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About Search Terms Reports

As a search marketer, and an everyday user of the Google AdWords platform, I’ve created and used my share of reports.  Some reports I run more often than others.  These reports provide valuable insights and learning opportunities that can directly influence changes to the campaign and campaign performance.  One of these reports, and perhaps my favourite report in AdWords has to offer, is the Search Terms Report.

This report shows the actual search queries that trigger an ad.  There are two primary benefits where the Search Terms report can be used immediately to impact campaign performance.

The Search Query Report is a great starting point for negative keyword discovery as it will identify less relevant search terms that trigger an ad.  By example, a few years ago I managed a campaign that included ‘baby‘ as a broad match keyword.  Around this time, pop culture decided to unleash Justin Bieber to the world with his song ‘Baby’.  My campaign took a hit overnight as impressions skyrocketed.  The Search Terms Report disclosed that ‘Justin Bieber Baby’ was among the search queries triggering my ads and as such, ‘Justin Bieber’ became one of many negative keywords added to my campaign.

The Search Terms Report is also a great tool for expanding your keyword list.  It will provide insights into high-performing search terms, those that are driving clicks at a high CTR.  The report makes it easy to add these search Terms to the existing campaign.

The last point I’ll make is that the Search Terms Report is a great tool to uncover the Google Search Partners that your ads appear on (if your campaign is set to run on the Google Search Partners).  I’ve written a blog about the Google Search Partners that discusses how to discover this information.

Where to Find the Search Terms data?

The Search Terms report can be found under the Keywords tab in AdWords.  Click on the ‘Details’ drop down button and select ‘All’.

How often should I view the Search Terms data?

I like to view this data as often as possible, but set aside at least two days per month to carefully examine the data.

 Considerations

As search marketers we live and die by the numbers.  Any tool/report that will give us a slight edge to better those numbers should be used, and used often.  The Search Terms Report is a great tool that can help better your campaign performance and ensure that your ads are reaching the most relevant audience possible.

cheers,

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