Glossary
What is the search terms report in Google Ads?
Melvin Salas1 min readVerified 16 October 2026
Short answer
The search terms report shows how your ads performed when triggered by actual searches within the Search Network. Google says it lists search terms used by a significant number of people, and that some search terms without enough query activity are omitted to keep with its standards on data privacy.
A search term is the words a person types; a keyword is what you add to an ad group. Google's example is a flower shop with the keyword roses, whose ad may be eligible to show on a search for red roses. The report sits under Insights and reports, then Search terms, in the Campaigns menu.
Two columns do most of the work. The Keyword column tells you which of your keywords matched the search, and it doesn't show by default. The Match type column tells you how closely the search is related to your keyword, and Google notes it might not be the match type you selected, because keywords with broader match types can still match search terms in narrower ways. A close variant is indicated in that column.
Some rows carry no keyword at all. Google says terms matched to Dynamic Search Ads or Shopping targets won't return a keyword and will return Exact in the match type field. Shop visits and shop sales conversions are not compatible with the report. Performance Max has its own version, with data available starting from March 2023.
Our reading: the report lists what was named, not everything you paid for, so a clean-looking report is not proof of a clean account. We read it on a schedule, not when something looks wrong, and build negative keywords from what it actually shows.
We start where the spend actually goes
Riibon reads the search terms behind the spend, not only the keywords that were bought, and treats every negative keyword as a change with its own risk rather than as housekeeping.
Ask the Riibon app where your search spend is really going. Access starts with a short call: we look at your ads together, then run them for you or set the app up with you.