How to Do PPC Keyword Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide for Google Ads

PPC keyword analysis is the process of evaluating which keywords and search terms are actually driving value in your Google Ads campaigns—and which ones are quietly draining your budget. It sounds straightforward, but most advertisers skip steps, look at the wrong data, or treat it as a one-time setup task rather than an ongoing discipline.

The result? Campaigns that technically run, but bleed money on irrelevant traffic while the real opportunities stay buried.

This guide is built around in-account analysis—what's actually happening inside your live campaigns right now—rather than pre-campaign keyword research with external tools. That distinction matters. Keyword research tells you what people might search for. Keyword analysis tells you what they're actually searching for when your ads show up, and whether that's costing or making you money.

Whether you're auditing an existing campaign, troubleshooting a rising cost-per-conversion, or trying to build a tighter keyword structure, this process gives you a repeatable workflow. You'll learn how to pull the right data, identify wasted spend, categorize search terms by intent, build a proper negative keyword list, assess your match type mix, clean up your ad group structure, and set a review cadence that keeps your account improving over time.

One quick note on terminology before we start: throughout this guide, "keywords" refers to the terms you bid on inside your ad groups. "Search terms" refers to the actual queries users typed into Google that triggered your ads. These are not the same thing, and the distinction matters a lot for this process. If that difference isn't fully clear yet, it will be by Step 1.

Let's get into it.

Step 1: Pull Your Search Terms Report, Not Your Keywords Report

Most advertisers open the Keywords tab when they want to analyze performance. That's the wrong starting point. The Keywords tab shows you the terms you're bidding on and how they're performing in aggregate. What it doesn't show you is the full range of actual user queries that triggered your ads.

That's what the Search Terms Report is for.

To access it in Google Ads, navigate to a campaign or ad group, then look for "Search terms" in the left-hand navigation panel. This report lists every search query that triggered an impression (and in some cases a click) during your selected date range. It's where you see the real picture of where your budget is going.

Here's why this matters: when you add a broad match or phrase match keyword to an ad group, Google uses it to match a wide range of related queries—not just the exact keyword itself. A keyword like "accounting software" might trigger searches for "free accounting software for students," "accounting software vs Excel," or "how to do accounting without software." Some of those are relevant. Many aren't. You won't see any of this if you only look at your keyword list.

Set your date range to at least 30 days before you start analyzing. For lower-volume accounts, 60 to 90 days gives you more statistically meaningful data. A search term with three clicks in one week doesn't tell you much. That same term with 40 clicks over two months tells you a lot more.

The Search Terms Report is where your PPC keyword analysis actually begins. Everything else in this guide builds on what you find here.

Tip: If you're running campaigns across multiple ad groups or campaigns, you can view the Search Terms Report at the account level by navigating to the "Search terms" section from the top-level campaign view. This gives you a broader view and helps you spot patterns across the whole account.

Step 2: Find Wasted Spend Using the Right Performance Columns

Once you're in the Search Terms Report, the default column set usually isn't enough. You need the right metrics visible before you can make good decisions.

Add or confirm these columns are showing: Impressions, Clicks, Cost, Conversions, Conversion Value, Cost per Conversion, and Search Term. You can customize columns using the column icon at the top right of the report table.

With those in place, sort the report by Cost in descending order. This puts your biggest spenders at the top, which is where your analysis should start. Optimizing a search term that's spent $3 is a low-leverage activity. Optimizing one that's spent $300 with no conversions is not.

As you work down the list, flag search terms that show these patterns:

High cost, zero conversions: This is the clearest signal of wasted spend. If a search term has consumed a meaningful portion of your budget without producing a single conversion, it's a candidate for exclusion—especially if it's had enough clicks to be fairly judged.

Low click-through rate with high impressions: A very low CTR often signals that your ad isn't relevant to what the user was actually looking for. The search term may be triggering your ad, but users aren't engaging with it.

High cost-per-conversion relative to your target CPA: Every account should have a target cost-per-acquisition. If a search term is converting, but at two or three times your target CPA, it's still a problem. You're paying more for that customer than they're worth to your business model.

A practical approach is to set a cost threshold for your account—something like "if a search term has spent more than my target CPA with zero conversions, it goes on the exclusion list." This isn't a rigid rule, but it gives you a consistent decision framework rather than making judgment calls on gut feel each time.

Common pitfall: Don't flag search terms based on impressions alone. A term with 500 impressions and zero clicks isn't spending your money. Focus your attention on what's actually costing you. And resist the urge to exclude search terms that have only had a handful of clicks—give them enough data before making a call. For more on reducing wasted spend systematically, this guide on reducing wasted spend in Google Ads goes deeper on the decision framework.

Step 3: Sort Every Search Term into One of Three Action Categories

Once you've reviewed performance, the next step is to make a decision about every search term you've flagged. This is where the strategic thinking happens, so it's worth slowing down.

