How to Use Search Terms to Improve Targeting in Google Ads (Step-by-Step)

TL;DR: Your Google Ads search terms report shows you exactly what people typed before clicking your ad. That makes it one of the most actionable reports in your entire account. This guide walks you through a repeatable, step-by-step process for mining that data to find high-intent keywords worth keeping, cutting irrelevant traffic that's draining your budget, and tightening your targeting over time. No spreadsheets required. Whether you're a freelancer managing a handful of accounts or an agency running dozens of campaigns, this workflow applies directly to what you're doing every day.

Here's the core problem: most advertisers set up their campaigns, pick their keywords, and then move on. They check impressions, clicks, maybe conversions. But they rarely look at the search terms report with any real intention. The result? Budget quietly leaking to irrelevant queries. Broad match doing whatever it wants. Campaigns that look fine on the surface but are actually showing ads for things that have nothing to do with what you're selling.

In most accounts I audit, the search terms report tells a story the keyword list completely hides. You'll find informational queries mixed into commercial campaigns. Competitor brand names triggering your ads. Product categories you don't even carry. All of it costing real money.

The good news is that fixing this isn't complicated. It just takes a systematic approach and a consistent review habit. By the end of this guide, you'll have a clear process for turning raw search term data into smarter targeting decisions, every single week.

Let's get into it.

Step 1: Access and Understand Your Search Terms Report

Before you can do anything useful, you need to know where to find the data and what you're actually looking at.

In Google Ads, navigate to Keywords in the left-hand menu, then click the Search Terms tab. That's it. You're now looking at every query that triggered your ads during the selected date range, along with which keyword it matched to and how it performed.

The single most important concept here: there's a difference between a keyword (what you bid on) and a search term (what the user actually typed). These are not the same thing. You might be bidding on "project management software," but the search terms report will show you that your ads are appearing for "project management software free download," "what is project management software," and "project management software for students." Those are very different queries with very different intent. If you want a deeper breakdown of this distinction, understanding the difference between search terms and keywords is a foundational concept worth revisiting.

Before you start analyzing, make sure you have the right columns enabled. The ones that matter most:

Search term: The actual query the user typed.

Match type: Which match type caused this term to trigger your keyword.

Clicks: How many times someone clicked your ad for this query.

Impressions: How many times your ad showed for this query.

Cost: How much you've spent on this query.

Conversions and Conv. rate: Whether this query is actually driving results.

Cost/conv.: The efficiency metric that tells you if a term is worth what you're paying for it.

On date range: set at least 30 days. Ideally 60 to 90 days if your account has the traffic to support it. The most common mistake I see is someone pulling the last 7 days, seeing a handful of terms with zero conversions, and making sweeping decisions based on almost no data. Low-volume terms need time to accumulate meaningful signal.

Success indicator: You can see a full list of actual user queries mapped to your keywords, with cost and conversion data visible. If you're seeing "search term data is unavailable due to privacy settings" for a large portion of your traffic, that's a separate issue worth noting, but proceed with what's visible.

Step 2: Sort and Segment to Find the Signal in the Noise

You've got the data. Now you need to make sense of it. The key here is sorting with intention, not just scrolling through the list hoping something jumps out.

Start by sorting by Cost descending. This immediately surfaces where your budget is actually going. You're not looking for problems yet, you're just orienting yourself. Which queries are eating the most spend? Are those queries relevant to your offering? Do they match the intent you're targeting?

Then sort by Conversions descending. This shows you which search terms are actually doing the job. These are your winners, and they deserve attention later in this process.

Now use filters to isolate the problem terms. Set a filter for Cost greater than [your target CPA] and Conversions = 0. What you're looking at now is your highest-priority waste. These are queries that have spent meaningful money without producing a single result. Learning how to analyze search terms for wasted spend is one of the fastest ways to recover budget that's quietly draining from your campaigns.

Next, segment by match type. This is where broad match usually reveals itself as the culprit. If you're seeing a flood of irrelevant queries, check which match type they're coming from. In most accounts, broad match is responsible for the majority of irrelevant search terms, because Google has significant latitude to interpret what "related" means.

As you're reviewing, look for patterns rather than just individual terms:

Recurring irrelevant words: If "free," "DIY," "template," or "tutorial" keeps appearing across multiple queries, that's a pattern worth addressing at the list level, not just one term at a time.

Competitor brand names: If you're not intentionally running conquest campaigns, competitor brand queries triggering your ads is usually a waste of budget. Conversion rates on these tend to be low unless your offer is directly comparative.

Informational queries in commercial campaigns: Queries like "how does X work" or "what is X" have very different intent than "buy X" or "X pricing." If they're showing up in your conversion-focused campaigns, they're likely dragging down your efficiency. Knowing how to identify low-intent search terms helps you spot these patterns before they compound into significant wasted spend.

