One of the most important aspects of a successful Google Ads strategy is reaching the right people with the right message during their search.

To do this right, you need to know exactly how your ads are performing and what words potential customers are searching for.

This is where the Google Ads search term report comes in handy.

This report is a goldmine and invaluable to any Google Ads account.

The Search Terms report provides insight into the exact phrases used to trigger your ads and can help you:

• Refine your keyword strategy significantly.
• Improve your goal alignment.
• Increase your return on investment (ROI).

Let's look at why the Google Ads Search Terms report is not only helpful, but critical to maximizing Google Ads profitability.

What is the Google Ads Search Terms Report?

The Search Terms report is a performance tool that shows how your ad performs when triggered by actual searches on the Google Search Network.

The report shows specific terms and phrases that triggered your ad to appear, making it easier to determine if you're bidding on the right keywords or using the right match types.

If you find search terms that are not relevant to your business, you can easily add them to your negative keywords list.

This allows you to use your budget more efficiently by ensuring that your ads only appear on relevant, useful searches from potential customers.

Remember that there is a difference between a search term and a keyword:

• Search term: Shows the exact word or phrase a customer types on the Google Search Network to trigger an ad.
• Keyword: The word or phrase that Google Ads advertisers target and bid on to show their ads to customers.

How to create a search term report

Creating a search term report in your Google Ads account is easy, and even better: it can be automated!

To view your search term report, you must:

• Sign in to your Google Ads account.
• Navigate to “Campaigns” >> “Insights & Reports” >> “Search Terms”

Below is an example of where to navigate in your Google Ads account to find the Search Terms report.

Screenshot by the author, April 2024

After running this report, there are several actions you can take as a marketer:

• Add the best performing search queries as keywords to the relevant ad groups.
• When adding new keywords, select the match type you want (e.g. broad, phrase, exact).
• Add irrelevant search terms to a negative keyword list.

3 Ways to Use Search Term Reporting Data

As mentioned above, there are numerous ways you can use the Search Terms report data to optimize campaign performance.

Let's look at three examples of how you can get the most for your money with this report.

1. Refine existing keyword lists

The search term report can initially be helpful in refining existing keyword lists.

By combing through the search terms report, you can find areas of potential, including:

• Which search queries lead to conversions?
• Which search queries are irrelevant to the product or service?
• Which search queries have many impressions but few clicks?
• How search queries are mapped to existing keywords and ad groups.

For search queries that lead to conversions, it probably makes sense to add them as keywords to an existing ad group or create a new ad group.

If you find that some searches are irrelevant to your product, it's best to add them as negative keywords. This will prevent your ad from appearing for that search in the future.

If some search queries have a lot of impressions but few clicks, these need to be looked at more closely. If the keyword is a worthwhile bid, this may be an indication that the bidding strategy is not competitive enough, which means you need to change your bidding strategy.

When a search term is triggered by multiple keywords and ad groups, this is keyword cross pollution. This can lead to a lower ROI because essentially multiple keywords are bidding on that search term, which can drive up costs. In this case, you have a few options:

• Review and update existing keyword match types if needed.
• Add negative keywords where appropriate at the ad group or campaign level to avoid cross-pollution.

Ultimately, this is how the Search Terms report helps you identify what is performing well and eliminate things that are not performing well.

2. Understand how your audience actually searches for your product

What I often observe is a discrepancy between the way a company talks about its product or service and the way a customer actually searches for it in the real world.

If you're bidding on keywords that you think describe your product or service but aren't having success, you may have the wrong expectations.

Often times, searches that result in conversions are for terms you wouldn't have bid on without looking at the search terms report.

One of the most underutilized use cases of this report is to find lesser-known ways customers search for and find your product.

Finding such keywords can lead to the creation of a new campaign, especially if the search terms do not fit into the existing ad group structure.

By creating campaigns based on different search topics, appropriate bidding strategies can be developed for each topic, since not all keyword values ​​are the same.

Understanding how a customer describes their need for a product or service not only helps with your keyword strategy, but can also lead to better-aligned product positioning.

This brings us to a third way the Search Terms report can help your campaigns.

3. Optimize ad copy and landing pages

As explained in #2, the language and wording used by customers can provide valuable insights into their needs and preferences.

The Search Terms report helps marketers better tailor ad copy to make it more relevant and engaging to potential customers.

And let’s not forget the landing page!

When a user clicks on an ad, they expect a match between their search and what appears on a website.

Make sure landing page content is updated regularly to better match search intent.

This can lead to a better user experience and improved conversion rates.

How to increase ROI using the search term report

All three examples above show how the Search Terms report can improve the ROI of a campaign.

How come?

Let’s look at each example in more detail.

How keyword refinement improves ROI

Refining existing keywords also includes eliminating any irrelevant search terms that trigger an ad.

With a solid negative keyword strategy, you can avoid “unwanted” spending on keywords that don’t make sense.

These previously “wasted” spends are then redirected to campaigns that consistently deliver higher ROI.

Additionally, adding the best performing search terms gives you more control from a bidding strategy perspective.

The ability to pull the right levers and set appropriate bidding strategies by search topic ultimately leads to a better ROI.

How understanding audience intent improves ROI

By understanding the exact language and search terms prospects are using, marketers can update ad copy and landing pages to better match those searches.

This can increase ad relevance and ad ranking in Google Ads.

These elements help with keyword Quality Score, which can help lower CPCs as your Quality Score increases.

More relevant ads are likely to result in higher click-through rates, which in turn increases the likelihood of those users converting!

How updating ad copy and landing pages improves ROI

This example goes hand in hand with the recommendation above.

As you better understand your audience's search intent, updating your ad copy and landing pages to match the search query will increase ad relevance.

When a user clicks on the corresponding ad, they find that the content of the landing page better matches what they are looking for.

This increased relevance can significantly increase the likelihood of conversion, ultimately improving ROI.

Use this report to make data-driven decisions

Google Ads is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy and often makes up a large portion of your marketing budget.

By regularly reviewing the Search Terms report, you can optimize your marketing budget to increase the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaigns.

Using this report to make data-driven decisions to fine-tune multiple aspects of campaign management will result in more effective ad spend, higher conversion rates, and ultimately a higher ROI.

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