How to read a Google Ads Search Terms Report
Read the Google Ads search terms report in plain language: classify each query by service, location, and intent, then keep, exclude, or check it.
Contents (12 sections)
- The five-minute routine
- The only vocabulary you need at first
- Read the query through five filters
- What each field tells you
- Keep, exclude, or check
- What to look for first
- A plumbing example
- How to use the report for negative keywords
- Query-theme economics
- The owner’s weekly review
- What the report may not show
- What to do next
You do not need to be a Google Ads expert to read this report. The Search Terms Report answers a simple question: what did people search for when Google showed or charged for your ad? That is different from asking what keywords you added to the account.
A keyword is an account setting. A search term is the person’s actual reported search.
The short answer
The Search Terms Report shows the real searches that made Google display your ad often enough to appear in the report. Read each meaningful line and ask whether it is the right service, the right location, the right client, and a real commercial intent. Then keep serviceable demand, exclude clear conflicts, and check anything ambiguous. The report is a diagnostic window, not a complete list of every search and not a booked-job report.
- These are the real searches behind your ads.The report shows searches that triggered your ad often enough to appear. It is a diagnostic window, not every search and not a booked-job report.
- Read each line through five filters.Service, location, customer type, intent, and outcome, then keep, exclude, or check.
- Repeated themes justify exclusions; single oddities may not.Start with expensive irrelevant terms, and judge a theme by booked jobs, not clicks, before turning it into a rule.
Google says the Search Terms Report shows search terms that a significant number of people used and that resulted in an ad being shown, and that the terms may differ from the keyword list because of keyword matching options. For a local-service owner, the report is useful because it lets you check whether the people seeing and clicking the ads appear to want the service you provide, the type of client you accept, a location you can serve, and a real commercial conversation.
The five-minute routine
You do not need to memorise every Google Ads term. You need a repeatable way to read a line and decide whether it looks like a client, a wrong fit, or an unanswered question.
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Open the report
In Google Ads, go to Campaigns → Insights and reports → Search terms. Google also documents access through Report editor. Choose one campaign and a useful date range; if the account is small, start with the campaign that spent the most.
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Read the actual searches
Look at the search-term column, not only the keywords. Read the full wording, because one word can mislead. “Cleaning” could mean house cleaning, cleaning jobs, a cleaning product, or instructions for cleaning something.
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Read the highest-cost lines first
Scan for searches that spent money, searches with several clicks, searches that generated a call or form, and searches that look clearly wrong. A low-cost irrelevant search does not deserve the same urgency as a high-cost repeated theme.
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Ask four owner questions
For each meaningful line: do we offer what this person wants (service)? Can we serve the location? Is this the type of client we accept? Are they trying to hire someone, or learning, buying a product, or looking for work (intent)?
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Choose keep, exclude, or check
Keep serviceable commercial demand, exclude clear conflicts with the business model, and check anything where the wording or evidence is not clear yet. The correct first action is often check, not exclude.
The only vocabulary you need at first
- Search term
- What the person actually searched.
Owner question: what did this person appear to want?
- Keyword
- The account targeting input that matched the search.
Owner question: what did the account allow in?
- Match type
- How Google connected the search to the keyword.
A diagnosis column, not an edit button.
- Click
- A person interacted with the ad.
Interaction, not a client.
- Cost
- The reported cost of the interaction.
What was spent, not what was earned.
- Conversion
- An action configured in the account. It is not automatically a booked job.
Check the call, form, or CRM record.
- Negative keyword
- A rule intended to stop an ad from showing for a defined search pattern.
Where the report earns its keep.
That is enough vocabulary to begin.
Read the query through five filters
Once the routine is familiar, classify every meaningful query through five filters before you decide anything.
- Service. Does the person want a service the business offers? A plumber may serve drain cleaning, water-heater repair, repiping, and emergency leaks. It does not follow that every plumbing-related query is relevant.
- Location. Is the request in the practical service area? The query’s city, the caller’s location, the user’s location signal, and the job service address may all differ. Check the actual address where possible.
- Customer type. Is the person residential, commercial, a property manager, a tenant, a landlord, or another client type the business serves?
- Intent. Is the person trying to buy, request an estimate, learn, find a job, rent equipment, buy a product, or contact a service provider?
- Outcome. Did the search produce a contact, qualified lead, booked job, finished job, or payment? A query that looks valuable but produces no serviceable or bookable work deserves investigation, not automatic praise.