One practical note: if you're managing multiple campaigns, analyze this per campaign. Don't pull the entire account into one view and try to make sense of it. The context matters. A query that's irrelevant in one campaign might be perfectly appropriate in another.

Success indicator: You have a clear picture of which search terms are profitable and which are costing you money with no return. You can see the patterns, not just the individual outliers.

Step 3: Identify and Remove Irrelevant Search Terms with Negative Keywords

This is where you take action on what you found. Adding irrelevant search terms as negative keywords is the core mechanic for stopping wasted spend and tightening your targeting.

First, decide where to apply the negative. You have two main options:

Campaign-level negatives: Block the term across all ad groups within the campaign. Use this when the term is irrelevant to everything in that campaign.

Ad group-level negatives: Block the term only within a specific ad group. Use this when the term might be relevant in another ad group but not this one.

Match type for negatives matters too, and this is where a lot of people get it wrong.

Negative exact match blocks only that specific query. Use it when you want to block a very specific phrase without affecting related variations.

Negative phrase match blocks any query that contains that phrase. Use it when a word or phrase is consistently irrelevant regardless of context. For example, if you're selling project management software and "free project management templates" keeps appearing with zero conversions, adding "free" as a negative phrase match will block any query containing the word "free," which in most commercial software accounts is exactly what you want.

A practical example: let's say you're running ads for a B2B project management tool. Your search terms report is showing queries like "free project management templates," "project management spreadsheet download," and "free Trello alternative." None of these match your paid software offering. Adding "free" and "spreadsheet" as negative phrase match terms at the campaign level will stop those queries from triggering your ads going forward.

Don't just add one-offs. Build a shared negative keyword list in Google Ads (found under Tools > Shared Library > Negative keyword lists). This lets you apply the same list across multiple campaigns at once, which is a huge time-saver as your account grows. Understanding how to connect search terms to negative keyword lists properly will save you significant time as your account scales. Over time, this list becomes one of your most valuable assets.

The pitfall to avoid: being too aggressive. Before adding a negative, cross-reference it against your existing keywords to make sure you're not accidentally blocking a term that converts in another context. This is especially important with broad negatives like "free" because there are edge cases where that might appear in a legitimate converting query.

If you're doing this manually, the traditional workflow is: export the search terms report, flag the terms in a spreadsheet, then import them back into Google Ads as negatives. It works, but it's slow. Tools like Keywordme let you add negatives directly from the search terms report with a single click, skipping the export/import cycle entirely and keeping you in the Google Ads interface the whole time.

Success indicator: In your next review session, the irrelevant queries you added as negatives no longer appear, or appear far less frequently. Your cost-per-conversion for the affected campaigns starts to improve.

Step 4: Mine High-Intent Search Terms and Promote Them to Keywords

Not every search term is a problem. Some of them are goldmines hiding in your data, and this step is about finding them.

Look for search terms that are converting but aren't already in your keyword list as exact or phrase match. These are terms that your broad or phrase match keywords are "catching," but you have no direct control over. You can't write specific ad copy for them. You can't set a dedicated bid. They're just... along for the ride.

When you find a high-performing search term that isn't a dedicated keyword, add it. Promote it to phrase or exact match so you can bid on it directly and write ad copy that mirrors exactly what the user searched for. A focused approach to adding converting search terms as keywords gives you direct control over your best-performing queries instead of leaving them buried inside a broad match bucket.

How to evaluate whether a term is worth promoting:

Multiple clicks with at least one conversion: This is your clearest signal. The term is driving results and deserves dedicated attention.

High relevance even with limited data: Sometimes a term has only a few clicks but it's so precisely aligned with your offer that it's worth adding anyway. Use your judgment here.

A practical example: imagine you're bidding on "Google Ads tool" as a broad match keyword. Your search terms report shows that "Google Ads search term report tool" is converting consistently. That's a longer-tail, higher-intent version of your keyword, and it's worth promoting to exact or phrase match. Once you do, you can write a headline that says exactly "Google Ads Search Term Report Tool" and your ad relevance goes up immediately.

This data also informs your ad copy more broadly. If users are consistently searching a specific phrase, mirror it in your headlines. The closer your ad copy matches the search query, the better your expected click-through rate and Quality Score.

The pitfall here: don't go overboard. Adding every low-volume search term as its own keyword creates account bloat. Focus on terms that show real potential, meaning multiple data points, clear relevance, and enough search volume to be worth managing separately.

Success indicator: Your promoted keywords start accumulating their own impressions and conversions, giving you more granular control over bids and messaging than you had when they were just floating inside a broad match bucket.

Step 5: Apply Match Types Strategically Based on What You Find

Your search term data is the feedback loop for your match type decisions. If you're not using it to adjust match types, you're flying blind.

Here's the current Google Ads match type landscape in plain terms:

Broad match: Maximum reach, minimum control. Google can show your ad for queries it considers related to your keyword, which can mean very loosely related. Useful when paired with smart bidding and strong conversion data, but requires aggressive negative keyword management.

