The Google Ads Search Terms Report Explained

The Google Ads Search Terms Report Explained

The Google Ads search terms report is the single most useful screen in the whole platform, and most agencies barely open it. It shows the actual words people typed into Google before your ad appeared, not the keywords you bid on. That gap between what you targeted and what Google actually matched is where wasted spend lives, and it is where your next round of savings comes from.

If you manage paid search for clients, this is the report you should be reading before every optimisation session and pulling into every client update. It is how you prove you are protecting their budget, not just spending it.

We build reporting software for agencies, so we see how these numbers land with clients. The teams that win renewals are the ones who can point to a search terms review and say "here is the junk we cut this month". This guide covers what the report is, where to find it, how to read it, and how to turn it into negative keywords that actually move CPA.

Last updated: July 2026.

Key takeaways

• The google ads search terms report lists the real search queries that triggered your ads, along with clicks, cost, conversions and the keyword and match type that caught each query.
• It is different from your keyword list: keywords are what you bid on, search terms are what people actually typed.
• The report is the primary source for building a negative keywords report that blocks irrelevant queries and stops budget bleed.
• Google removed some low-volume search terms for privacy reasons, so the report shows most spend but not every single query.
• Review it at least fortnightly for active accounts; automated reporting can surface the wasted-spend queries without you digging through the interface.

What this guide covers

1. What the Google Ads search terms report is
2. How it differs from the keyword report
3. Where to find it in Google Ads
4. How to read every column
5. How to turn search terms into negative keywords
6. Why Google hides some search terms
7. How often to run search term analysis
8. FAQs

What is the Google Ads search terms report?

The Google Ads search terms report is a table of the actual queries people searched before clicking or seeing your ad, matched against the keywords and match types in your account. Each row is a real search phrase with its own clicks, impressions, cost, conversions and conversion value.

This matters because of how Google matches ads. When you add a broad or phrase match keyword, Google decides which live searches are "close enough" to show your ad against. A keyword like running shoes can trigger your ad on cheap running shoes, running shoe repair or are running shoes tax deductible. Only the search terms report tells you which of those Google actually charged you for.

Some marketers still call this the Google Ads search query report, which was the old name before Google renamed it. Same report, same data. If a client or a legacy template references the "search query report", they mean this. According to Google Ads Help, the report reflects searches that met Google's threshold for being shown publicly, which we cover below.

The practical takeaway: your keyword list is a wish, and the search terms report is the receipt.

Search terms report vs the keyword report

Keywords are the inputs you control. Search terms are the outputs Google generated from them. Confusing the two is the most common reporting mistake we see agencies make when they explain performance to clients.

A single phrase match keyword might be responsible for dozens of search terms, some brilliant and some useless. You cannot see that split on the keyword screen. This is exactly the kind of nuance worth translating for clients, and it pairs well with a plain-English walkthrough like our post on Google Ads metrics explained for clients.

Where to find the search terms report in Google Ads

To open the report, go to your campaign or ad group, select the Insights and reports or Search terms section from the left menu, and choose Search terms. You can view it at account, campaign, ad group or keyword level, and set any date range you need.

A few practical notes from running these reviews:

• Set a meaningful date range. A single week rarely has enough conversion data to judge a query. Thirty to ninety days is usually the sweet spot.
• Segment by conversions so the high-cost, zero-conversion queries float to the top. Those are your first negatives.
• Add the match type column. Broad match keywords produce the widest, messiest search terms, so knowing which keyword caught a bad query tells you where to tighten.

Google Ads is one of the most common platforms agencies connect for reporting. Across ReportsMate accounts, roughly one in five client platform connections is Google Ads, which tells you how central search performance still is to agency retainers. If you want the connection side handled automatically, our Google Ads integration pulls this data into scheduled reports without a manual export.

How to read every column in the report

Read the report left to right, but judge it by cost against conversions. A search term with high cost and no conversions is a leak. A term with strong conversions and low cost is a keyword you should probably add and bid on directly.

The columns that matter most:

• Search term: the actual query typed. Read these like a human, not a spreadsheet.
• Match type: how Google connected the query to your keyword (exact, phrase or broad). "Broad match" here is your signal to review closely.
• Added/Excluded: whether the term is already a keyword, already a negative, or neither. "None" means it is unmanaged and worth a decision.
• Clicks and cost: what you paid to appear for that query.
• Conversions and conversion value: whether it actually did anything for the client.

The pattern you are hunting for is high spend paired with low or zero conversions. That is wasted budget you can reclaim. For context on what "good" looks like once you have cleaned things up, see our guide on what is a good CTR for Google Ads.

Turning search terms into negative keywords

The whole point of search term analysis is to build a negative keywords report: a list of queries you never want to pay for again. When you spot an irrelevant term, add it as a negative keyword so Google stops matching your ads to it.

A simple, repeatable process:

1. Sort the report by cost, highest first.
2. Flag every high-cost query with zero conversions and no clear intent to buy.
3. Add clearly irrelevant queries as negatives at the ad group or campaign level.
4. Build a shared negative keyword list for account-wide junk (free, jobs, DIY, competitor complaints, wrong locations).
5. Promote the winners: strong converting search terms often deserve to become their own exact match keywords.