Sort each search term into one of three buckets:

Keep: The search term is relevant, shows commercial intent, and is either converting or showing strong engagement signals (good CTR, reasonable CPC). Leave it as-is for now and continue monitoring.

Add as Negative: The search term is irrelevant, wasteful, or clearly misaligned with what you're selling. It needs to be excluded so your ads stop showing for it.

Promote: The search term is performing well—converting at or below your target CPA, or showing strong intent signals—but it's currently being triggered by a broad or phrase match keyword. Promoting it means adding it as its own exact match or phrase match keyword so you can control bidding and budget more precisely.

Promoting a converting search term as an exact match keyword is one of the highest-leverage actions in PPC keyword analysis. Right now, that term is just one of many queries your broader keyword might trigger. When you add it as its own keyword, you can set a dedicated bid, monitor its performance independently, and write ad copy that speaks directly to it.

To categorize effectively, look for intent signals in the search term language. Commercial intent terms—words like "buy," "price," "cost," "hire," "service," "near me," "quote," "best"—suggest the user is closer to making a decision. Informational intent terms—"how to," "what is," "free," "DIY," "tutorial," "guide"—suggest someone who's researching, not buying. Unless you're running content campaigns, informational queries are usually candidates for the negative list.

This categorization step is manual by nature, but it doesn't have to be slow. Keywordme's in-interface workflow lets you tag and act on search terms directly inside the Search Terms Report—adding negatives, promoting keywords, and applying match types with single clicks—without exporting to a spreadsheet or switching between tabs. For accounts with hundreds of search terms to review, that kind of friction reduction adds up quickly.

Step 4: Build and Apply Your Negative Keyword List

With your "Add as Negative" list from Step 3 in hand, it's time to actually apply those exclusions. This is where many advertisers lose momentum—the analysis is done, but the implementation gets delayed or done inconsistently.

First, understand the two types of negative keyword lists in Google Ads and when to use each:

Campaign-level negatives: Applied directly to a specific campaign. Use these when a search term is only irrelevant for one campaign but might be fine for another. For example, if you run separate campaigns for two different product lines, a term that's irrelevant for one might be perfectly relevant for the other.

Shared (account-level) negative keyword lists: Managed in the Shared Library and applied across multiple campaigns at once. Use these for terms that are universally irrelevant to your business—things like "free," "jobs," "DIY," or competitor brand names you don't want to bid on. Building a strong shared list saves time as you add new campaigns, because you don't have to re-enter the same exclusions from scratch. For a deeper look at how these two list types work, this article on shared vs. campaign-specific negative keyword lists covers the nuances well.

To create or manage shared negative keyword lists in Google Ads, go to the Tools icon, then Shared Library, then Negative keyword lists. From there you can create new lists, add terms, and apply them to campaigns.

A practical approach is to group your negatives thematically as you build the list. Common groupings include "DIY and free intent," "student and research intent," "competitor brand names," and "job seekers." Thematic grouping makes the list easier to manage, audit, and reuse across future campaigns.

Match type applies to negative keywords too, and it works differently than you might expect. A negative exact match keyword will only block queries that match that exact term. A negative phrase match will block any query containing that phrase. For most exclusions, negative phrase match is the right choice—it gives broader coverage without requiring you to list every possible variation. But be careful with broad negative terms. Excluding "free" as a negative phrase match, for example, could accidentally block "risk-free" or "free trial" queries that might actually be relevant to your offer.

Common pitfall: Over-blocking. Always preview the potential impact of a negative keyword before applying it to make sure you're not accidentally cutting off relevant traffic. Google Ads has a search term preview tool that can help with this. For a fuller explanation of how negative keywords work, this guide on negative keywords in Google Ads is worth reading alongside this step.

Keywordme's one-click negative keyword addition from the Search Terms Report removes the friction of this step significantly. Rather than copying terms into a separate list manually, you can add negatives directly from the report as you review, which keeps the analysis and action in the same workflow.

Step 5: Assess Your Match Type Distribution

Switch over to the Keywords tab now. Instead of looking at individual search terms, you're looking at your bid keywords and the match types assigned to each one.

A healthy match type distribution depends on your account's goals and conversion volume, but there are some clear warning signs to look for. If the majority of your keywords are broad match and you've just discovered (in Steps 2 and 3) that a large portion of your search terms are irrelevant, that's a signal. Broad match gives Google the most latitude to decide when your ads show, which is useful when you have strong conversion data and Smart Bidding in place—but it can generate significant wasted spend in accounts that don't have those conditions yet.

Cross-reference your Search Terms Report findings with your keyword match types. Which keywords are generating the most irrelevant search terms? Are they all broad match? If so, you have a few options: tighten them to phrase match, add more aggressive negative keywords to contain the traffic, or both.

