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      How to update Search Terms in Google Ads

      This article explains what Google Search Terms are, and how to “weed out” inefficient ones to ensure Google is optimizing clients’ Google Ads for their ad spend.

      For Google Search Terms to make sense, it helps to start from the beginning. Google Ads are broken down as follows:

      • Campaigns: The “big plan for your ads” where you set goals (like getting more sales or visits), decide how much money you want to spend (bid budget), and choose who you want to see your ads. Campaigns help organize everything and control the budget.
      • Ad Groups: Smaller sections within a campaign where you organize your ads based on similar topics or themes. For example, a campaign called “Summer Sale” could have ad groups called “Discounted T-Shirts” and “Summer Accessories”.
      • Keywords: Words or phrases that help show your Google Ads when people search with those specific words or phrases. For example, under the “Discounted T-Shirts” ad group, potential keywords could be:
        1. cheap summer t-shirts
        2. discounted t-shirts
        3. buy t-shirts online
        4. affordable t-shirts for summer
        5. summer shirt sale

       

      Breakdown of Google Ads:Campaign

      But what happens when these specific terms aren’t searched? Will your ads miss potential customers because they didn’t search for the exact term? Nope! Not thanks to Google Search Terms!

      Think of keywords as a safety rope. They're specific words or phrases that you “throw” to people searching for something related to your product or service. The goal is to directly match their search with what you offer. Now, Google Search Terms act like a net. Instead of just focusing on exact matches, they expand the search to include other relevant terms that might be related to your keyword. This helps catch a wider range of people who may not use the exact keywords you chose but are still looking for something similar. 

      However, Google Search Terms can be inefficient because the Google algorithm isn't perfect. For example, the keyword “cheap summer-t shirts” may cause Google to start including search terms like “affordable summer t-shirts” or “summer t-shirt sale”. These would be good options! However, other search terms like “summer fashion trends 2025” or “how to make a t-shirt” are irrelevant to the keyword and ad group, and ranking for them will take up some of the campaign's precious budget. 

      Irrelevant search terms need to be “weeded out” (excluded) to prevent unnecessary ad spend and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Google Ad campaigns. 

      This is how it’s done:

       

      Step 1: Download the Search Terms Data

      1. Go to Google Ads > Insights and reports > Search terms.
      2. Set the time range to “Last 14 days”.
      3. Download the resulting data into a Google Sheet.
      4. Name the sheet “Search Terms Report [Date]”.
      5. Notice the data in the following columns:
        • Impressions: The number of times your ad appears on a search results page or other site on the Google Network.
        • Interactions: Any engagement a user has with your ad (e.g., clicks, video views, calls).
        • Conversions: The number of times a user completes a desired action after interacting with your ad.
        • Cost: How much the search terms costs to run.
        • Cost/Conversion: The cost of the search term divided by how many conversions the search term generated.

      Step 2: Filter the Search Terms Data

      1. Set the Added/Excluded column filter to “None”.
      2. Ensure the Campaign column is only displaying results from active campaigns.
      3. Remove all “0” results from the Impressions column.
      4. Remove all “0” results from the Interactions column.
      5. Sort Cost/Conversion “from Z to A” (biggest to smallest).

      Step 3: Audit the Search Terms

      Note: Remember, the purpose of this process is to determine whether the cost being allocated to each Google-generated search term is efficient or not. This is mostly determined by the Cost/Conversion metric and Conversions being generated. There are three main situations:

      1. If the search term is cost-efficient and relevant, highlight it in green—we want those! 
      2. If the search term is not cost-efficient or relevant, highlight it in red—those are wasting money.
      3. If the search term is cost-efficient, but not relevant to its campaign or ad group, highlight it in blue—we will want to adjust those.
      1. Observe all filtered search terms, beginning with those with the highest Cost/Conversion.
      2. Using your best judgment, determine whether the search term should be allowed or not.
        1. Ask the following questions:
          1. Does the cost seem reasonable for the conversions being generated?
          2. If not, do impressions and interactions make it likely this search term will eventually generate conversions? 
          3. Is the search term relevant to the campaign and ad group?
        2. Filter by ad group to more easily sweep through the search terms report while scanning for relevancy. This also prepares the search terms for the next step.

        Step 4: Exclude Irrelevant Search Terms

        Note: Before proceeding, make sure key terms have been filtered by ONLY ONE of the available ad groups. This way, exclusions can be applied to the correct ad group. This step will need to be repeated for every ad group.

        1. Filter Search term by fill color (Sort by color > Fill Color).
        2. Copy all grouped, red-highlighted search terms.
        3. Go to keywordmatchtypetool and paste the copied search terms into the “One word per line” box.
        4. Make sure the settings (located on the right side of the screen) are set to: “Separator” Space, and “Select match type” [Exact match].
        5. Select “Make keyword list”.
        6. Copy the list of generated keywords (located in the box below).
        7. Go to Google Ads > Campaigns > Campaigns.
        8. Select the ad group that matches the ad group previously filtered to.
        9. Click on the “Negative search keywords” banner at the top of the screen.
        10. Select the blue “+”.
        11. Paste the generated keyword list into the “Negative keywords” box.
        12. Click “Save”.

        Step 5: Include Relevant Search Terms

        1. Repeat the process outlined in Step 4, only using the search terms highlighted in green. 
        2. After generating keywords from keywordmatchtypetool, go back to Google Ads, and paste the keyword list under the “Search keywords” banner (next to Negative search keywords). 

        Step 6: Rinse and Repeat

        • Complete this entire process every two weeks to optimize Google Ads spend!

         

        Now, Google will no longer target searches that include the excluded terms. This allows your ad spend budget to focus on more relevant search terms while maximizing customer conversions!

         

        Video Instructions:

        Part 1:

        Part 2: