Search Terms Vs Keywords – Knowing The Difference Is Key

The old days of 1:1 matching Exact Match Keywords and true Phrase Match are gone. With that, the focus of paid Google Ads campaigns have shifted dramatically towards an emphasis on the search terms vs the search keywords in your account.

For clarification, keywords are the words and phrases that you enter in your account, telling Google what to target and bid on.

Search Terms are the actual wording of the user’s search query. A single Keyword phrase can trigger hundreds to thousands of variations of Search Terms depending on the match type that is used.

The Old Paid Keywords Vs Search Terms In Adwords

Back when Google Ads was called Google Adwords, everything was much more manual and Google was a lot dumber. 

For example when you had an exact match keyword of [Meeting Booking Tool For Business], the search term that would trigger that was ‘Meeting Booking Tool For Business,’ not ‘Business Meeting Booking Tool,’ nor ‘Meeting Booking App.’

Back then, phrase match was true phrase match where the only variations to the targeted keyword were appended outside of the quotation marks (and remember Broad Match Modifier?).

Strategies in those days relied on control and extremely complex campaign setups.

But today, things are different. We’ve lost that degree of control in exchange for something better; Google’s discretion and simplicity.

Search Keywords Vs Search Terms Today (2022)

Today, exact match keywords can match with all kinds of variations and Broad keywords can actually be profitable thanks to Google’s quality automation. It’s like the world is flipped upside down.

Here are some examples of what current match types allow:

In 2022, I view match types as an indication of themed constriction rather than control from word to word.

We are no longer able to target specific keywords, now we are forced to keep our eye on the search terms to see how relevant they are to our desired intents.

Targeting Search Terms, Not Keywords

Before I gather enough data on a keyword, I often make decisions on how much to bid on a keyword and whether or not to pause it based on the search terms report.

For example, if I am targeting ‘task management software for business’ in broad match and I see tons of impressions for terms like ‘how to manage agency projects’ or ‘asana integrations’ and I have a limited budget, I’m going to turn that keyword off. 

As usual, loose constraints will equal more volume and cheaper cost per click, but it’s all about managing your conv. rate to keep your cost per acquisition in check. 

So if you are wasting a lot of ad spend, it’s a good idea to look at your highest spending keywords & check their search terms reports to see if you are happy with the intents of that traffic.

Remember though, the data you see in the search terms is really only 30% of the data, so you won’t see all the clicks, impressions and search terms that you actually showed for.

Negative Keywords To Tame Your Search Terms

In the old days, negative keywords could take a medium-quality keyword and make it very valuable. 

At the time, we had access to more data and had more control over the search terms that we showed for.

Now, we only see part of the picture, so if you are seeing that 20% or more of your search terms rendered by a given keyword are bad, you aren’t going to be able to fix that keyword.

From there our choice is to bid down or pause until you have a higher experimental budget.

That being said, digging through your search terms has become even more valuable. I look at every search term, even the single impression one’s, especially when looking for trends in what keywords to negate.

Consolidating Your Strategy

I’ve audited a lot of accounts lately that will have one campaign or ad group targeting [Process Automation Software For Business] and another targeting [Business Process Automation Software].

In that case the account owner usually wants me to address lack of volume or inconsistent data. 

In reality, this account could just target one of those keywords and still get the same amount of traffic and conversions.

But even more so now, I would advise opening up your match types. With keywords that are 3 or more words, try moving to Phrase (and just adding one of those keywords per themed ad group or campaign).

So, in that same example, you can keep one of those exact match keywords (whichever is doing better) and then recreate that campaign in broad and phrase. 

If you’re using automation, I would also separate them into other campaigns so as to control the spend on each.

If using manual, you can lower the bids the looser your match type is. 

Focusing On Search Terms Lets You Simplify Your Strategy

Without having to worry about every search term variation you could possibly want to show for, you can focus more on themes and account structure.

All in all, this is a great thing for account managers who enjoy strategy more than the technical aspects of the account. 

Next time you are choosing keywords to run, think about what search terms they will show for rather than the actual keyword you are targeting.