The search terms report is what people actually typed. Keywords are what you hoped. Nepal accounts leak on vacancy, free, india, and DIY queries. Arjan KC mines Search weekly on every paid retainer that includes Google Ads. Starter negatives: master list. Match types: exact vs broad. Audit.

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Case study that used this habit

Kathmandu home services Search: wasted spend on irrelevant terms dropped as CPA went NPR 4,722 → 2,571 (−42%) — /case-studies/kathmandu-home-services-google-ads/ · case write-up. Education −40% CPL used the same hygiene — /case-studies/nepal-education-consultancy-ppc/. A separate waste-percentage figure is not published.

Image: Arjan KC media library.

Weekly pass (30 minutes)

Filter	Action
Cost with zero conversions	Add negatives or tighten match type
job, vacancy, salary, course free	Negate — unless you sell jobs
Foreign cities / in india	Geo + negatives
Queries that belong in brand	Don’t let non-brand bid them
Good queries not in the account	Add as exact/phrase if they convert

You need admin to export this — ownership. PMax Insights is not a substitute.

Image: Arjan KC media library.

Step by step: the weekly review

1. In Google Ads, open Campaigns → Insights and reports → Search terms, and set the date range to the last 7 days (14 if volume is low).
2. Add the columns Cost, Conversions, and Match type (the keyword that triggered the query).
3. Sort by cost. Work down until the remaining rows are too small to matter.
4. For each irrelevant term, tick it and choose Add as negative keyword. Pick the level deliberately (see below).
5. For each relevant term that converted but is not in the account, choose Add as keyword, usually as exact or phrase.
6. Write a one-line note in a shared sheet: date, terms added, terms negated. It makes later audits much faster.

Where to add each negative

Level	Use for
Ad group	Steering a query to the right ad group (for example “braces” out of the cleaning ad group)
Campaign	Terms irrelevant to that campaign only (a competitor name in a non-brand campaign)
Shared negative keyword list	Junk that is never relevant: jobs, vacancy, salary, free, pdf, DIY

Remember that negatives do not cover plurals or misspellings automatically, so add job and jobs, vacancy and vacancies.

What the report does not show

Google hides low-volume queries for privacy, so part of your spend appears only as a total, without the actual search terms. Do not assume the visible rows are everything. If spend keeps rising with few conversions, tighten match types even when the visible terms look clean.

Language

Romanized terms you do serve stay. Unrelated Nepali/English lookalikes get negated. RSA should already include the ones you want — bilingual RSA.

Next: negatives list · match types · hire.