What each field tells you
| Field | What it tells you | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Search term | The reported user search | That the search was profitable or fully visible |
| Keyword | The account keyword that matched | That the keyword was the only cause of the result |
| Match type | How the search related to the account keyword | That the query was commercially valid |
| Campaign | Where the spend occurred | That the campaign structure is correct |
| Ad group | Which intent group received the search | That the client booked |
| Clicks | Interaction volume | That the traffic was useful |
| Cost | Recorded platform spend | That the business lost or made money |
| Conversions | Configured conversion events | That a qualified, booked, finished, or paid job occurred |
| Booked job | Owner-confirmed calendar or CRM outcome | That the attribution is perfect |
Google says the Keyword column may need to be added to the report, and that the Match type column helps show how the search relates to the account keyword. The keyword answers “what targeting input allowed this search to enter?” The search term answers “what did the person appear to want?” Read both.
Keep, exclude, or check
The core decision is not good or bad. It is one of four moves.
| Decision | Use it when | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Keep | The query can represent serviceable commercial demand | “emergency plumber near me” |
| Exclude | The query clearly conflicts with the business model | “plumbing apprentice jobs” for a completed-service campaign |
| Check | The query is ambiguous or the evidence is too thin | “water heater help” |
| Route | The query is valid but belongs to another service line | “furnace replacement” from a repair ad group |
Keep or route a search when the business offers the service, serves the location, accepts the client type, and can handle the demand. Exclude when the conflict is clear: a cleaner that does not sell products may exclude “house cleaning supplies,” and a plumbing company that does not hire through the campaign may exclude “plumbing jobs.” Check when the search may be valid or the sample is too small: “water heater help” could mean repair, installation, parts, instructions, or troubleshooting, so review the call or form before blocking a broad phrase.
Do not make a decision from one word. Words such as “repair,” “commercial,” “home,” “cheap,” “near,” and “service” appear in both valid and invalid searches. “Commercial cleaning service” may be valid for a commercial cleaner, while “commercial cleaning jobs” is likely employment intent. Read the entire query.
What to look for first
- Expensive irrelevant terms. Queries that spent money and clearly do not match the service, area, or client type.
- Repeated themes. A single wrong query may be noise; a repeated theme may justify a campaign or list-level exclusion.
- Valid terms in the wrong ad group. The query may be good but misrouted. A replacement search in a repair ad group is not necessarily wasted demand.
- Search terms that trigger weak conversions. A query may produce form submits or call events but no qualified leads or bookings. Compare the platform event with the business record.
- Location mismatches. Check the actual service address, not only the word in the query or the phone area code.
- Product and parts intent. A service provider may not want product traffic, but a company that sells equipment or parts may. Use the actual business model.
A plumbing example
| Search term | Cost | Platform conversions | Qualified leads | Booked jobs | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| emergency plumber near me | $96.00 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Keep |
| how to unclog a sink | $42.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Exclude or check |
| plumbing apprentice jobs | $28.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Exclude |
| water heater replacement plumber | $84.00 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Route or keep |
| water heater parts near me | $36.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Exclude if parts are not sold |
| plumber in [serviceable city] | $72.00 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Keep |
The platform conversion column is not the final verdict. The booked-job column is an owner record. The decision should also consider service area, job size, completion, payment, and contribution. These are starting decisions; the owner’s service list and actual records control the final call.
How to use the report for negative keywords
The Search Terms Report is where negative keywords come from. Google says the report can provide negative-keyword ideas, and that terms added from the report to a Search campaign are negative exact match by default, with the option to add them to an ad group, campaign, existing list, or new list. That default is useful for a clearly wrong query, but it is not a reason to add every irrelevant-looking line as an exact negative.
Decide whether the problem is one exact query, a repeated phrase, a service-level mismatch, a customer-type mismatch, a location pattern, or a global theme such as employment or DIY. Then choose the narrowest scope that fixes it. Google says negative broad, phrase, and exact match types work differently from positive keyword match types, and that negative keywords do not match close variants or other expansions automatically. Do not assume one negative blocks every synonym, singular, plural, or related phrase.
For the match-type decisions and how to organise exclusions by service line, use the negative keyword guide: the report tells you what to block, and that guide tells you how to block it safely.
Query-theme economics
When attribution is available, judge a theme by the defined business outcome, not the click.
| Measure | Calculation |
|---|---|
| Qualified rate by query theme | qualified leads from theme ÷ tracked leads from theme |
| Cost per booked job by query theme | defined acquisition cost from theme ÷ owner-confirmed booked jobs from theme |
| Estimated contribution | confirmed attributable revenue × owner-stated contribution margin |
If a theme has no booked jobs yet, do not turn that absence into a universal rule. Record the sample and review more evidence.
