Earlier this week Google made changes to the search terms report in Google Ads. The message showed up in accounts saying:

Changes to the search terms report
We are updating the search terms report to only include terms that were searched by a significant number of users. As a result, you may see fewer terms in your report going forward.

This is mildly devastating news. The search term report is where I spend most of my time in many of my accounts. 

Reading further you’ll find that if search volumes aren’t high enough you may not be able to see a word in the report even if it has had a click. It feels corrupt that they are charging for clicks without disclosing any information about what the click was for. 

But at the same time this isn’t surprising. Google are taking away more and more transparency every day.  There’s not much we can do. Even if you wanted to switch to a mini competitor like Bing they follow these changes and I’m sure we’ll see the same thing happening there before long. 

So far I haven’t noticed much of a difference. But I’m sure it will get more obvious over time.

My advice would be to record any historic data you have in case that disappears. I’d also start putting alot more thought into those negative keyword lists up front.

Need help with Google Ads? Get in touch

4 + 15 =