Other Search Terms within Google Ads is a briefer way of saying: ‘Google make $billions by disrespecting their advertisers’
Before I cover Google Ads other search terms, if you’re unfamiliar with search terms in Google Ads, then this will help …
If you think you’re getting Google Ads clicks for the keywords you set up, then it’s time to think again.
Someone thinks they got clicks for their keyword ‘red widgets’ but in reality their advert was made visible in Google Ads when people typed phrases such as:
It works both for and against you, depending on the proactivity of you or your Google Ads support provider.
The short version is: if you’re not fully aware of Google Ads search terms then you need to be!
What’s interesting about search terms is that it uncovers a nasty side of Google, which has been irritating advertisers for years – other search terms …
Here’s a video I’ve created for you, explaining it in more detail than the text on this page, but for those that prefer reading, please do …
When you’re looking at the search terms view of Google Ads, there are two totals to be aware of:
When you hover over the ? Google explain that as meaning:
Total of search terms shown in this report. This only includes terms that were used by a significant number of people to search.
That’s a reasonable explanation that’s basically telling you that Google is displaying the actual search phrases people typed into Google, that triggered your adverts to be visible.
You see the search phrases people used, how many impressions you got, clicks, costs of those clicks, and everything else you expect to see.
In this example, you’d be able to link those clicks and their costs to the individual clicks and search phrases above in that Google Ads view:
When you hover over the ? Google explain that as meaning:
Total of search terms not shown in this report that resulted in click but were not searched on by a significant number of people
So you look along and see you’ve had clicks and spent Google Ads budget …
The problem is that Google give you no visibility of the search terms people used, so you have zero opportunity to make changes (e.g. adding in negative keywords).
As shown within the video on this page (from 3 minutes in), their argument of ‘not searched on by a significant number of people’ is total rubbish, because they display search terms from people who have only searched once on a phrase (and attribute impressions and clicks to them).
Digging deeper, there’s an about the search terms Google page that states:
Some search terms that don’t have enough query activity are omitted from the search terms report in order to keep with our standards on data privacy.
However, there’s no further information available on what that (data privacy) actually means.
I could understand it if it uncovered something private in a search phrase, such as: I want red widgets delivered to 12 The Street, The Town, The Postcode, but it’s really not clear what Google actually mean when they link ‘enough query activity’ with ‘data privacy’.
I’d love to know if anyone else does (please post in the comments on this page).
Go into your own Google Ads account and go to search terms and see how much budget was spent on ‘other search terms’ over a month.
They are all clicks you had, that Google gave you no search term data on, leaving you no option to refine your advertising.
Now take your ‘other search terms’ budget spend and multiply it up by the huge numbers of Google advertisers worldwide who all have the same challenge.
What you end up with is $billions of revenue for Google but no accountability to their advertisers.
That’s just plain unethical.
In the video above I also refer to an older, fairer way in which Google Ads worked.
Years ago (I loved Google Ads back then) if you wanted to be visible for searches on a keyword alone, then you could.
[red widgets] would only make your advert visible when someone typed exactly that phrase and nothing else.
“red widgets” would do similar but would allow words to the left or right of it (e.g. red widgets for charities).
Nowadays, Google is ridiculously fluid in visibility when using phrase and exact match (and don’t even go there with broad match!) – your own search terms data will show you that, and you should be worried about the other search terms that you can’t see.
Google is effectively saying to the advertiser:
We really don’t care what YOU want to be visible under – it’s our system and we’ll do what we want with it.
Google would love everyone to use its so-called intelligent systems to manage Google Ads, but as many in the industry will confirm, those systems are woefully weak and no match for how a human Google Ads expert would manage campaigns in a way that’s better for the advertiser.
But even then, the Google Ads experts are up against a system that makes it ever-harder to get results, and Google’s insistence at hiding search terms within ‘Other search terms’ is akin to sticking two fingers up at the advertiser who wants as much measurable and actionable data as they can get.
In reality, you’re stuck all the time you rely on Google Ads.
But times are changing and (this is covered in the video from 10 minutes in) companies are wising up to the dishonesty of Google and starting to be smarter about organic SEO and how that makes them visible in AI searches (ChatGPT, Perplexity etc.).
People in businesses are realising that searchers are fed up with clicking through loads of Google search result pages, trying to find what they want. Those same searchers are turning to AI searches to type very specific search phrases that then give them a much faster way to find what they want.
The savvy businesses are ramping up their website content to be more attractive to AI search visibility, ready for those niche searches to make them visible.
Taking an example of red widgets, and the person who has a need. They want the quickest potential solutions to their need and so may type (into an AI engine) something like:
Red widgets manufacturers who work with charities and who have good reviews.
And the AI will give them what they are looking for (most of the time – it’s still evolving and will become better beyond 2025).
Why then would they go to Google to search for anything?
And if they’re not going to Google then they’re not seeing Google Ads, which means Google aren’t getting those clicks.
Time will tell but many (including myself) believe that Google complacency (of which ‘other search terms’ being hidden is an example) will highlight to advertisers that there are other ways to be visible online via organic visibility outside of Google … and bit by bit, we’ll see Google Ad revenues start to decline and Google having to finally realise that they need to treat their advertisers with more respect.