Search Terms Audit Checklist for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads

Overview

This article gives you a reusable search terms audit checklist for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. The goal is simple: review the queries that actually triggered your ads, separate useful traffic from low-quality traffic, and turn that review into concrete actions.

A good search terms audit does five things at once:

• Finds irrelevant or low-intent queries that should become negative keywords
• Identifies valuable converting terms that deserve promotion into managed keywords or new ad groups
• Reveals intent mismatches between user queries, ad copy, and landing pages
• Shows where match types are too loose or campaign structure is too broad
• Improves budget efficiency by redirecting spend toward better search demand

If you use ad management software, a keyword management tool, or a campaign performance dashboard, this process becomes easier to scale. But the underlying logic stays the same whether you are working directly in the ad platforms, using a spreadsheet, or reviewing data inside a marketing reporting dashboard.

Before you start, set a consistent review frame:

• Choose a date range that is long enough to show patterns but recent enough to be actionable
• Segment by campaign type so brand, non-brand, competitor, and product or service themes are not mixed together
• Include core performance columns such as impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, conversion value, CTR, CPC, CPA, and ROAS where available
• Use business context including margin, lead quality, sales cycle, and geographic relevance
• Review by intent, not just cost, because some cheap clicks are still poor fits

One practical rule helps keep audits focused: do not ask only whether a query got clicks. Ask whether it belongs in your account. That is the standard that improves keyword strategy over time.

Checklist by scenario

Use the scenarios below as a working PPC audit checklist. Not every account needs every step every week, but these are the checks worth revisiting regularly.

1. If spend is rising but conversions are not

This is usually the clearest signal that your Google Ads search terms report or Microsoft Ads search terms data needs attention.

• Sort queries by highest cost and zero conversions
• Flag terms that are clearly informational when your campaign is meant to capture buying intent
• Look for modifiers such as free, jobs, definition, course, DIY, template, or other low-fit variants for your business model
• Check whether broad match or loose phrase matching is pulling in adjacent topics
• Add negatives at the right level: ad group, campaign, or shared list
• Review whether budget is being consumed by one recurring irrelevant theme rather than isolated terms

If waste is concentrated in a few themes, fix the theme, not just individual queries. That is faster than adding one-off negatives forever. For industry-specific exclusions, it can help to build from a starting list such as this negative keyword list by industry.

2. If CTR is healthy but conversion rate is weak

This often points to intent mismatch rather than purely poor traffic.

• Review top-clicked queries and compare them with ad copy promises
• Check whether the landing page answers the exact search intent behind the query
• Separate research queries from transactional queries
• Watch for broad category terms entering campaigns built for specific products or services
• Check device and location segments to see whether the issue is concentrated
• Decide whether to exclude the query, move it to a different campaign, or build a better landing page path

For example, a query can be relevant enough to earn a click yet still be the wrong stage of the funnel. That is not always a negative keyword problem. Sometimes it is a campaign design problem.

3. If conversions are strong but query control is weak

Some accounts produce results while still carrying hidden inefficiencies. In that case, the audit should focus on control and scale.

• Find converting search terms that are not already added as exact or phrase keywords
• Promote recurring high-value queries into dedicated ad groups or keyword clusters
• Write more specific ads for those promoted terms
• Adjust landing pages or paths for the new segments
• Use a keyword grouping tool or spreadsheet logic to cluster similar winners
• Review whether existing negatives could block valuable expansion

This is the expansion side of query mining. A search terms audit is not only about cutting waste; it is also one of the best ways to build a smarter keyword list from real market language. If you need a research companion, this Google Keyword Planner guide can help validate and expand themes you discover.

4. If brand and non-brand traffic are mixed together

Mixed intent makes reporting harder and can distort optimization decisions.

• Filter search terms for branded variants, misspellings, product names, and founder or company searches
• Move brand traffic into separate campaigns if it is currently blending with non-brand discovery
• Add brand negatives to non-brand campaigns where needed
• Review whether competitor terms are being matched unintentionally
• Check reporting separately for CPA, ROAS, and impression share by brand vs non-brand

Without this separation, your campaign performance dashboard can show healthy blended numbers while hiding weak non-brand efficiency.

5. If lead quality is inconsistent

This is common in local services, B2B, and high-consideration offers where not all conversions are equal.

• Compare search terms associated with qualified leads versus low-quality leads
• Look for modifiers that indicate students, job seekers, support requests, or low-budget buyers
• Review geographic language, urgency language, and service specificity
• Coordinate with CRM or offline conversion data if available
• Add negatives for recurring poor-fit lead patterns

A query may look acceptable in platform data but still fail after the click. If you have downstream sales data, use it. Search term analysis is much stronger when tied to actual business outcomes.

6. If you are using automated bidding

Automated bidding does not remove the need for query review. It changes what you are reviewing for.

• Check whether smart bidding is finding efficient demand inside broad match traffic or simply expanding volume into weaker intent
• Look for query clusters that are expensive and underperforming despite bid strategy changes
• Separate bidding issues from targeting issues; a bad query is not fixed by a new bid strategy alone
• Review whether conversion tracking setup is clean enough to support automated decisions
• Confirm that conversion values reflect real business priorities, not just shallow actions

If bidding strategy is part of the problem, pair your audit with this guide to choosing bid strategies. Query quality and bidding logic should be reviewed together.

