Last checked against Google’s documentation on 29 September 2026.
What the Google Ads search terms report shows
The search terms report lists the actual searches that triggered your ads, with clicks, cost and conversions for each. Google’s search terms report article describes it as the searches a significant number of people used that resulted in your ad being shown. It is different from your keyword list: keywords are what you bid on, search terms are what people typed.
Open it from Campaigns > Insights and reports > Search terms. Read it every week: exclude searches that spend money and will never buy, add searches that convert well as keywords, and watch which of your keywords match the widest spread of searches. It is the most direct view you have of what you are paying for.
Where to find the search terms report
- In Google Ads, select Campaigns in the left menu.
- Open Insights and reports and select Search terms.
- Set the date range. For a weekly review, use the last 7 days to find new searches, and the last 30 or 90 days to judge whether a search has spent enough to act on.
- Pick the scope at the top: all campaigns, one campaign, or one ad group.
- Add the columns you need through the column picker: cost, clicks, conversions, cost per conversion, conversion value, and the keyword that matched.
The Added/Excluded column tells you whether a search term is already a keyword or already excluded, so you don’t act on it twice.
Search terms vs keywords
Google’s keyword matching article defines keywords as the words or phrases used to match your ads to what people search for. The search term is the other half of that match. How far apart the two can be depends on the keyword’s match type:
| Keyword match type | How you write it | Can match searches that |
|---|---|---|
| Broad | running shoes | Are related to the keyword, even without its exact words |
| Phrase | "running shoes" | Include the meaning of the keyword |
| Exact | [running shoes] | Have the same meaning or intent as the keyword |
So even an exact match keyword shows for more than one search. This is why the keywords tab alone can’t tell you where money goes: a keyword with good average numbers can hide a few expensive, irrelevant searches behind it.
Match types and close variants in the report
The report’s Match type column describes how the search relates to the keyword that triggered it, not the match type you set on the keyword. Google lists these values:
- Exact match: the search is the same as your exact match keyword.
- Exact match (close variant): a search with the same meaning and intent.
- Phrase match and Phrase match (close variant): the search contains your phrase keyword, or a close variant of it.
- Broad match: the search is a variation of your broad match keyword.
Google’s close variants definition covers singular and plural forms, acronyms, stemmings, abbreviations, accents, and variants with the same meaning. A useful consequence: when a broad match keyword matches a search identical to it, the report shows exact match, even though the keyword is broad. Campaigns using AI Max show a separate “AI Max” value for searches the feature matched.
Why some search terms are missing
The report never shows every search. Google states that some search terms without enough query activity are omitted to keep with its privacy standards. In practice, the total of the visible rows is often lower than the campaign total. Treat the report as a large sample.
Search terms insights fill part of the gap. According to Google’s search terms insights article, they group search terms into categories and subcategories based on intent, and those groupings include terms hidden from the report for privacy reasons. Terms with lower spend or no identifiable category are grouped as other search terms. Find them under Campaigns > Insights, on the search terms insights card, for Search, Performance Max and Shopping campaigns. You can’t exclude a category directly, but a category that spends heavily without converting tells you which words to look for in the report.
How to read the search terms report each week
A routine that takes about 20 minutes in most accounts:
- Sort by cost, highest first. Waste is concentrated at the top.
- Mark obvious mismatches. Searches no customer would type: the wrong product, job seekers, free or do-it-yourself intent, competitor names you don’t want. These are negatives at any spend.
- Judge the relevant-looking losers with numbers. A search that has spent about your average cost per conversion with none is worth watching; at around twice that with none, it is usually a candidate to exclude, unless it is a core search for your business.
- Look for words, not rows. One word that appears in forty cheap searches can cost more than the single most expensive search. Group by word to see it; our guide to finding negative keywords shows how.
- Find the winners. Filter to searches with conversions that are not yet keywords. These are candidates to add as exact or phrase keywords, so you control their bids and ads.
- Check which keyword matched. If one broad keyword is responsible for most of the waste, tightening that keyword may do more than a long list of negatives.
- Allow for conversion lag. Don’t judge the last few days if customers usually take a week to convert.
What not to exclude
Before you add a negative, check it against the searches that convert. A single-word negative can block your best traffic along with the waste. Irrelevant and unprofitable are also not the same: a relevant search that doesn’t convert may need a better ad or landing page rather than an exclusion.
Want it as a timed routine? The 15-minute search terms audit walks through the same report minute by minute, from sorting by cost to promoting converting searches.
Performance Max and AI Max search terms
Performance Max has its own view. Google’s Performance Max search terms article says you open the search terms report and choose Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max from the dropdown, with data available from March 2023. You can block terms with negative keywords at the account or campaign level. Our guide to Performance Max negative keywords covers the limits and options.
AI Max for Search matches searches beyond your keywords. Google’s AI Max reporting article says you can filter the Match type column for “AI Max” to isolate those searches, and use the Search terms and ad combinations view (formerly search terms and landing pages) to see the headline and landing page shown for each search. From there you can add a negative keyword or a negative URL. See how AI Max for Search works for the rest.
Turning findings into negatives and keywords
Add negatives from the report
Google’s article on adding search terms describes the steps: tick the search terms, select Add as negative keyword, choose the ad group, the campaign, an existing negative keyword list, or a new list, then Save. Google notes that negatives added to a Search campaign this way are negative exact match by default. That blocks only that exact search. If you want to block a word wherever it appears, change it to a phrase or broad negative before saving.
Choose the narrowest level that solves the problem. A search that is wrong for one ad group but right for another belongs on that ad group. Only terms that are wrong for the whole business belong in a shared list.
Add winners as keywords
Tick the converting searches and select Add as keyword, then choose the ad group and match type. Put each one in the ad group whose ads and landing page fit it best. If no ad group fits, that is a sign you need a new one.
Boxoo’s search terms and keywords agent reads new search terms in your account every day, and files a case for searches that spend without converting and for converting searches that aren’t keywords yet, with the cost, clicks and conversions as evidence. When you press Apply it can add the negative keyword or the new keyword, and pause or enable keywords; match-type changes on existing keywords are handed to you as steps. To see what it finds, run a free Google Ads audit.
