hi, i’m amr. most b2b accounts i look at have a keyword list somebody built once and a search terms report nobody opens. google’s help page on the report is short, and it carries three limits that change how much you can trust it.
what google says, in its own words
- the report is “a list of search terms that a significant number of people have used, and that resulted in your ad being shown”
- a search term is what a person typed into google. a keyword is what you added to an ad group. a broader keyword can match narrower search terms, so the match type in the report can differ from the one you set
- the keyword column is hidden by default
- “Some search terms that don’t have enough query activity are omitted from the search terms report”, and google cites data privacy standards. search terms insights group low-volume queries into subthemes or “other queries” instead
- in the report editor view, google says you can’t add keywords or negative keywords directly from the report. it recommends adding irrelevant terms as negative keywords through a separate guide
- store visits and store sales conversions are not compatible with the report
- for dynamic search ads and shopping matches there is no keyword returned, and the match type shows as exact
- search terms insights build their theme labels from the last 56 days of data, and conversions can differ slightly between the two views because of conversion lag
the page doesn’t state what counts as “significant” or as “enough query activity”, and it doesn’t say how long the data is kept.
my reading, not google’s wording: if low-volume searches are left out, the rows you can see are not the whole bill. a report that looks clean can still sit on top of spend you can’t read line by line.
what to check this week
- open the report for the last 30 days, add the keyword column, and sort by cost. read the top 20 rows against what you actually sell
- mark each irrelevant search term and add it as a negative keyword. remember negatives don’t match close variants, which i covered in an earlier post
- look for broad keywords that match searches far from your offer, then decide whether to tighten the match type or the keyword
- compare the total cost in the report with the total cost of the campaign. if the gap is large, the omitted low-volume terms are where it went. i haven’t seen your account, so i can’t say how large yours is
- if you run dynamic search ads or shopping, don’t expect a keyword on those rows
- set a calendar slot, weekly while a campaign is new and monthly after, to repeat the check
where this stops applying
the page gives no benchmark for how many terms are omitted, no good-or-bad ratio of irrelevant searches, and nothing about performance. if your account is small and every search term is visible, the privacy limit may not touch you. i haven’t audited any account for this post.
start scaling — if your search terms report looks tidy but the spend doesn’t add up, a one-hour review of terms, match types and negatives will show where the money goes. let’s connect.
Sources: Google Ads Help, “About the search terms report” (support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708). Figures are published product documentation, not verified results from Amr’s own client accounts.