It’s frustrating when Google hides query data, but the search terms report still offers valuable insight if you know how to filter it.
With the right approach, you can reduce wasted spend, improve performance, and even uncover new revenue opportunities.
This article covers through seven filters we regularly use at my agency to keep client accounts running efficiently.
Most of the examples come from an account in applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy, where Google tends to expand search terms quite liberally, making strong filtering essential.
And with search terms and negative keywords being rolled out across Performance Max, these tactics are becoming even more important for getting the most out of your campaigns.
1. Block irrelevant one-word keywords
One filter we use a lot pulls up search terms that do not contain spaces, pulling up all one-word terms. Most of the time, these are too broad, and you just want to block them.
The filter stops you from having to sort through thousands of entries manually.
Ideally and typically, you don’t want to show up for commoditized or excessively broad keywords with no discernible intent. In this case, that might be “kids” or “aba.”
If you sell commoditized products like cameras, they might be brand names like “nikon” or “canon.”
I don’t want to show up for words that can be upper funnel instead of something more specific, which can indicate the user is further along in their purchase journey.
So, I’ll add these as exact match negatives at the campaign level or put them on a negative keyword list for the whole campaign.
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2. Keeping brand terms out of non-brand campaigns
Another thing we try to ensure (depending on the campaign) is that there’s no branded search inside a non-brand campaign.
We’ll filter out the name of the business and any proprietary terms, regardless of performance data, because we’re blocking due to irrelevance.
The rule of thumb is to do an exact match negative, not phrase, so that we don’t show up when somebody makes a one-word search for the brand name.
And then brand search can go in its own dedicated campaign.
3. Sorting statistically significant terms
If you’re blocking based on performance, you want to make sure you have statistically significant data.
A lot of times, I’ll filter for a combination of clicks and ROAS – say at least 100 clicks and ROAS greater than two.
For lower-volume accounts, you’ll want to apply a wider date range to achieve the desired volume.
This is not perfect, but it can at least lead you to statistical relevance (as long as you don’t have a small handful of conversions in the entire window).
And if there are one, two, or no conversions, you need to make a decision.
- Sometimes you want to block these terms just because you want that ad spend to go elsewhere.
- Other times, you might have intel that’s not shown in Google Ads, such as your client going through pricing or product issues.
- At times, you’ll need to trust your judgment and past experiences, looking for patterns and outliers that tell you something is off.
You may not always get tremendous gains. In this example, we found $2,700 in wasteful spend out of $300,000.
But if you apply this filter across several campaigns, the individual wins add up to a more meaningful figure.
Dig deeper: The ROAS illusion: Rethinking what Google Ads success looks like
4. Find opportunities for organic content
Another filter you can use is looking for anything with a significant number of clicks or a healthy CTR and a low number of conversions, enough to not be profitable.
Lead generation and subscription-based models (like SaaS) benefit from greater conversion and lifetime value, while one-off ecommerce sales are more directly calculated.
But anything under this “value threshold,” where the clicks cost more than the business they bring in, can be filtered out and presented as organic content opportunities – articles, videos, etc.
Our clients then take advantage of the search volume without spending on clicks that are nowhere near ready to convert.
This reduces wastage and allows brands to stay top of mind for that particular search query.
5. Cut out irrelevant terms
If a search term does not contain something crucial to the success of our account, such as “aba,” filtering that out leaves you with everything that could be wasteful or irrelevant.
We block those that are not tightly related to the client’s offerings and evaluate the ones that can go either way based on recent and historical performance.
And if you apply the opposite filter, you’ll see most of your good-to-have keywords that you want to keep showing up for.
This list can spark ideas for spinoff campaigns, separate ad groups, and even organic content on search and other channels.
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6. Filter location-based terms
Brands and businesses with multiple locations will likely find regional search term data useful, especially if they offer certain products and services in specific locations.
One example of this is applying irrelevant locations as negative keywords so that you show up in places you want to and spend no money on terms where you don’t offer services.
7. Low CTR
One final filter we apply is looking at anything that has high impressions.
For a truly low-volume account, you might set the cutoff at 500, but accounts with decent volume should aim for much more.
Anything with a click-through rate under 1% on high impressions tells us there is an issue with ad relevance.
Almost immediately, you will spot issues where keywords don’t match your ad copy – maybe because of an intent mismatch or something more fundamental in your understanding of the market.
Either way, people are seeing your ad but not clicking on it.
We have another client that sells ready-to-assemble kitchens.
Here’s an example of a search query that goes a bit broader. There are different types of kitchen cabinets, such as those that come in a flat pack and those that need no assembly.
This filter may also bring up competitor terms or people looking for top-of-funnel ideas, neither of which is as relevant as a lower-funnel query.
Dig deeper: PPC diagnostics: How to find and fix the root cause of low conversions
Tweak these filters to your individual accounts
Filters in your search terms report are useful because they save time. (No one can go through 157,000 line items every month, especially for multiple accounts!)
What you don’t want to do is take this advice and apply it one-to-one to your accounts.
Every business has different parameters and constraints when it comes to advertising, such as budget and creative quality.
And then there are other considerations, such as product quality and brand recognition, impact advertising success on a larger scale.
Adapt these filters to what makes sense for your accounts and discard what doesn’t serve their needs, and you’ll quickly eliminate wasteful ad spending.