7. If budgets are tight and every dollar matters

In constrained accounts, search term review should become a budget defense habit.

• Identify low-intent themes consuming spend early in the month or week
• Pause or constrain weak ad groups before they drain budget from stronger segments
• Prioritize negatives that remove recurring waste fastest
• Promote the highest-converting exact queries so spend is directed with more precision
• Compare spend by query theme against conversion value or lead quality

Query quality affects budget pacing directly. If pacing is already a challenge, review this budget pacing formula guide alongside your search terms audit.

8. If you manage both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads

Cross-platform ad reporting can hide meaningful differences in query behavior.

• Export search term data from both platforms using the same date range and core metrics
• Normalize naming and group similar queries together
• Compare irrelevant themes that appear on one platform but not the other
• Check whether brand leakage, competitor traffic, or broad match behavior differs by platform
• Apply negatives and expansion decisions platform by platform rather than assuming they perform identically

Google Ads search terms report patterns do not always map neatly to Microsoft Ads search terms. Treat each platform as related but distinct demand.

What to double-check

Before you make changes from any search terms audit checklist, slow down and verify the context. Query review is powerful, but it is easy to overreact to noisy data.

Volume and significance

• Do not add negatives based on one or two stray clicks unless the intent is obviously wrong
• Check whether poor performance is repeated across multiple similar queries
• Use enough data to distinguish a pattern from a short-term fluctuation

Match type behavior

• Confirm which keyword and match type triggered the search term
• Look for broad keywords that are pulling in too many adjacent meanings
• Check whether phrase and exact keywords are being crowded by broader variants in the same campaign structure

Negative keyword conflicts

• Make sure a new negative will not block a valuable existing keyword
• Review shared lists and campaign-level exclusions before publishing changes
• Watch plural, singular, stem, and variant conflicts carefully

Intent classification

• Label queries by intent: informational, commercial investigation, transactional, support, employment, educational, or irrelevant
• Make sure your classification reflects your business model rather than generic best practices
• A query that is poor for ecommerce may be useful for lead generation, and vice versa

Conversion tracking quality

• Check whether reported conversions represent meaningful actions
• Review attribution windows, duplicate events, and imported offline outcomes where applicable
• If tracking is weak, be cautious about promoting or excluding terms too quickly

For broader measurement questions, a clean conversion tracking setup and attribution reporting process matter just as much as the keyword decisions themselves.

Common mistakes

Most search term audits fail for procedural reasons rather than lack of data. These are the mistakes that usually create avoidable waste.

• Reviewing all campaigns together. Brand, non-brand, competitor, and remarketing-assisted search behave differently and should not be judged with one rule set.
• Adding negatives too aggressively. Overblocking can shrink reach and hide future demand. Exclude themes with confidence, not out of frustration.
• Ignoring winners while focusing only on waste. Query mining should produce expansion ideas, not just cleanup.
• Making changes without documenting why. Keep a simple changelog of added negatives, promoted keywords, and structural moves.
• Relying only on platform conversions. If lead quality or margin differs by query, your platform view may be incomplete.
• Confusing bidding issues with search relevance issues. A bid management tool can help you spend differently, but it cannot make an irrelevant query relevant.
• Skipping landing page review. Some terms underperform because the post-click experience is weak, not because the query is wrong.
• Forgetting business context. A query with acceptable CPA may still be unprofitable if margins have changed. If economics are shifting, revisit targets with this guide on recalculating bids and CPA targets.

A useful final check is to compare your query decisions against the metric framework you use to judge paid media. If your team focuses on ROAS, MER, or CAC differently, your audit choices may change. For that, this metrics comparison is a helpful companion.

When to revisit

The best search terms audit is not a one-time cleanup. It is an operating rhythm. Revisit this checklist whenever the inputs behind search behavior or account structure change.

At minimum, review search terms in these situations:

• Before seasonal planning cycles, when search behavior often shifts and old negatives may need a second look
• When workflows or tools change, especially if your reporting process, keyword management tool, or ad management software changes the way data is grouped or surfaced
• After launching new campaigns, because early query data often reveals structural problems quickly
• After major bid strategy changes, since traffic composition can shift with automation and target settings
• After landing page changes, to see whether previous intent mismatches are resolved
• After product, pricing, service area, or inventory changes, which can alter what counts as a qualified search

To make this practical, use a simple recurring workflow:

1. Export search term data from Google Ads and Microsoft Ads
2. Tag each query as keep, negative, test, or promote
3. Cluster similar queries into themes
4. Apply negatives and promotions in batches, not one by one without structure
5. Document the change and expected outcome
6. Review results after the next meaningful data window

If you manage multiple accounts, consider building this into your campaign audit template or campaign performance dashboard so search term analysis becomes part of your regular operating review rather than an occasional rescue task.

Used well, a search terms audit checklist does more than clean up spend. It sharpens keyword strategy, improves query-to-ad-to-landing-page alignment, and gives you a reliable process for deciding what belongs in your account. That is why this is a document worth revisiting: search behavior changes, platforms evolve, and your best keyword decisions usually come from the terms real users typed yesterday.

For teams evaluating broader workflows, it can also be useful to review how your tooling supports ongoing search term analysis. If that is a current project, start with how to choose ad management software for small businesses and make sure your reporting setup helps, rather than slows, this kind of recurring audit.