Google Ads Search Terms Report: How NYC Businesses Use It to Cut Wasted Spend

If you are running Google Ads for your NYC small business, the Google Ads Search Terms Report is the single most valuable tool in your account — and it is the most underused.

While you carefully pick the keywords you bid on, Google match types let your ads trigger on hundreds of related queries you never explicitly chose. Some of those queries are gold. Many of them are pure waste.

The Google Ads Search Terms Report shows you exactly what users typed before clicking your ad, which lets you cut the bad spend and double down on the queries that actually convert.

For a Manhattan or Brooklyn business spending even a modest budget, mastering the Google Ads Search Terms Report can lower your cost per acquisition by 20 to 50 percent within a few weeks.

This guide walks through what the Google Ads Search Terms Report is, how to read it, and how to turn it into a habit that keeps your campaign profitable.

1. What Is the Google Ads Search Terms Report?

The Search Terms Report is a built-in Google Ads report that lists every search query that triggered your ad, along with performance data — impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, and more. According to Google Ads Help, the report shows you the actual user-typed queries, not just the keywords you bid on. This distinction is the foundation of every smart Google Ads optimization.

Why this report exists

When Google introduced broader match types and AI-driven matching, advertisers lost some control over which queries trigger their ads. The Search Terms Report is the transparency layer that gives you back visibility into where your money is going. Without it, you are flying blind on a major chunk of your spend.

2. Search Terms vs. Keywords: The Key Difference

This is the concept that trips up most new Google Ads managers. A keyword is what you bid on inside your account. A search term is what a user actually typed into Google. The two are not always the same.

An example from a Manhattan plumber

Say you bid on the broad match keyword “Manhattan plumber.” Your ad might show up for searches like “Manhattan plumber emergency,” “best plumber in Manhattan,” or “Manhattan apartment plumbing repair.” All of those are highly relevant. But it might also show for “plumber salary Manhattan,” “Manhattan plumbing union,” or “DIY plumbing Manhattan” — none of which represent paying customers. The Search Terms Report shows all of these, so you can keep what works and block what doesn’t.

How match types affect search terms

The broader the match type, the more variation you’ll see in search terms. Exact match limits queries closely; phrase match allows wider variations; broad match allows the widest range. If you want to dive deeper into how this works, our guide on Google Ads match types covers the full mechanics.

3. How to Access the Search Terms Report

Finding the report inside Google Ads is straightforward, but Google has rearranged the menus several times over the years. Here is the current path as of 2026.

From the campaign level

Open the campaign you want to audit. In the left navigation, click “Search keywords” under the Insights and Reports section. At the top of the keywords table, click the “Search terms” tab. You will see every query that triggered an ad in your campaign over the date range you selected.

From the ad group level

Drill into a specific ad group to see search terms scoped to that group only. This is helpful for diagnosing which ad group is attracting irrelevant traffic.

Customize the columns

Click the columns icon and add the metrics that matter for your business — typically Conversions, Conv. rate, Cost / conv., CTR, and Avg. CPC. Save this column layout so you don’t have to reconfigure it every time.

4. How to Analyze Search Terms Like a Pro

Looking at a long list of entries in the Google Ads Search Terms Report is overwhelming if you don’t have a system. Here’s a four-step framework that works for any NYC small business account.

Step 1: sort by cost descending

The biggest leverage points in the Google Ads Search Terms Report are the queries that cost the most. Sort by Cost from highest to lowest, then walk through the top 20 to 30 entries. For each one, ask: did this query convert? If yes, keep it. If not, decide whether to negative it or whether the query just hasn’t had enough volume yet.

Step 2: identify the converting queries

Filter for terms with at least one conversion. These are your gold. Add any unique phrasing patterns you see to your list of exact-match keywords so you can bid on them more aggressively. Pair this with a smart bid strategy to scale what’s working.

Step 3: spot the irrelevant terms

Look for queries that obviously don’t fit your business — wrong service, wrong city, free or DIY intent, job seekers, students, competitors. These get added to your negative keyword list. Our deep-dive on using negative keywords to reduce wasted ad spend walks through the exact process.

Step 4: look for query patterns

Sometimes a single bad word — like “free,” “DIY,” or “salary” — appears across many wasted clicks. Add these as account-level or campaign-level negatives to block all variants in one move.

5. Cutting Wasted Spend With Negative Keywords

Once you’ve identified the irrelevant terms, blocking them is fast — but the choice of match type for your negative matters.

