How To Use AI To Analyze Your Google Ads Search Terms Report

By Corey Frankosky · Last Updated October 18, 2026

The search terms report is the single most useful report in Google Ads, and it is also the one most business owners skip. It shows you the actual searches that triggered your ads, which means it shows you exactly where your budget is going. The problem is volume. Even a small account can have thousands of rows. In this post I will walk you through how to use AI to analyze your search terms report, group the waste into themes, turn it into negative keywords, and find new keywords worth bidding on.

1Why the search terms report matters

Your keywords are what you bid on. Your search terms are what people actually typed. Those are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where money disappears.

With phrase match and broad match, Google decides which searches are close enough to your keyword to show your ad. Sometimes it gets that right. Sometimes a plumber bidding on "water heater repair" ends up paying for "water heater repair jobs" or "how to fix a water heater yourself." Those clicks cost the same as a real customer's click.

The search terms report is the only place you can see this. If you have never opened it, start with my full walkthrough on how to use the search terms report for negative keywords. This post picks up from there and shows you how to get through it much faster with AI.

Question to Answer:

When was the last time you read your search terms report, and how many rows did it have?

2What AI is good at here, and what it is not

AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are very good at one part of this job: reading a long list of messy phrases and sorting them into groups. A human gets tired around row 200. The AI does not.

Here is what AI does well with a search terms report:

• Grouping by intent. It can separate buyers from researchers, job seekers, DIYers, and people looking for a competitor.
• Spotting repeated words. It finds the single words, like "free," "jobs," or "salary," that show up across dozens of bad searches.
• Adding up cost by theme. When it runs the math on your file, it can tell you how much each bad theme cost you.
• Drafting negative keyword lists. It gives you a starting list you can review and paste in.

What it does not know is your business. It does not know you stopped offering a service last year, or that "cheap" searches actually convert well for you. That judgment stays with you.

Question to Answer:

Which decisions in your account need business knowledge the AI does not have?

3Export the right data

In Google Ads, go to Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms. Set the date range to the last 30 days for a busy account, or 90 days if you spend less than a few thousand dollars a month. You want enough data for patterns to show up.

Make sure these columns are turned on before you download:

• Search term and Match type
• Campaign, Ad group, and Keyword
• Impressions, Clicks, and Cost
• Conversions and Cost / conv.
• Added/Excluded, so you can skip terms you already handled

Download it as a CSV. Keep in mind that Google hides some low-volume searches for privacy, so the report will never show 100% of your spend. It still shows plenty to work with.

Question to Answer:

Does your export include conversions, so the AI can tell good searches from bad ones?

4Clean the file before you upload it

Google's CSV export puts a couple of title rows and a totals row in the file. Delete those so the first row is your column headers and every row after it is one search term. It takes 30 seconds and it prevents the AI from counting your totals row as a search.

Then decide what you are comfortable uploading. A search terms report is not customer data, but it is your account data. If you are on a free consumer plan, check the data settings and turn off model training. If you use AI for client work, a business plan is the safer choice. I cover this in more detail in my post on building a custom AI marketing assistant.

For very large accounts, split the file by campaign. One focused file per campaign gives you better results than one giant file covering everything.

Question to Answer:

Is your AI tool set so that your uploads are not used to train its models?

5The prompt to use

The quality of what you get back depends on the context you give. Tell the AI what you sell, where, and what a good customer looks like. Then tell it exactly what output you want.

That last line matters. When an AI tool does math in its head, it can get it wrong. When it runs the numbers on the file, it is far more reliable. Asking it to show its work makes it easy for you to spot a problem.

Question to Answer:

Can you describe the services you do not offer clearly enough for the AI to flag them?

6Group search terms into themes

One of the biggest mistakes I see is people reviewing search terms one at a time. You add "plumber jobs near me" as a negative, then next month it is "plumbing jobs hiring," then "plumber apprentice." You are playing whack a mole.

Themes fix that. When the AI groups 40 different job seeker searches together and tells you they cost $380 with zero conversions, you do not need 40 negatives. You need a few: "jobs," "hiring," "salary," "apprentice," "career."

For a typical local service business, the themes that come up again and again are:

• Job seekers: jobs, hiring, salary, training, school, license
• DIY: how to, yourself, diy, parts, tutorial, video
• Wrong service: things related to your trade that you do not actually do
• Wrong location: cities outside your service area
• Competitor names: searches for a specific other company
• Price shoppers: free, cheap, cost, average price

Not every theme is bad for every business. Price searches can convert well for some trades. That is why you look at conversions, not just the words.

Question to Answer:

Which theme in your account spent the most money with nothing to show for it?

7Turn the waste into negative keywords

Once you agree with a theme, ask the AI to draft the negative keyword list for it. Then pay attention to match types. Negative keywords do not match close variants or synonyms, so "job" and "jobs" need to be added separately.

• Negative broad blocks any search containing all the words, in any order. Use it for single words like "salary."
• Negative phrase blocks searches containing the words in that order. Use it for phrases like "how to."
• Negative exact blocks only that exact search. Use it when a phrase is bad on its own but the words are fine elsewhere.

Put the themes that apply to every campaign into a shared negative keyword list, so you manage them in one place. My guide to negative keyword best practices and lists walks through the setup step by step. If you want a refresher on how matching works, read the keyword match types guide.

Keep in mind, if you run Performance Max or AI Max, Google now shows you more of those search terms too. The same process works on them.

Question to Answer:

Do you have a shared negative keyword list applied to all of your search campaigns?

8Find new keywords hiding in the report

The search terms report is not only about cutting waste. It also shows you searches that converted but are not keywords yet. These are some of the best keywords you will ever find, because you already know they work.

Ask the AI a follow up question: "Which search terms had at least one conversion and are not already in the Keyword column?" From there, decide whether each one belongs as its own keyword, in its own ad group, or with its own landing page.

For example, an HVAC company might find "mini split installation" converting through a general "AC installation" keyword. That deserves its own ad group with ad copy and a landing page about mini splits. For more ways to use AI in this step, see how to use AI for Google Ads keyword research.

Question to Answer:

Which converting search terms in your account deserve their own ad group?

9Check the AI's work before you change anything

Never paste an AI negative keyword list straight into your account. Read every line first. The most common problems are:

• Blocking your own services. An AI might flag "emergency" as low quality when emergency calls are your best customers.
• Negatives that are too broad. Adding "repair" as a negative because of one bad search would shut off half the account.
• Math that does not add up. Spot check two or three theme totals against the raw file.

Here is a simple test. Before you add a negative, search the full report for that word and look at every row it would block. If any of those rows converted, think twice.

Question to Answer:

Would any of your proposed negatives block a search that has converted in the past?

10Make it a monthly routine

Search terms change every month. New slang, new competitors, new services that Google decides are related to yours. A one time cleanup helps, but the real savings come from doing it consistently.

Set a recurring calendar reminder. Export the last 30 days, run the same prompt, review the themes, and add negatives. With AI doing the sorting, this takes 20 to 30 minutes instead of an afternoon. If you save the prompt in a project or custom assistant, it is even faster, because you do not have to explain your business every time.

If you also want AI help explaining what changed in your results month to month, read my post on using AI to analyze Google Ads performance and write reports.

Question to Answer:

What day each month will you review your search terms?