The Search terms report shows the actual queries that triggered your ads, which is different from the keywords you're bidding on.
- Search terms can be added directly as new keywords when they're converting well, or as negative keywords when they're irrelevant to the campaign
- The report can be filtered by match type, campaign, or ad group to isolate which keywords are pulling in unwanted traffic
- Reviewing this report regularly is one of the most direct ways to control wasted spend on searches that don't match campaign intent
Use cases
Validation use cases
- Spot data outliers in campaigns
- Verify metric mappings from sources
- Validate currency and timezone settings
- Reconcile ad group level metrics
- Document validation results
- Notify stakeholders on failures
Concluding note