How to Read a Google Ads Search Terms Report (And What to Do With It)

Where to find the search terms report

In Google Ads: go to your campaign or ad group, then select Keywords from the left navigation, then Search Terms from the sub-menu. You can view at the campaign level (all queries across the campaign) or drill down to ad group level.

Set the date range to the last 7-14 days for your weekly review. Use a longer range (30-90 days) when doing a deeper audit or building a new negative keyword list.

What to look for in the report

Review the report through three lenses:

1. Irrelevant queries (add as negatives)

These are queries that are clearly unrelated to your offering — DIY searches, job seekers, students researching, people looking for free resources. These should be added as negative keywords immediately.

2. High-performing queries (consider adding as keywords)

A search term that has generated multiple conversions but isn't an explicit keyword in your account is a candidate for adding as a keyword — particularly as exact match. Adding it explicitly gives you bidding control and lets you write an ad specifically for it.

3. Mid-funnel queries (adjust bids or create content)

Research-stage queries — "how does X work", "X vs Y", "is X worth it" — have lower purchase intent. They're worth knowing about even if you exclude them from ads. These are the best SEO content targets: if people are searching these questions before buying, a resource article targeting that query builds trust before the commercial search.

How to add negative keywords from search terms

The fastest workflow:

• •In the search terms report, tick the box next to any irrelevant query.
• •Click "Add as negative keyword" in the toolbar that appears.
• •Choose whether to add it to the campaign or ad group level. Campaign-level is usually more efficient for common irrelevant terms.
• •Choose exact match for specific irrelevant queries; broad match for general themes you never want to match (e.g. "jobs" as a broad negative).

Build a shared negative keyword list for terms that are irrelevant to your entire business (not just one campaign). Apply this list to all campaigns. Over time, your shared list becomes a valuable asset that saves budget across every campaign you run.

Common patterns to watch for

Industry-agnostic patterns that appear in most accounts:

• •Competitor brand names: Your broad and phrase keywords will match competitor brand searches. Decide whether you want to be there (competitor campaigns have value for some businesses) or exclude them.
• •Geographic drift: If you're Perth-based, broad match will generate queries from "electrician Sydney" and "plumber Melbourne". Add other major cities as negatives if you're a local business.
• •Informational queries: "what is X", "how does X work", "X explained" — these are research queries. Low conversion rate but sometimes worth serving content ads or retargeting pixels on. Usually better excluded from commercial campaigns.
• •Your own brand name: If PMax or broad match is showing your ads for your own brand name, those conversions are almost certainly not incremental. Your brand campaign should handle this — exclude brand terms from non-brand campaigns.

Using search terms to improve your keyword strategy

Beyond negatives, the search terms report is your best source of keyword expansion ideas. Queries you hadn't considered — but that convert well — are evidence of demand you can capture more deliberately.

A practical monthly exercise: export 90 days of search term data to a spreadsheet. Filter by queries with two or more conversions that aren't already explicit keywords. Add the strongest ones as exact match keywords with their own tailored ads. This compounds over time — every month you get a few more high-signal keywords.

Similarly, high-volume zero-conversion queries are either poor intent traffic (exclude them) or a landing page problem (investigate separately). The report doesn't tell you which — but flagging them is the starting point.