Your keywords are not the same as the searches that trigger your ads. You might bid on “plumber near me,” but Google can also show your ad for “plumber jobs,” “free plumbing advice,” or a brand name you do not sell. The search terms report shows the actual words people typed before they saw or clicked your ad. Checking it every week is one of the simplest ways to stop wasted spend and find better keywords.
Where to find the report
In Google Ads, open a campaign or ad group, then look for Insights and reports, then Search terms. Choose a date range that matches your weekly check, usually the last seven days. Start with the whole campaign, then drill into one ad group at a time if a group is spending a lot. Sort the table by cost, not just by clicks, so the searches eating your budget appear at the top.
Do not judge a search term by one click. A single click tells you almost nothing. Look for patterns: repeated irrelevant terms, terms with many clicks and no conversions, and terms that are close to your service but use different words. Those patterns are where the useful decisions live. Also note the match type column, because it shows whether a broad, phrase, or exact keyword caused the match.
The five checks to make every week
First, find clearly irrelevant searches and add them as negative keywords. Examples include jobs, free, courses, DIY, or locations you do not serve. Second, find searches with high cost and no result, and decide whether to pause the keyword, lower its bid, or fix the landing page. Third, find good searches you did not bid on directly, and consider adding them as new keywords in the right ad group.
Fourth, check for brand confusion. Are people searching for a competitor, a different product, or a place with a similar name? Those clicks may look cheap, but they rarely become customers. Fifth, check for spelling and wording differences. Customers may say “air con repair” while you bid on “air conditioning repair.” Adding the wording customers actually use can improve relevance and quality.
A worked example: a small bakery
A bakery bids on “birthday cake delivery” and spends $140 in a week. In the search terms report, it finds $28 spent on “birthday cake jobs,” “free cake recipes,” and “wholesale cake boxes.” None of those people wanted to buy a cake. Adding those phrases as negative keywords saves about $28 a week, or more than $100 a month, without changing anything else.
The same report shows a useful surprise: several people searched for “gluten free birthday cake near me” and two of them filled in the order form. The bakery did not bid on that phrase directly. It adds it as a phrase-match keyword in its cakes ad group, with an ad that mentions gluten-free options and a landing page that shows them clearly. That is how a weekly report turns into growth, not just cost-cutting.
Mistakes to avoid
Do not add every odd search as a negative keyword on the same day. A term that looks strange once may be a one-off, and blocking too broadly can remove good traffic. For example, blocking the single word “free” as a broad negative can be useful, but blocking a whole useful phrase by accident can hurt. Add negatives at the right level: campaign level for terms that are wrong everywhere, ad group level for terms that are wrong in one group only.
Also, do not check the report only when performance drops. By then, weeks of waste may already be gone. A short weekly habit is better than a long monthly rescue. Keep notes of what you changed and why, so you can see whether a negative keyword helped or whether a new keyword actually converted.
Your weekly search terms checklist
- Set the date range to the last seven days and sort by cost.
- Add clearly irrelevant searches as negative keywords.
- Flag high-cost, no-conversion searches for a bid or landing page fix.
- Add strong new searches as keywords in the correct ad group.
- Check brand, location, and job-related mismatches.
- Note customer wording you should use in ads and keywords.
- Record every change, so next week you can judge what worked.
Practical summary
The search terms report is your reality check. Your keywords are your plan; search terms are what actually happened. Spend 20 minutes a week on the five checks above, and you will waste less budget, learn the language your customers use, and find new keywords that are already proving they can convert. That small habit often improves a campaign more than a new bidding strategy or a bigger budget.