Want expert help with your campaigns? See our Google Ads management service.