Search Terms Report
The search terms report shows the actual queries that triggered your Google Ads, revealing what users really searched and where to add negative keywords.
The search terms report is a Google Ads report that shows the actual queries users typed before triggering and clicking an ad, distinct from the keywords an advertiser added, and used to identify wasted spend, add negative keywords and discover new keyword opportunities.
What Search Terms Report Means in Marketing
Advertisers set keywords. Users type queries. These are not the same thing.
A keyword like “project management software” on broad match might trigger ads for “how to plan a project”, “team task tracker app” and “project management software comparison”. Each of these is a real user query, and each appears in the search terms report. The keyword report shows only that “project management software” generated clicks. The search terms report shows the actual words that caused them.
This distinction matters because it is the actual queries, not the keywords, that generate costs and conversions. A campaign can look healthy at the keyword level while the search terms data reveals significant spend on queries that never convert.
The search terms report is therefore the primary diagnostic tool for understanding what a campaign actually responds to, not just what it was set up to respond to.
How Search Terms Report Works
The search terms report is accessed in Google Ads under the Keywords section. It displays every query that triggered an impression or click within the selected date range, alongside the keyword that matched it, and performance metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions and cost.
Each row in the report shows a real user query, the match type that allowed it, and the keyword it was matched to. This makes it possible to trace exactly how a keyword’s match type configuration is behaving in practice.
The two actions the search terms report enables are negative keyword additions and positive keyword additions. Queries that are irrelevant to the business become negative keywords to prevent future spend. Queries that perform well and represent genuine search intent can be added as new positive keywords, often on a tighter match type, to better control bidding and ad relevance.
Note that Google limits the visibility of low-volume queries for privacy reasons, labelling a share of search term activity as “other”. This portion cannot be reviewed or acted on directly.
Search Terms Report Example
A company selling B2B CRM software reviews its search terms report after two weeks of running a broad match campaign. It finds the keyword “CRM software” triggered for: “CRM software for small business” (relevant, good conversion rate), “what is CRM software” (informational, no conversions), “free CRM software download” (irrelevant intent), and “CRM software developer jobs” (completely off-target). The company adds “free”, “what is”, and “jobs” as negative keywords and adds “CRM software for small business” as an exact match keyword with a dedicated ad and landing page.
Why Search Terms Report Matters for Marketers
The search terms report closes the loop between what advertisers intended and what actually happened. Without it, budget decisions are based on keyword-level data that masks query-level reality. With it, advertisers can see where money is being spent on queries outside their target and act on that directly.
Regular review of the search terms report is one of the highest-return activities in paid search account management. Each relevant negative keyword added reduces wasted spend on every future impression that query would have triggered. Over weeks and months, a well-maintained negative list built from search terms data compounds into a meaningfully more efficient account.
It is also the primary source for expanding keyword coverage intelligently, surfacing real queries that convert and adding them where they can be managed with appropriate bids and creative.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the search terms report different from the keywords report?
The keywords report shows performance for the keywords you have added to the campaign: their impressions, clicks and costs. The search terms report shows the actual queries users typed before clicking. Because match types allow one keyword to trigger many different queries, the search terms report is where you see what really happened. A phrase match keyword 'accounting software' might show clean performance in the keywords report while the search terms report reveals it triggered dozens of unrelated queries.
Why are some queries hidden in the search terms report?
Google withholds queries that did not reach a minimum privacy threshold, meaning low-volume queries from small groups of users may not appear. This is documented as part of Google's privacy protections and affects search term visibility across all accounts. The practical consequence is that a portion of search volume, sometimes significant, is categorised as 'other' and cannot be reviewed or excluded with negative keywords. There is no workaround; the data is simply not available.
How often should I review the search terms report?
For active campaigns with meaningful spend, weekly reviews are standard. Each review should look for queries generating clicks but no conversions, queries clearly outside the target audience, and queries that suggest new keyword opportunities worth adding as positives. For lower-spend campaigns, monthly reviews are sufficient. The more you spend and the broader your match types, the more important and more frequent the review becomes.
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