Search Terms Report Analyzer for Google Ads

Google Ads charges for the click whether or not the person searching was ever going to buy.

The search terms report lists the searches that triggered your ad, but a report with 2,000 rows is hard to read 1 line at a time. A word like “jobs” might show up in 40 different searches at $3 each, and none of them look expensive on their own.

Fill in the search terms report analyzer above, and it adds up the cost of every word across every search. Words that spent money without a conversion turn red, and you can copy them out as a negative keyword list.

What sets ours apart is the check before you paste. The analyzer tests each negative against the searches in your report that did convert, and against your keywords.

A word that looks like waste in 1 search can be a sale in another.

What is the Google Ads search terms report?

The search terms report is a list of what people typed into Google when your ad showed up. Google Ads shows it under Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms, with impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions for each search (Google Ads Help on the search terms report).

A search term is different from a keyword. Your keyword is what you bid on, like roof repair. The search term is what someone typed, like roof repair jobs near me, and broad match can show your ad for searches you never thought of.

The report doesn’t show every search. Google leaves out searches that not enough people typed, for privacy, so your report covers less than your total spend.

What n-gram analysis shows

An n-gram is a word, or a run of words in a row, taken from your search terms. N-gram analysis adds up the clicks, cost, and conversions of every search that has that word, so you see what the word costs you across the whole report.

Once you add a report, the table under the tool lists each word by cost. A word turns red when it has cost at least 1 conversion’s worth with no conversions. The analyzer works that limit out from your report, total cost divided by total conversions, and you can set your own in step 2.

For example, the Try an example report button loads a made-up report for a roofing company. It has 20 search terms, $2,706.05 in cost, and 37 conversions, so 1 conversion costs $73.14. The analyzer turns 4 words red:

Word	Cost	Conversions	What people were looking for
jobs	$177.70	0	Work as a roofer
fix	$131.75	0	How to fix a leak themselves
diy	$88.90	0	Doing the repair themselves
kit	$88.80	0	A repair kit from a store

Those 4 negatives block 6 search terms that cost $487.15 and brought in nothing. Words like tape and spray cost money too, but less than 1 conversion’s worth, so they stay unchecked until there’s more data.

“How” cost $195.15 with no conversions too, but the analyzer never suggests question words like how, what, or much on their own. As a negative, “how” would also block “how much does roof repair cost”, and that searcher is ready to buy.

Switching the tool to 2 words suggests “how to” instead, which only blocks searches with those 2 words in a row.

Check your negatives before they go in

A negative keyword blocks every search that matches it, including searches that bring you sales.

The analyzer checks each negative you pick against 2 things. The first is the search terms in your report that converted. The second is your own keywords, from the report’s Keyword column and anything you paste in step 2. If a negative would block either one, the Checks box under the list names it and gives you a button to take it off.

For example, “free” is on most universal negative lists. In the example report, “free roof inspection” brought in 4 conversions, so the analyzer never suggests “free”, and the check catches it if you add it by hand.

The check uses the same rules Google Ads uses for negatives. A negative broad keyword blocks any search with all of its words, negative phrase needs the words in order, and negative exact needs the exact search (Google Ads Help on negative keywords). Our negative keyword list runs the same check, with 10 built-in lists for searches your report hasn’t caught yet.

Which words to add as negatives

The right move for a word depends on whether it converts and how much it has cost:

What the table shows	What it usually means	What we’d do
Red, and the search terms all mean the same thing	People searching for something you don’t sell	Add it as a negative
Red, but some search terms are close to what you sell	The word is fine, the searches around it aren’t	Look at 2 or 3 words and negate the phrase
Cost, no conversions, under your limit	Not enough data yet	Leave it, and check again next month
Converts, but at a high cost	Real buyers, at a price you may not want	Keep it, and look at bids or the ad
Converts at a good cost, and it isn’t one of your keywords	A search you’re paying broad match prices for	Add it as an exact match keyword

Clicking a word in the table shows the search terms behind it, and we’d read them before checking the box. Brand names, places, and service names need the most care, since the same word can mean a buyer in 1 search and a job hunter in another.

Conversions can show up days after the click. We’d leave out the last week when you pick a date range, so recent searches don’t look like waste before their sales come in.

Our keyword wrapper turns converting search terms into exact match keywords.

How to download the search terms report

These steps match Google Ads as of late 2026, but Google moves its menus around a lot, so the names may differ in your account.

1. In Google Ads, click Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms.
2. Pick a date range. We’d use at least 30 days, or 90 for a small account.
3. Check that Cost, Conversions, and Keyword are in the table. Keyword is hidden by default, so add it with the columns button, under Attributes.
4. Click Download and pick a CSV format. The analyzer reads both the plain and the Excel version.

You can also add negatives inside Google Ads. Check the search terms in the report and click Add as negative keyword (Google Ads Help on negative keyword ideas from search terms). Google adds them as negative exact unless you change it, which only blocks that 1 search.

A shared negative keyword list, applied to the campaigns that got the searches, covers most cases. Account-level negatives are for searches no campaign should get, and they also apply to Performance Max (Google Ads Help on account-level negative keywords).

How the search terms report analyzer works

Step	How
Reads your report	Finds the header row with Search term, skips the report title and the Total rows, and reads Cost, Clicks, Impr., Conversions, Keyword, and Added/Excluded. Reads numbers written 1,234.56 or 1.234,56
Combines repeats	Adds up a search that shows up in more than 1 campaign or ad group, so a search that converted anywhere counts as converting
Splits each search	Breaks it into 1, 2, or 3 word runs. Runs that start with a small word like “for” or “a”, or end on “a” or “the”, are left out
Adds up each run	Counts each search once per run, and sums its clicks, cost, and conversions
Suggests negatives	Any run with no conversions and a cost at or above your limit. The limit starts at your cost per conversion. Question words on their own, and searches already marked Excluded, are never suggested
Checks the list	Tests each negative against your converting searches and your keywords, with Google’s negative match rules

The check matches whole words as written. Google Ads negatives also cover misspellings (Google Ads Help on negative keywords), so a negative can block a little more than the check shows.

Don’t want to deal with any of this? Take a look at our Google Ads management service, and we’ll go through the search terms and run the ads for you.