Search terms

What Is The Google Ads Search Term Report Tool?

Search terms are the actual searches entered into Google from people who click on your ads. Google match-up search terms entered into Google, with the keywords within your Google Ads account. Google describes search terms as: “the exact word or set of words a customer enters when searching on Google.com or Search Partner Network sites.”

Search term report is an analytical tool that provides statistical data about the search terms that consumers are putting into the search engine. 

This information allows you to study what users are looking for before amending your keyword ad placements accordingly. A search term report will list various metrics including the impressions displayed along with the clicks gained from each ad and keyword.

Search terms in Google Ads

Difference between Search Terms & Keywords

A search term is the exact word or set of words that a customer enters when searching on Google.co.uk or one of our Search Network sites. A keyword is the word or set of words that Ads advertisers create for a given ad group to target your ads to customers.

The benefits of using Google Ads STRs

• Identify new search terms with high potential through the use of tracking what other terms users have been searching for, and add them to your keyword list
• Start looking at the long-tail keywords by using structured expansion and broad match generation. This is one aspect where lots of marketing experts continue to fall short.
• Gain a deeper understanding of your audience and their consumer behaviours, which can help influence everything from branding to customer relations.
• Expand the keyword list
• Reduce Costs by blocking irrelevant searches. Use negative keywords
• Increase CTR and quality Score. 
• Improve bidding accuracy with a comprehensive keyword list that matches  the actual search terms entered into Google.
• Identify optimum keyword match type combinations 
• Search terms of less relevance to your business can be made negative keywords reduce wasted spend and increase CTR.

Search Terms Report in Google Ads

How To Set Up A Search Term Report & Order Keywords In Google Ads

Follow the simple pathway below, and you won’t go far wrong: 

Navigate your way to the search report tool by clicking the Keywords tab from inside the Google Ads portal. Then select Details → Search Terms → All. The search terms used in the ad will now appear in the left column. 

Navigate to Columns → Customise Columns → Attributes. 

Click Add (located next to the Keyword link) and select Apply. You will now see the keyword that has been programmed appear in the top right corner of the page.

Select the links for Impressions, Select Clicks, or Cost to order the search term reports depending on those metrics.

Select Add As Keyword to add a keyword or Add As Negative Keyword to exclude it from the list. The latter can be used at ad group or campaign level.

Manage your keywords based on search terms data

Use your search terms data to make changes to your keywords that can have a positive impact on your performance. Here are some ideas:

• Add high-performing search terms to your ad group as keywords. Consider adjusting your bids as well, since search terms appearing in the search terms report are already receiving traffic. Therefore, adding those terms as keywords shouldn’t do much unless paired with changes to bids, ad text or both.
• If a search term isn’t relevant enough to the products or services that you offer, add it as a negative keyword instead. This will help keep your ad from showing to people who are looking for something that you don’t sell. For example, if you sell eyeglasses, and you see that the search term “wine glasses” is triggering your ads, you might want to add “wine” as a negative keyword.
• Select the correct match type (e.g. broad, phrase, exact or negative) for existing keywords. The “Match type” column (see above) can help you understand how keyword match type is affecting your ad performance.

Related resources:

About the search terms report

Google Ads Search Terms Report: Complete Guide

How to use Google AdWords Search Terms Report to improve ROI