Search Terms
Reading the search terms report properly: what Google shows, what it withholds, and how to turn a week of raw queries into decisions you can defend.
Google Ads Search Terms Hidden by Privacy, and What to Do
Part of every search campaign's spend goes to queries Google never shows you. Here is how to measure that gap in your own account, and how negatives built from the terms you can see still cut waste in the ones you can't.
Close Variants in Google Ads and Why Exact Isn't Exact
Most close variants are harmless plurals and typos, but a few quietly swap your buyer for someone else. This guide shows how to spot those few and whether each needs a negative keyword or a keyword change.
E-commerce Google Ads Search Terms That Drain Budget
Online retail attracts a very specific kind of bad traffic: people researching, people hunting a spare part you don't stock, people who already bought. Here is how each pattern shows up in the search terms report, and what to do about it.
Are Broad Match Keywords Worth It in 2026?
Broad match is neither good nor bad on its own — it is a bet that you will remove the bad half of what it buys. The real question is whether your exclusion habit is fast enough to survive it.
Search Term Match Source in Google Ads, and Its Limits
Google shows you which keyword triggered a search term — but only in Search, and the match type column does not mean what most people think. Here is what the field is worth, and what it hides in Shopping and Performance Max.
How Often Should You Check Search Terms in Google Ads
Everyone says "review your search terms weekly", and nobody says what a week costs. Here is the arithmetic that sets your real interval, and the three delays no amount of checking removes.
Why Google Ads Shows Irrelevant Search Terms
Google is not matching your ads to nonsense on purpose. It is matching on meaning, and meaning is not the same thing as commercial intent. Here is what the system actually looks at, and why that gap never closes on its own.
Google Ads Search Terms Report, and What It Hides
The search terms report is the only place Google tells you what your money actually bought — and it is deliberately incomplete. Here is how to measure the gap and work around it.
Clean your search terms. Save time and money.
Every night, PPCleaner reviews the searches your campaigns actually paid for, groups them by intent, and excludes the ones that never convert. No spend threshold to wait for, nothing touched but negatives — and one click undoes any of it.
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