Google Ads Search Terms Report: How to Find Wasted Spend

If your Google Ads clicks feel expensive or the leads are poor, open the search terms report.

It shows the actual searches people typed before your ad appeared.

Not the keywords you selected. Not the themes Google says it is targeting. The searches you paid to enter.

That difference is where a lot of wasted spend hides.

What the Google Ads Search Terms Report Shows

The Google Ads search terms report lists queries that triggered your ads and met Google’s reporting thresholds.

For each visible search term, you can review metrics such as:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Cost
• Conversions
• Conversion value
• Cost per conversion
• The keyword or targeting source that matched it

Google does not expose every individual low-volume query because of its privacy thresholds. Search terms insights can group some of that hidden volume into themes.

The report still gives you the most direct view of what Google matched your campaign to.

That matters because a campaign can look fine at keyword level while spending on searches you would never have chosen manually.

Search Terms vs Keywords

A keyword is what you give Google.

A search term is what the person typed.

You might bid on the phrase-match keyword:

“emergency electrician”

Google could match it to searches such as:

• emergency electrician near me
• 24 hour electrician Gold Coast
• emergency electrician jobs
• how to become an emergency electrician
• electrician course emergency response

The first two may represent a customer.

The others are clearly different intents.

This is why managing keywords without reviewing search terms is incomplete. You are looking at what you asked for, not what Google delivered.

If Google Ads costs keep rising, irrelevant search matching is one of the areas covered in why Google Ads get expensive.

How to Open the Search Terms Report

Inside Google Ads, open the relevant Search campaign or ad group.

Go to the Search terms view under the campaign or keyword reporting area. Google changes navigation labels over time, but the report remains attached to Search campaign reporting.

Set a useful date range before making decisions.

For an active account, the last 30 to 90 days is usually enough to find patterns. A low-volume account may need a longer period.

Add the columns that help you make a commercial decision:

• Cost
• Conversions
• Cost per conversion
• Conversion value, where relevant
• Campaign
• Ad group
• Keyword
• Match type or source

Then start with the expensive terms.

How to Find Wasted Spend

Sort by Cost First

Sort the search terms report by cost from highest to lowest.

This brings the largest financial decisions to the top.

A completely irrelevant term that spent $4 is worth excluding. A questionable term that spent $400 needs deeper attention first.

Look for clusters, not only individual queries.

If several searches include “jobs”, “salary”, “course” or “DIY”, the account has an intent problem that should be handled as a theme.

Check Intent, Not Only Wording

A term can contain your service and still be wrong for the business.

Ask what the person is trying to accomplish.

For a plumbing company:

• “blocked drain plumber” suggests service intent
• “how to unblock drain” suggests DIY intent
• “plumbing apprenticeship” suggests employment intent
• “free plumbing advice” suggests low commercial intent
• “plumbing supplies” suggests product intent

The wording is related.

The buyer intent is not.

That distinction improves more than click efficiency. It also improves lead quality because fewer unsuitable people enter the funnel.

Review Conversions Before Excluding Anything

Do not remove a term because it looks unusual.

Check whether it converted and what happened after the conversion.

Some searches that sound broad or informational still produce customers. Other searches that sound perfect produce leads nobody can contact.

This is where platform data needs business context.

If possible, compare the search term with:

• Call recordings
• CRM outcomes
• Booked appointments
• Qualified lead status
• Sales
• Revenue

A term with a high cost per lead can still be valuable if those leads close at a strong rate.

A term with a cheap cost per lead can be expensive if none of the leads become customers.

What to Add as a Negative Keyword

A negative keyword tells Google not to show your ad when a search includes the excluded term according to the selected negative match type.

Common negative themes for service businesses include:

• Jobs and careers
• Salary and wages
• Training, courses and qualifications
• DIY and how-to searches
• Free resources
• Products, where the business only sells a service
• Locations the business cannot service
• Services the business does not offer
• Existing customer support searches

Build the list around the business.

A university should not exclude “course”. A recruitment company should not exclude “jobs”. A hardware retailer may want product searches a tradie would remove.

Never copy a generic negative-keyword list into an account without reviewing it.

Add the Negative at the Right Level

You can apply negatives at different levels depending on how widely the exclusion should work.

Use an ad-group negative when the term is relevant to another ad group but not this one.

Use a campaign negative when the term should not trigger that campaign.

Use a shared negative-keyword list when the theme should be excluded across several campaigns.

Shared lists are useful for consistent exclusions such as employment terms, unrelated countries or services the business never provides.

How Negative Match Types Work

Negative match types do not behave exactly like positive keyword match types.

They also do not automatically block close variants in the same way positive keywords can match them. You need to think through important variations.

Negative Exact Match

Negative exact blocks the specific search in that exact word order, without additional words.

Use it when one individual query is unsuitable but similar searches could still be valuable.

Negative Phrase Match

Negative phrase blocks searches containing the excluded words in the same order, even when other words appear before or after them.

Use it for a clear unwanted theme where the phrase itself signals the wrong intent.

Negative Broad Match

Negative broad blocks a search when all the negative-keyword terms appear, even if the order differs.

It can be useful, but I use it carefully. Phrase and exact negatives usually give service businesses more control over what is removed.

The objective is not to make the account as narrow as possible.

It is to remove traffic that could not reasonably become a customer.

Search Terms You Should Not Remove Too Quickly

Research-Led Searches

Someone may research the problem before booking a service.

A person searching “is roof restoration worth it” could still be commercially valuable to a roofing business with the right landing page.

Competitor Searches

Competitor terms can be expensive and inconsistent.

But do not remove them automatically. Review the cost, conversion quality, legal considerations and the strength of your offer.

Broad Service Variations

Customers do not always use industry terminology.

A business might describe a service one way while buyers use another phrase. The report can reveal language worth adding to your ads and landing pages.

Terms With Limited Data

One expensive click is not always enough evidence to exclude a relevant search.

Use intent and available data together. Avoid reacting to normal variation as though every non-conversion is a structural problem.

How Often to Review the Report

For a new Search campaign, review search terms weekly.

New campaigns reveal how Google interprets your keywords. Early reviews let you remove clear waste before it compounds.

Once the campaign is stable, move to a fortnightly or monthly rhythm depending on spend and search volume.

Higher-spend accounts need more frequent attention.

Search behaviour also changes. New competitors, products, news stories and seasonal terms can create irrelevant matching even in an established campaign.

Turn the Report Into Better Campaign Decisions

The search terms report is not only a negative-keyword tool.

It can also tell you:

• Which services have stronger demand
• Which locations people include in searches
• Which problems buyers describe most often
• Which wording belongs in ad copy
• Which search themes deserve their own ad group
• Which landing-page content is missing
• Which queries convert into higher-quality customers

Good search terms can become new keywords.

Repeated buyer language can become new headlines. High-intent themes can become separate campaigns with their own budget.

This is especially useful when you are running Google Ads on a small budget, because there is less room to pay for traffic that does not match the offer.

The process is simple:

1. Open the report
2. Sort by cost
3. Check the searcher’s intent
4. Review conversion and lead-quality data
5. Exclude clear waste at the right level
6. Promote strong themes into keywords, ads or landing pages

Do that consistently and the campaign becomes easier to understand.

More importantly, the budget moves towards searches with a genuine chance of producing a customer.

Need Help Finding Wasted Google Ads Spend?

If you want a second opinion on what your Search campaigns are paying for, book a free strategy call with Ad Partner.

We can review the search terms, campaign structure and conversion data to find where the account is losing money.