Use exact-match negatives for surgical blocking

If you only want to block one specific phrase, use exact-match negative. This blocks only that exact query and nothing else.

Use phrase-match negatives for thematic blocking

Phrase-match negatives block any query containing that phrase in order. This is the right choice for blocking patterns like “free” or “DIY” — you want to catch every variation.

Build negative keyword lists you can reuse

Most NYC businesses have a recurring set of negatives — job-related terms, competitor brands, irrelevant cities. Create a shared negative keyword list and apply it to every campaign. This saves time and prevents the same waste from creeping back in.

Don’t over-negative your account

Adding too many negatives can starve your account of useful traffic. Be deliberate: add a negative only when a term has cost real money without converting, or when it’s clearly irrelevant. A single bad click is not enough evidence to block a phrase forever.

6. NYC Small Business Use Cases

Here are real patterns we see in NYC accounts and how the Search Terms Report helps fix each one.

A Brooklyn dentist filtering out wrong intent

A Brooklyn dental office bidding on “dentist near me” found 40 percent of its clicks were people searching for “dentist salary,” “dental school NYC,” and “dentist union.” Adding those terms as phrase-match negatives cut wasted spend in half within two weeks.

A Manhattan law firm pinpointing converting language

A Manhattan immigration law firm noticed that searches with the word “consultation” converted at 4x the rate of searches with the word “lawyer” alone. They created a separate ad group around “consultation” queries with tailored ad copy and a dedicated landing page, which cut their cost per lead in half.

A Queens restaurant saving on irrelevant food queries

A Queens Italian restaurant saw clicks from searches like “Italian recipes” and “Italian food history.” A few exact-match negatives stopped the bleeding without blocking commercial-intent queries like “Italian restaurant Astoria.”

7. Building a Weekly Search Terms Routine

The Search Terms Report only pays off if you check it consistently. Here’s a low-friction weekly routine that fits even the busiest small business owner’s calendar.

Set a 20-minute calendar block

Schedule a recurring 20-minute slot — first thing Monday morning works well. Open Google Ads, go to Search Terms, and look at the last seven days. That’s it.

Take three actions each session

Every weekly check should produce three small wins: one new negative keyword added, one new exact-match keyword added based on a converting term, and one ad group refinement (ad copy tweak, landing page change, or bid adjustment).

Review with a longer view monthly

Once a month, look at the trailing 30-day report. Patterns that didn’t appear week-to-week often show up here. This is also a good time to check your cost per click trends and your landing page experience data.

8. Advanced Search Terms Tactics

Once you have the weekly routine down, a few advanced moves take your account from optimized to high-performing.

Build SKAGs from converting search terms

SKAGs — single keyword ad groups — are ad groups built around one tightly-themed keyword. When the Search Terms Report reveals a query that consistently converts, lift it into its own ad group with custom ad copy and a dedicated landing page. This usually improves Quality Score and lowers CPC for that query.

Cross-reference with the Auction Insights report

Pair the Search Terms Report with the Auction Insights report to see which competitors show on the same queries. If a high-cost converting term has heavy competition, you may want to bid more aggressively or shift budget to a less contested term where you have a stronger position.

Use the report to inform SEO content

Search terms that convert in paid are also strong organic targets. Take your top converting paid queries and turn them into blog post topics, FAQ entries, or service page sections. This is one of the most powerful synergies between Google Ads and your SEO strategy.

Watch for Performance Max query exposure

If you run Performance Max campaigns, search term visibility is more limited but improving. Use the Insights tab inside Performance Max to see search themes and category-level data, and continue to add high-priority negative keywords at the account level to control PMax traffic.

9. Common Google Ads Search Terms Report Mistakes

Even experienced advertisers fall into a few traps when working with this report. Here’s what to watch out for.

Reacting to single bad clicks

One non-converting click is not a pattern. Wait for at least 100 to 200 impressions or several clicks before deciding to add a negative. Otherwise you’ll over-prune your account.

Ignoring low-impression long-tail terms

Most accounts have a long tail of search terms that each had only one or two impressions. Individually, they don’t matter — but collectively, patterns in the long tail can reveal new keyword opportunities or new negatives. Skim it once a month.

Forgetting to add negatives at the right level

If you add a negative at the ad group level, it only applies there. For broad blocking — like blocking “free” or “cheap” — apply at the campaign or account level using a shared negative keyword list.