Home > 2 Major Reasons Why You Should Run a Search Query Report Today!

2 Major Reasons Why You Should Run a Search Query Report Today!

The search query report was introduced in Google Adwords last summer. The report shows performance data for the actual search queries that triggered your ads. You can easily run the report in your Google Adwords account by simply going to the reports tab, and selecting Search Query Performance Report.

If you’ve run a search query report in Google Adwords you very well may be aware that there are some problems with the report. For example, a good majority of search query examples may say, “168 other unique queries”. This basically means that these search queries show stats for low search and click volume. They can be labeled as one off search queries that won’t likely be used again. I realize this can be very frustrating, however, the search query report can reveal new keywords that you don’t have in your account. Below are two major reasons why you should be running the search query performance report in all of your Adwords accounts:

Major Reason #1: New Keyword Ideas

The search query report will give you a list of actual search queries that customers are typing in the search bar to trigger your ad. It’s good to know this information especially if you find some keywords that aren’t currently in your account. The search queries that the report shows were triggered by your broad match keywords (more than likely). By adding these newly found keywords into your account clicks will now be triggered through this particular keyword rather than a general broad match keyword that originally triggered your ad. This can help you identify more clearly and precisely which keywords are generating the most traffic/conversions rather than having all of your data lumped into just a few broad matched keywords. And this will help with your ranking as you bid directly on these terms.

For example, if I sold dog food, and I had the keyword for ‘dog food’ broad match in my account, my ads could be triggered by a plethora of other keywords that are not in my account because of the nature of broad match. By running a search query report you may find that people are typing in ‘natural dog food’ or ‘organic dog food’. Then you can add these keywords into their own ad groups with targeted ad text specifically for these keywords to help increase quality traffic and conversions.

Major Reason #2: Negative Keyword Ideas

Using this method can also help discover new negative keywords for your account. If you don’t offer natural or organic dog food, then you should add “natrual” and “organic” to your negative keyword list. This is a great way to qualify your traffic, decrease spend and increase conversions.

For example, I have a client who sells cake toppers for weddings, birthdays and other celebratory events. We only have about 10-15 cake toppers and most are very general, and not themed. By running a search query report, I found that many people were typing in keywords like, Spider Man cake toppers or funny cake toppers and receiving my ad. Well, we don’t carry Spider Man cake toppers nor are any of our cake toppers considered funny. Therefore, I added these keywords as negatives in my cake topper ad group and have already seen a decline in spend and a better ROI on these keywords.

March 12, 2008

About the Author

Amber

Amber is a former Account Executive at Hanapin Marketing, a search engine marketing firm focused on generating results through pay-per-click advertising.
  • http://www.portentinteractive.com Michael Wiegand

    I suggest scheduling them every week. Finding new negatives is critical, especially with campaigns that have tight budgets.

    The only bad thing about Search Query Reports right now is when you get a lot of useless data like “15 Other Queries” and “32 Other Queries” back. I find this only happens with certain clients, but Google said there’s nothing they can do as of right now. It’s kinda like the “Domain Ads” result in Placement Reports. Not much you can do with that.

  • http://www.bestonlineresults.com SEO Agency

    Great tip however I am getting the “other unique queries” in my reports. I guess I will have to wait until Google cleans up their act. My account was opened back in 2004. I wonder if this a trend that is isolated to older accounts?

  • Pingback: Plotting the Effects of your PPC Changes

  • http://www.roirevolution.com/blog Mark

    If you’re sick of the “other unique queries” in your reports, then use the exact keyword tracking script for Google Analytics. Its free and it shows all of the exact search queries right there in the Google Analytics interface. It will not lump queries together under a label of “other unique queries.” It’s much easier to use than Google’s Search Query Report, and will give you a lot more data.

    http://www.roirevolution.com/blog/2008/03/google_analytics_keyword_sleuth_vs_search_query_pe.html

  • http://LeverageMarketing.net Kalin Dudley

    A great strategy that many people fail to use is the keyword filter tool in Google Analytics which gives you interaction metrics of Search Queries from all Networks as well. The biggest advantage that Yahoo has over all other networks is the ASSIST keyword data which tells you terms that may be leading to conversions which may not convert themselves. Many times I have made the mistake of pausing an ASSIST keyword in Google or MSN because the cost is high with little to no conversions. Using the Interaction Metrics from the keyword results that are caught on Google Analytics helps me to do two major things using metrics like bounce rates, avg time of page and avg page visits :

    - Find possible ASSIST terms
    - Make choices for terms that may convert offline via phone calls

    I have found that using the Search Query Report mixed with Google Analytics with the Search Term Filter have proven to be the most successful strategy to use in effort not to eliminate possible ASSIST terms as well. Great blog, been reading for awhile!!

  • http://www.ppchero.com Amber

    Great Tip, thanks Kalin!

  • http://www.easycasecash.com Case Cash

    Great advice. Its great if you use a lot of broad matched keywords – it can really show you which words you should be making a negative. Its also a great way to find new words. A word of advice – run this report often, otherwise you can be overwhelmed with data

  • Marty

    One of the biggest problems I am experiencing when running these reports is that I find a lot of my spending comes from low impression, 1 click search terms. I am finding it very difficult to deciede which ones I should add as negatives because I don’t have enough data on them.

    Yet, if I take all these one-click/no conversion keywords and look at them as a whole, the spend is outrageous, and the ROAS is only .02-.03. What is the quickest and most efficient way to look at an all-time search query report and find the best ones to get rid of?

    If I have to go through over 800,000 search terms and decide which ones are relevant and which ones aren’t I am going to lose my mind!

    • http://www.hanapinmarketing.com PPC Hero

      Hey Marty,

      Those queries can be overwhelming, so we feel your pain. Here are a couple of tips:

      1. Use autofilters on Excel. Pick out a handful of words that are appearing over and over in your report across multiple queries and filter for all queries containing those terms.

      2. Look at your queries by campaign/ad group. You’ll still face a ton of data, but it’ll be a bit more manageable and you should be able to identify trends a bit quicker.

      3. Since you’ve got an all time report, look for your big time queries. That should help you identify major terms and you can look for trends.

      Basically, with 800,000 terms you can’t read all of that stuff. So you’ve got to find trends within that.

      Good luck!