Guide · search-terms · negative-keywords · diagnosis
Read the Google Ads search terms report in plain language: classify each query by service, location, and intent, then keep, exclude, or check it.
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 customer, 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.
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 customer you accept, a location you can serve, and a real commercial conversation.
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 customer, a wrong fit, or an unanswered question.
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.
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.
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.
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 customer we accept? Are they trying to hire someone, or learning, buying a product, or looking for work (intent)?
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.
Owner question: what did this person appear to want?
Owner question: what did the account allow in?
A diagnosis column, not an edit button.
Interaction, not a customer.
What was spent, not what was earned.
Check the call, form, or CRM record.
Where the report earns its keep.
That is enough vocabulary to begin.
Once the routine is familiar, classify every meaningful query through five filters before you decide anything.
| 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 customer 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, completed, 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.
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 customer 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.
| Search term | Cost | Platform conversions | Qualified enquiries | 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.
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.
When attribution is available, judge a theme by the defined business outcome, not the click.
| Measure | Calculation |
|---|---|
| Qualified rate by query theme | qualified enquiries from theme ÷ tracked enquiries 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.
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, customer 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.
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, completed, and economically sensible work.
The Profit Ledger
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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