The owner’s weekly review
A repeatable review can be short but should be consistent. Save the campaign, date range, and columns first, and confirm the conversion definitions and attribution window did not change. During the review, read the highest-cost, highest-click, and highest-conversion queries, then inspect service, location, client type, intent, and the call, form, and booking outcomes. If the business has no record for a line, mark the outcome unknown rather than assuming it was good or bad.
After the review, add only justified negatives, route valid terms to the correct service line, update the negative-keyword library, and log the decision with its reason and scope. Do not change budgets, bidding, landing pages, and conversion goals at the same time because of one report, unless the account is intentionally being rebuilt.
What the report may not show
Do not treat the report as a complete list of every impression or search. Google describes it as containing search terms a significant number of people used that resulted in an ad being shown, and documents privacy and low-volume differences between the Search Terms Report and Search Terms Insights, which group searches into themes and subthemes. Use the Report when you need to read individual reported queries and Insights when broader demand patterns are more useful. For Performance Max, Google says search-term reporting and insights can help identify themes and conversions, but the reporting model differs from a complete Search campaign query log. A blank or limited report does not prove that no other searches occurred.
The objective is not fewer search terms. It is more serviceable, qualified, booked, finished, and economically sensible work.
Your one-page monthly report
The numbers and the next step
Money out Attributable spend by query theme, with the included-cost scope stated Recorded to the dollar, for the period the review covers.
Measured outcomes Serviceable, qualified, and booked demand the theme produced, with unknowns left unknown A query review is incomplete if it only reports lower spend. Record what demand was removed and whether relevant booked work changed.
Decision Keep, exclude, check, or route The smallest justified change, logged with its reason and scope.
The report is a window into reported searches, not a complete explanation of the account or a booked-job ledger. It shows what people searched; the business confirms what became work.
What to do next
The report is the evidence; the list is the verdict. The negative keyword guide covers match types, placement, and the cross-campaign exclusions this report cannot tell you about.
Questions owners ask
What is the difference between a keyword and a search term?
A keyword is an account targeting input you added. A search term is the person's actual reported search that matched it. Google says the reported search term can differ from the keyword because of matching options, so the keyword tells you what the account allowed and the search term tells you what the person appeared to want. Read both columns.
What should I look for first in the Search Terms Report?
Start with the queries that spent money and clearly do not match your service, area, or customer type. Then look for repeated themes, and for valid terms sitting in the wrong ad group. Also look for queries that produced form or call events but no qualified or booked work. A single wrong query may be noise. A repeated theme may justify a campaign or list-level exclusion.
How do I decide whether a search is commercial?
Read the whole query and look at the wording. Commercial searches tend to ask for a company, estimate, quote, repair, installation, appointment, or emergency response. Educational searches use how-to, tutorial, or course. Employment searches use jobs, careers, or apprentice. Product searches use parts, kit, or supplies. These are signals, not automatic rules, so apply the business model.
Should I add every irrelevant search as a negative keyword?
No. Google says terms added from the report are negative exact match by default, which fits one clearly wrong query but is not a reason to block every odd-looking line. Decide whether the problem is one exact query, a repeated phrase, a service or customer-type mismatch, a location pattern, or a global theme, then choose the narrowest scope that fixes it. Negative keywords also do not match close variants automatically.
When should I not exclude a search term?
Do not exclude a term just because it has low volume, or no conversion in a tiny sample. Do not exclude it because it contains a word you dislike, or is more expensive than average. Do not exclude it because it looks different from the keyword but is commercially valid, or because it belongs to another service line the business genuinely offers. Use the business record and the full query context before blocking.
Does a conversion in the report mean a booked job?
No. A conversion is an action configured in the account, such as a form submission, a call, a call of a chosen duration, a booking request, or an imported CRM outcome. It does not prove the caller wanted the right service, lived in the service area, was answered, was qualified, was booked, was completed, or was paid. Check the call, form, CRM, or calendar record before calling it a job.
Why are some searches missing from the report?
Google describes the report as showing search terms a significant number of people used that resulted in an ad being shown, so it is not a complete list of every search. Google also says the Search Terms Report and Search Terms Insights can differ because of conversion processing and privacy treatment of low-volume searches. A limited report does not prove no other searches occurred.
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