Be deliberate. A negative that is too broad can block good traffic, so review the match type of each negative before you save it. Google Ads Help has the official reference on adding negative keywords and lists if you want to confirm the exact behaviour.

The insider term here is wasted spend: money spent on clicks that were never going to convert. A clean negative keyword strategy is the fastest way to shrink it, and it is a number clients understand instantly. If you want to see the budget impact before you act, our Google Ads budget calculator helps you model where the reclaimed spend should go.

Why Google hides some search terms

Google does not show every single query in the report. To protect user privacy, it withholds search terms that were not searched by a significant number of people, so you will see a portion of impressions and clicks grouped as "other search terms" or simply missing. This has been the case since Google tightened its data thresholds a few years ago.

For agencies, this means two things. First, the report still covers the large majority of your spend, so it remains the best tool you have for finding waste. Second, you cannot promise a client that every wasted click is visible, so frame it honestly: "we review all reported search terms every cycle" is accurate, "we see every query" is not. Honest framing is a trust signal, and trust is what keeps retainers alive.

How often should you run search term analysis?

For active accounts spending daily, review the search terms report at least once a fortnight, and weekly for new campaigns still in their learning phase. New campaigns generate the messiest search terms because Google is still working out which queries fit, so early, frequent reviews save the most money.

This is exactly the kind of routine that quietly eats an agency's week. Pulling the report, filtering it, screenshotting the wins and pasting them into a client email adds up fast across a client roster. We built ReportsMate email-first precisely because that manual reporting work can swallow 15 or more hours a week, and the report that lands in a client's inbox is the one that actually gets read. See how it works if that sounds familiar.

FAQs

Q: What is the difference between keywords and search terms in Google Ads?

A: Keywords are the terms you choose to bid on, and search terms are the actual queries people typed into Google that triggered your ad. One keyword can match many search terms, especially on broad and phrase match, so the search terms report shows you what really happened versus what you intended. Reviewing it is how you find queries to add as negatives and winning queries to promote to their own keywords. It is the single best place to reduce wasted spend, and it should inform every optimisation and every client update you send.

Q: Is the search query report the same as the search terms report?

A: Yes. "Search query report" is the older name for what Google now calls the search terms report. The data is identical: it lists the real searches that triggered your ads along with clicks, cost and conversions. If a client, a template or an old training doc references the Google Ads search query report, they are talking about the same screen. Google renamed it, but plenty of marketers still use the legacy term out of habit.

Q: How do I use the search terms report to find negative keywords?

A: Sort the report by cost, then look for high-spend queries with zero or very few conversions and no genuine buying intent. Add those as negative keywords at the ad group or campaign level, and build a shared negative keyword list for account-wide junk like "free", "jobs" or "DIY". Check the match type before saving so a broad negative does not accidentally block good traffic. Doing this regularly is the core of a healthy negative keywords report and the fastest way to cut wasted spend.

Q: Why are some search terms missing from the report?

A: Google withholds search terms that were not searched by enough people, to protect user privacy. So the report shows the large majority of your spend but not literally every query, and you will sometimes see clicks grouped under "other" terms. It still surfaces almost all of your meaningful waste, so it remains the best cleanup tool you have. Just be honest with clients that you review all reported search terms rather than promising visibility into every single click.

Q: How often should agencies review the Google Ads search terms report?

A: At least fortnightly for established accounts, and weekly for new campaigns still in their learning phase. New campaigns produce the widest, messiest search terms because Google is still learning which queries fit, so early reviews save the most money. Automating the pull saves hours: a scheduled report can surface the high-cost, low-conversion queries for you. You can read more about cadence in our guide on how often agencies should send client reports.

Q: Does the search terms report work with automated reporting tools?

A: Yes. Automated reporting tools connect to your Google Ads account through the API and can pull search term data on a schedule, so you are not exporting spreadsheets by hand. The value is turning raw queries into a clear, client-ready summary: what you cut, what you kept and what it saved. Email-first tools like ReportsMate go a step further by delivering that summary straight to the client's inbox as a branded report, so the work you did on their search terms actually gets seen.

Turn search term reviews into reporting your clients read

The Google Ads search terms report is where good paid search managers earn their retainer. Read it, cut the junk, promote the winners, and the work compounds every month. The only thing that undoes it is failing to show clients what you did, which is where most agencies quietly lose ground.

That is the whole reason ReportsMate is email-first. Instead of a login-required dashboard your client never opens, the story of the wasted spend you cut lands in their inbox as a branded report, automatically, on whatever schedule you set. It is white-labelled, so it looks like your agency's own work. For a broader tooling comparison, our roundup of the best Google Ads reporting tool options walks through the alternatives fairly.

Stop losing your Sundays to client reports. Start your free 14-day trial - no credit card, no setup, cancel anytime. Your clients get branded reports in their inbox automatically.