Phrase match: Your ad can show for queries that include the meaning of your keyword. More controlled than broad, but still flexible enough to catch variations you haven't thought of.

Exact match: Your ad shows only for queries that match your keyword's meaning very closely. Highest control, narrowest reach.

The practical workflow: after each review cycle, look at which keywords are generating consistently irrelevant search terms. If a broad match keyword keeps pulling in off-topic queries despite your negatives, consider shifting it to phrase match. If a phrase match keyword is still too loose, test exact match for your highest-value terms. A detailed guide on optimizing match types using your search terms report walks through exactly how to make these decisions systematically.

Think of it as a dial. You start broad to gather data, then tighten as the data tells you where control is needed. Some keywords will stay broad forever because they work. Others will need to be reined in quickly.

One related concept worth exploring here is keyword clustering, which is the practice of grouping related search terms into tighter, more relevant ad groups. When your search terms data reveals a cluster of related queries that all share a specific intent, building a dedicated ad group around them improves your Quality Score and ad relevance. It's a natural extension of the promotion step above.

Success indicator: Your impression share on relevant terms increases while irrelevant impressions decline. Your average Quality Score for affected keywords improves as ad relevance tightens.

Step 6: Build a Repeatable Review Cadence and Stick to It

Everything above is a one-time cleanup if you only do it once. The real value comes from doing it consistently.

Google Ads targeting drift is real. Match types evolve. Google's interpretation of "related" queries shifts over time. New search trends emerge. What was a clean, tight campaign six months ago can quietly accumulate irrelevant traffic if nobody's watching.

Recommended review frequency:

Weekly: For active, high-spend campaigns where budget waste adds up fast. A weekly 20-minute review can make a meaningful difference over the course of a month.

Bi-weekly: For lower-spend accounts or campaigns that have already gone through several rounds of optimization. Once your negative lists are mature, reviews get faster. Knowing how often you should review your search terms report based on your account's spend level helps you allocate time where it has the most impact.

What to actually do in each review session:

1. Set the date range to cover since your last review, so you're only looking at new data.

2. Sort by cost descending and scan for new high-spend, zero-conversion terms.

3. Add negatives for anything irrelevant. Update your shared negative list.

4. Look for new high-converting terms worth promoting to keywords.

5. Note any match type adjustments needed based on patterns you're seeing.

Document your changes. Keep a simple log, even just a spreadsheet with the date, what you added as a negative, and why. This matters more than it sounds. When you're auditing an account six months later trying to figure out why certain terms aren't showing up, that log saves you hours.

For agencies managing multiple clients, this is where workflow efficiency becomes critical. Doing this manually for ten accounts is genuinely painful. You need a process that scales. Keywordme's Chrome extension was built specifically for this scenario: it lets you run this entire workflow without leaving Google Ads, no exporting, no spreadsheets, no tab-switching. You can add negatives, promote keywords, and apply match types with single clicks directly inside the search terms report, across multiple accounts. If you're responsible for managing search terms reports across multiple accounts, having the right workflow in place is what separates scalable agency operations from ones that break under volume.

Success indicator: Each review session gets faster than the last. Your negative keyword lists grow and your targeting tightens, which means there's less noise to sort through each time. What takes 45 minutes in the first review might take 15 minutes by the fifth.

Putting It All Together: Your Search Term Targeting Checklist

Here's the full workflow distilled into a quick reference you can use before every review session:

1. Access the report. Go to Keywords > Search Terms tab. Set your date range (30-90 days for initial analysis, since last review for ongoing sessions).

2. Sort by cost, then conversions. Find where your money is going and which terms are actually driving results.

3. Filter for high-spend, zero-conversion terms. These are your immediate priorities for negatives.

4. Add negatives. Apply at the right level (campaign or ad group), use the right match type, and update your shared negative list.

5. Promote winners. Find high-converting search terms that aren't dedicated keywords and add them as phrase or exact match.

6. Adjust match types. Tighten keywords that keep pulling irrelevant traffic. Loosen keywords that are too restrictive.

7. Log your changes and set your next review date.

This is a compounding process. Each review makes the next one easier. The biggest gains typically come in the first two or three cycles when you're cleaning up accumulated irrelevant traffic, but the process never really stops paying off because Google Ads targeting is never truly static.

The mistake most agencies make is treating this as a setup task rather than an ongoing discipline. Set up the cadence, protect the time, and your campaigns will consistently outperform accounts where nobody's watching the search terms report.

If this process sounds time-consuming to do manually across multiple accounts, that's exactly the problem Keywordme was built to solve. It brings all of these actions, removing junk terms, adding negatives, promoting keywords, applying match types, directly into the Google Ads interface with one-click execution. No spreadsheets. No switching tools. Just faster, smarter optimization right where you're already working. Start your free 7-day trial and see how much faster this workflow gets when the friction is removed.