There’s a difference between the keywords you bid on and the searches that actually trigger your ads. The search terms report shows you the second part — what people actually typed into Google before they saw and clicked your ad.
If you’ve never looked at this report, you’re almost certainly wasting money. In our experience reviewing Google Ads accounts, the average business is spending 15-30% of their budget on irrelevant search terms they don’t know about.
Where to Find the Search Terms Report
- Log into Google Ads
- Click on the campaign or ad group you want to analyze
- Go to Insights and reports in the left navigation
- Click Search terms
Alternatively, from any campaign view: click Keywords in the left nav, then the Search terms tab at the top.
You’ll see a table showing every search query that triggered your ads, along with impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, and other metrics.
What You’re Looking For
The search terms report has three types of entries:
1. Good Terms (Keep)
These are relevant searches that match your product or service and are generating conversions (or at least qualified clicks). You want more of these.
Action: If a search term is performing well and you’re not already bidding on it as a keyword, add it as an exact match keyword to get more control over its bid and ad copy.
2. Irrelevant Terms (Block)
These are searches that have nothing to do with your business. They triggered your ads because of broad match or phrase match keywords that were too general.
Examples:
- You sell premium standing desks. Your broad match keyword “standing desk” triggers ads for “standing desk diy plans,” “standing desk for kids homework,” and “cheap standing desk under $50.”
- You’re a personal injury attorney. Your phrase match keyword “injury lawyer” triggers ads for “injury lawyer jobs,” “how to become an injury lawyer,” and “injury lawyer salary.”
Action: Add these as negative keywords so your ads stop showing for them.
3. Ambiguous Terms (Investigate)
These are searches that might be relevant but aren’t converting. They could be worth keeping (maybe your landing page needs work) or worth blocking (maybe the intent doesn’t match).
Action: Check the landing page experience. If the search intent clearly doesn’t match your offer, add it as a negative. If it could match but isn’t converting, improve the landing page before cutting the term.
How to Analyze the Report Effectively
Sort by Cost (Descending)
Start here. The most expensive search terms are where you’re spending the most money. If any of them are irrelevant, you’ve found your biggest savings immediately.
Sort the report by “Cost” from highest to lowest. Look at each search term and ask: “Would someone who typed this actually want to buy what I sell?”
Filter by Conversions = 0
Show only search terms that have spent money but generated zero conversions. These are pure cost with no return. Review each one:
- Is the search term irrelevant? Add it as a negative keyword.
- Is the search term relevant but not converting? The problem might be your landing page, not the keyword.
Look for Patterns
Don’t just add individual negative keywords. Look for patterns:
| Pattern | What It Means | Negative to Add |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple terms containing “free” | People want free stuff, not your paid product | ”free” as a negative |
| Multiple terms containing “jobs” or “salary” | People researching careers, not buying | ”jobs,” “salary,” “career” as negatives |
| Multiple terms containing “DIY” or “how to” | People want to do it themselves | ”diy,” “how to” as negatives |
| Multiple terms with competitor names | People searching for competitors specifically | Depends — sometimes you want these |
| Geographic terms for areas you don’t serve | People outside your service area | City/state names as negatives |
Check Match Type Distribution
The “Match type” column tells you how your keyword matched the search term:
| Match Type | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Exact match | The search was close to your keyword |
| Phrase match | The search contained your keyword phrase |
| Broad match | Google decided the search was “related” to your keyword |
Broad match generates the most irrelevant terms. If most of your wasted spend comes from broad match keywords, consider tightening to phrase or exact match. Our broad match guide covers when broad match works and when it doesn’t.
How to Add Negative Keywords
Once you’ve identified terms to block:
- Select the irrelevant search terms by checking the boxes next to them
- Click Add as negative keyword
- Choose the level:
- Ad group level — Blocks the term for that specific ad group only
- Campaign level — Blocks it for the entire campaign
- Negative keyword list — Blocks it across all campaigns that use that list (recommended for universal negatives like “free,” “jobs,” “salary”)
Match Types for Negatives
Negative keywords have match types too, and they work differently from regular keywords:
| Negative Match Type | What It Blocks |
|---|---|
| Negative broad match (default) | Any search containing all the negative keyword terms, in any order |
| Negative phrase match | Any search containing the negative keyword phrase in order |
| Negative exact match | Only the exact search term, nothing else |
Best practice: Use negative broad match for general terms you want to block (“free,” “jobs”). Use negative exact match when you want to be precise about what you’re blocking without accidentally eliminating good traffic.
For a deeper dive, see our complete negative keywords guide.
Building a Negative Keyword List
Every Google Ads account should have a master negative keyword list applied to all search campaigns. Start with universally irrelevant terms:
Common universal negatives:
- free, cheap, discount, coupon, deal
- jobs, careers, salary, hiring, employment
- diy, how to, tutorial, template, example
- review, reviews, reddit, forum
- download, torrent, pdf
Then add industry-specific negatives based on what you find in your search terms report. Check the report weekly for the first month, then biweekly once things stabilize.
The Hidden Problem: “Not Provided” Terms
Google doesn’t show you every search term anymore. A significant portion of search queries are hidden behind “Search terms that are below the reporting threshold” or simply not reported.
This means your search terms report is incomplete. You’re seeing maybe 50-70% of the actual searches that triggered your ads. The hidden terms tend to be low-volume long-tail queries, but they add up.
What to do about it: Tighten your keyword match types. The more you rely on exact and phrase match, the less likely you are to trigger irrelevant hidden searches. Broad match gives Google the most freedom to match your ads to searches you can’t see.
How Often to Check
| Account Spend | Review Frequency |
|---|---|
| Under $1,000/month | Weekly for first month, then biweekly |
| $1,000-5,000/month | Weekly |
| Over $5,000/month | Twice weekly or automate with scripts |
Every review should follow the same process: sort by cost, look for irrelevant terms, add negatives, look for high-performing terms to add as keywords.
Impact on Quality Score
Negative keywords indirectly improve your Quality Score. When you stop showing ads for irrelevant searches, your click-through rate goes up (because a higher percentage of impressions are for relevant searches). Higher CTR improves Quality Score. Better Quality Score means lower CPCs and higher ad positions.
It’s a virtuous cycle: better relevance leads to cheaper clicks leads to better ROAS.
Using the Search Terms Report for Keyword Expansion
The search terms report isn’t just for finding negatives. It’s also your best source for finding new keywords.
When you see a search term with a strong conversion rate that you aren’t explicitly bidding on, add it as a keyword. This gives you direct control over its bid and lets you write ad copy specifically tailored to that search.
Process:
- Filter the search terms report by conversions greater than zero
- Sort by conversion rate (highest first)
- For each high-converting search term, check if it’s already a keyword in your account
- If not, add it as a phrase match or exact match keyword in the most relevant ad group
- Consider writing ad copy that specifically addresses that search intent
This approach is more reliable than keyword research tools because the data comes from real searches that already converted on your site. You’re not guessing whether a keyword will work — you already know it does.
The Bottom Line
The search terms report is the single most actionable report in Google Ads. It shows you exactly where your money is going and gives you a direct mechanism (negative keywords) to stop the waste. If you’re running Google Ads and haven’t checked this report in the last week, go look at it right now.
And if you want to verify that your Google Ads conversion tracking is accurately measuring which search terms actually lead to sales, run a free scan. Because a search terms report is only as useful as the conversion data behind it.