The search terms report is one of the most powerful sources of data in your PPC campaign. Tragically, it's also the best hidden. This report tells you exactly what people who saw your ads were searching for.

Know which search queries triggered your ads to optimize your performance.

Knowing which search queries triggered your ads and how they performed makes it easy for you to optimize your search campaign and save money by adding new keywords and negative keywords.

In this post, I'll walk you through the steps to take in order to pull these reports, analyze them and take action on them.

Accessing the Search Terms Report

The search terms report is notoriously hard to find, so let's first walk through the process of generating the report for both Google & Bing.

Google AdWords

AdWords Search Terms Report

AdWords can generate a report with all search terms that were used by multiple people and received clicks in the past 30 days. All other search terms, along with those from the last day, will be summed up in the "Other search terms" row.

To generate your AdWords search terms report:

1. Click the Campaigns tab.
2. Click the Keywords tab.
3. Click the Details button.
4. Select All from the drop-down.
5. Click the download button to export the data.

Bing Ads

Bing Search Terms Report

Bing can generate a report with all search terms that resulted in at least one click during a one-hour reporting period. Because of this, the number of impressions listed in a Bing search terms report might be just a fraction of the total impressions actually generated during a search query.

To generate your Bing Ads search terms report:

1. Click the Reports tab.
2. Select Search Terms under Performance from the Report type drop-down.
3. Include “Delivered match type,” “Keyword” & “Search query” from Choose your columns .

Access Google & Bing from AdStage

AdStage Report Center

With AdStage PPC software , you can generate reports for both Google AdWords & Bing Ads from a single place.

To generate your Google AdWords & Bing Ads search terms reports within AdStage:

1. Click Reports in the sidebar.
2. Scroll to your desired network.
3. Select Search Query Report from the Report Type drop-down.

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Find New Keyword Opportunities

The search terms report is full of new keyword opportunities, especially if your campaign is full of broad and phrase matched keywords. You'll want to look through the report for queries that performed well and aren’t yet in your campaign as exact match keywords.

To find keyword opportunities in your report:

1. Filter the report so only broad and phrase match keywords are being shown. This way you can skip the exact match keywords that are already in your campaign.
2. Sort by highest clicks or highest conversions to see which queries are performing best.
3. Starting from the top, review the search queries in each row. Look at their CTR and conversion rates and compare them to other rows to gauge the quality of the keyword.
4. Note which keywords are performing well and add them as exact match keywords . This way you can ensure your ads display for these queries in the future.

For other ways to discover keyword opportunities, read our Guide to the Google Keyword Planner .

Find Negative Keyword Opportunities

The search terms report can also reveal negative keyword opportunities, especially if your campaign is full of broad and phrase matched keywords. You'll want to look through the report for irrelevant queries that you want to avoid advertising on in the future.

Find Negatives to Boost CTR & Quality Score:

1. Filter the report so only broad and phrase match keywords are being shown. This way you can skip the exact match keywords that are already in your campaign.
2. Sort by highest impressions to see the most popular queries your ads show up for.
3. Starting from the top, review the search queries in each row. Look at their CTR, conversions and conversion rate and compare them to other rows to gauge the quality of the keyword.
4. If the queries are irrelevant and aren't resulting in conversions, you can add them as negative keywords . When you add negative keywords using this data, you'll directly improve your CTR and Quality Score.

Find Negatives To Save Money & Lower CPA:

1. Filter the report so only broad and phrase match keywords are being shown. This way you can skip the exact match keywords that are already in your campaign.
2. Sort by highest spend to see which keywords are costing you the most money.
3. Starting from the top, review the search queries in each row. Look at their CTR, conversions and conversion rate and compare them to other rows to gauge the quality of the keyword.
4. If the queries are irrelevant and aren't resulting in conversions, you can add them as negative keywords . When you add negative keywords using this data, you'll save money and directly improve your cost per conversion.

For help with negative keywords, read our Guide to Negative Keywords .