For search terms you promoted in Step 3—the ones converting well enough to warrant their own keyword—add them as exact match or phrase match. Exact match gives you the tightest control: your ad will only show for queries that closely match that specific term. Phrase match gives you more reach while still maintaining some control over the query structure.

Broad match isn't inherently bad. When you have enough conversion data for Smart Bidding to work with, broad match can surface relevant queries you wouldn't have thought to target. But it requires active negative keyword management to work well. If you're not regularly reviewing the Search Terms Report and trimming irrelevant queries, broad match will quietly expand your reach in directions you don't want. For a practical breakdown of when to use each match type, this guide on broad match vs. exact match is a useful reference.

Step 6: Cluster Keywords by Theme and Audit Your Ad Group Structure

Keyword analysis isn't just about cutting waste—it's also about making sure your account structure supports good performance. This step zooms out from individual search terms to look at how your keywords are organized across ad groups.

Tightly themed ad groups matter because they directly affect Quality Score, ad relevance, and landing page alignment. When an ad group contains keywords that all point to the same specific intent, you can write ad copy that speaks directly to that intent, and send users to a landing page that matches exactly what they were looking for. That alignment improves click-through rates and conversion rates.

The warning sign of a structural problem is an ad group with a large number of keywords covering very different intents. If one ad group contains keywords related to pricing, keywords related to features, keywords related to specific use cases, and keywords related to competitors, the ad copy can't possibly be relevant to all of them. Something has to give.

A practical clustering approach works in three layers. Start by grouping keywords by product or service type. Within each product group, separate commercial intent keywords (buy, price, hire, near me) from informational ones. Then apply modifiers like location, brand, or price point as a third layer of segmentation.

As you review your search terms from earlier steps, you'll likely find queries that don't fit neatly into any existing ad group. Rather than forcing them into the closest match, consider whether they represent enough volume and intent to justify a new ad group. A search term that's consistently converting on a specific theme is a strong signal that theme deserves its own dedicated structure.

Keywordme's keyword clustering feature lets you visually group search terms by theme directly inside the Google Ads interface, which speeds up this structural review without requiring you to export data elsewhere.

Success indicator: Each ad group should have a clear, single theme that maps directly to a specific ad and a specific landing page. If you can't describe an ad group's theme in one sentence, it probably needs to be split.

Step 7: Set a Review Cadence and Document What You've Done

The most common reason PPC keyword analysis stops working is that it becomes a one-time event rather than a habit. You do a thorough review, clean things up, and then let the account run untouched for months while new irrelevant search terms accumulate. The work you did in Steps 1 through 6 has a shelf life—Google Ads is always generating new search terms, and your campaigns will drift without regular attention.

A practical cadence for most accounts: weekly reviews for active campaigns with significant daily spend, bi-weekly for stable campaigns with lower volume. The goal isn't to spend hours each time—it's to catch new wasteful search terms before they spend much, and to spot new converting queries worth promoting.

Documentation matters more than most advertisers realize. Keep a record of which search terms you excluded and why, which ones you promoted to keywords, any match type changes you made, and any structural changes to ad groups. This serves several purposes. It prevents you from re-adding terms you already excluded. It makes client reporting easier and more credible. And it builds institutional knowledge so that anyone working on the account can understand the history of decisions.

When time is limited, prioritize by spend. Start with the highest-cost search terms and work down. Even a 20-minute focused review of your top spenders is more valuable than an occasional deep dive that never happens consistently.

Final tip: Set a recurring calendar reminder. The accounts that improve consistently over time aren't the ones that had one great optimization session—they're the ones with a review habit built into the workflow. For more on building an efficient PPC workflow, this overview of PPC workflow optimization covers the broader process.

Putting It All Together

PPC keyword analysis follows a clear sequence: start in the Search Terms Report, identify wasted spend using the right metrics, categorize every search term by action, build and apply your negative keyword list, assess your match type distribution, audit your ad group structure, and set a review cadence that keeps it all running.

None of these steps are complicated in isolation. The challenge is doing them consistently and efficiently, especially when you're managing multiple campaigns or client accounts.

That's where the right workflow makes a real difference. Tools like Keywordme compress the time spent on Steps 3 and 4 by letting you act directly inside the Search Terms Report—adding negatives, promoting keywords, applying match types, and clustering by theme without leaving Google Ads or opening a spreadsheet. For agency teams or solo advertisers managing busy accounts, that kind of in-interface efficiency means analysis actually gets done on a regular basis rather than falling to the bottom of the to-do list.

If you want to see how much faster the process can move, start your free 7-day trial of Keywordme and run through your next Search Terms Report review inside the interface. After that, it's $12/month per user—and the time you save on manual tasks pays for itself quickly.