Once you have created your Google Ads campaign and added in negative keywords, it’s important to monitor which keywords triggered your ad and how this marries up with what a user typed into Google.
In reviewing the report you will be amazed at the types of thing a user types in to Google to find you and in many cases, you might show up on things that you wish you were never found for.
This is where the Search Query Report comes to the fore.
The Search Query Report should be every person who manages a search campaign’s best friend. Sadly we know this is not true. We find a lot of Adwords managers focus a lot of time on bidding but very little time looking at this report.
It’s a shame really because this one little report is worth its weight in gold. Not only can it give you ideas for blog posts and content generation, but it can also help you find new ideas for keywords as well as help you weed out those keywords that you don’t want to trigger your ad.
Lets explore a real life example.
Suppose you are a company that sells window and door awnings for residential homes, shops and commercial offices, you might be interested to learn what people are typing into Google to find you.
As an advertiser you are bidding on different types of awnings – from folding arm awnings, drop arm awning, window awnings, canopy awnings and retractable awnings. You think you have added enough negative keywords to your campaign but are surprised to learn that your ad is being shown to people looking for awnings for cars, caravans and boats.
How do you find this information? By looking at your search query report.
Umm – can’t find it. It is there – its just conveniently tucked away.
Here’s how to find it.
The first way to find search queries is to click on the Dimensions tab, then use the drop down box labelled View: Day to locate your search terms report.
You should customise the columns so you can match the keyword and search term that the user typed into Google which triggered your ad.
You will be directed to the customise columns section where you can navigate to Attributes and then add Keyword to your columns.
The second way, is to click on the keywords tab, then click on the Details buttons until a drop down box appears. Once you see Search Terms, click on the All label in the sub menu.
In either method, you should customise the columns so you can match the keyword and search term that the user typed into Google which triggered your ad.
This will take you to the same Search terms report but the key difference is that you can add negative keywords straight from within the interface whereas you will not be able to if you see the search terms on the dimensions tab.
From this interface you can tick which search term you don’t want to trigger your ad, and then click on the add as negative keyword button. Once this has been done a red excluded label will appear next to the search term.
It should be pointed out that by default this will only stop your ad from being triggered if someone types in that search term exactly. Therefore it’s also important to add in the word itself as a negative to avoid the ad from being triggered if someone types in something similar to but bit exactly as the search term you just added a negative.
In my example about window awnings, if some typed in caravan window awning into Google and this triggered your ad, this option by default will mean that your ad won’t be shown if someone types the same thing in again.
To really stop your ad from being triggered you should also add in the word caravan and caravans as negative keywords.
This will stop you ad from being triggered if someone types in something like window awnings for caravans which is similar to but different from caravan window awnings into Google.
The concept of negative keywords can be a difficult one to grasp. It can take time to really get your head around this. The key is to persist and use the experience as a learning. Otherwise understand the concept but get help in managing your campaign.