You might think you’ve mastered the Google Ads search terms report, but this essential optimization tool is still widely misunderstood – and often misused.
Here are five tips to help you get more from your campaigns by using the search terms report the right way.
Keywords vs. Search Terms: A quick refresh
When discussing keywords and search terms, it’s easy to confuse the terminology. Here’s a simple breakdown:
- Keyword: The term you add to a Search campaign – along with a match type – to tell Google which kinds of searches you want your ads to appear for.
- Search term: The actual phrase a real person typed into Google that triggered your ad.
Your ad can serve on a user query, creating a search term in your account, because it matched to your:
- Manually entered keywords.
- Keywordless targeting using systems like Shopping Ads, Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), AI Max, or Performance Max.
Which campaign types have a search terms report?
The search terms report isn’t limited to Search campaigns. It’s fully rolled out to all three campaign types that use search queries:
- Search Campaigns (keyword-based or keywordless via AI Max)
- Shopping Campaigns (keywordless)
- Performance Max (keywordless)
Plus, all three of these campaign types also allow you to add negative keywords, either via keyword lists or at the campaign or ad group level.
No matter which campaign type you’re running, the search terms report is still your best window into user intent and how your ads show up for real searches.
Tip 1: Your search terms have match types, too
It’s true! Every search term has a match type, and search term match types are not the same as your keyword match types.
Think of it like this:
- Your keyword’s match type is the rule you set for Google.
- The search term’s match type is Google’s judgment on how closely the user’s query follows that rule.
For example, you could have a broad match keyword set up, but the resulting search term that triggered your ad might be categorized as an “exact match close variant.” This would tell you that Google thinks that a specific user search is an exact match to your keyword, even if your keyword is not an “exact match keyword.”
When I audit accounts, I export the search terms report and create a pivot table by search term match type. This makes it easy to see how match types performed, which helps me decide where to make adjustments.
Tip 2: The search terms report isn’t just for adding negatives
One big mistake people make when reviewing the search terms report is adding too many negative keywords.
Yes, adding irrelevant queries as negatives is essential for campaign performance. But if you need to add 10% or more of your search terms as negatives, that’s a red flag.
Before you play “whack-a-mole” with negatives, step back and look at your…
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