Read a Google Ads search terms report by asking what each person was trying to do, whether your business could help, and what happened after the click. Start with relevance, then cost and enquiry quality. Use exclusions carefully: an unfamiliar phrase is not automatically a bad search.
What is the report showing?
A keyword is something you add to an account. A search term is what someone actually searched. The two need not use the same words. Google’s search terms documentation also explains that the report does not reveal every query, so treat it as evidence about visible searches rather than a complete transcript.
Before judging a row, add the keyword, campaign and ad group columns. Otherwise you can end up blaming the wrong keyword. Check the reporting dates too. Yesterday’s clicks may not have had time to become enquiries.
Export a copy before making changes. Keep a short decisions column alongside it. The useful record is not just that you excluded a phrase, but why, where and when.
Sort searches into four practical groups
| Group | Question to ask | Possible action |
|---|---|---|
| Clearly relevant | Does this describe work we want? | Keep it and check the destination page. |
| Clearly irrelevant | Is this a different product, service or purpose? | Consider a precise exclusion. |
| Relevant but premature | Is the person researching rather than ready to enquire? | Decide whether the campaign should pay for this stage. |
| Unclear | Can the phrase reasonably mean more than one thing? | Investigate before blocking it. |
For an illustrative commercial flooring business, “office flooring installation” looks relevant. “Flooring installer jobs” probably belongs in the irrelevant group if the campaign is for customers. “Best flooring for a busy reception” is a buying question, but it may need a different page and a different spending decision.
None of those judgements comes from the phrase alone. A business that also recruits installers or sells flooring materials would classify some searches differently.
Read cost alongside what the enquiry became
A search with no recorded conversion may be irrelevant, poorly served by the page, affected by broken measurement or simply short of enough evidence. Those are different problems. Excluding the term solves only the first.
Ask whoever handles enquiries to classify them consistently. For example: suitable project, outside service area, wrong service, existing customer or spam. Use the same definitions each month. Do not send private customer details into a shared search report; the category is usually enough for this decision.
A small number of clicks cannot establish that a relevant search will never work. Equally, a completed form is not automatically useful business. Review cost and quality together, with the time a normal enquiry takes to arrive.
How narrow should a negative keyword be?
Start with the smallest exclusion that addresses the actual problem. Blocking a whole word can remove worthwhile searches that contain it. An exact negative can be more appropriate when only one specific query is wrong.
Google’s negative keyword guidance explains that negative keywords behave differently from positive keywords and do not cover close variants in the same way. Check the rule you are adding rather than assuming its behaviour from a normal keyword.
Scope matters as well. A phrase unsuitable for one service may be useful for another. An account-wide list should contain exclusions that really apply across the account. Keep service-specific exclusions at a narrower level.
Before saving, imagine a relevant search containing the proposed negative. If you would still want that customer, reconsider the wording or match type.
Turn the review into a small action list
Useful outcomes include a new exclusion, a clearer advert, a better destination page or a question for the business owner. Adding more keywords is not the only possible result.
Choose a review rhythm that matches spend and activity. A busy campaign needs closer attention than one with very few clicks, but repeatedly changing settings before enquiries arrive makes comparison harder. Record changes and review their effect after a sensible observation period.
Keep three notes at the end of each review: what you changed, what you deliberately left alone, and what evidence you need next. That makes the following review an investigation rather than another round of guesswork.
Our Google Ads management connects searches, adverts and genuine enquiries. If a report contains unexpected wording, read the guide to keyword match types. If the problem is where enquiries come from, check your location settings as a separate issue.