Google Ads Liaison Explains “Other” Search Terms Issue via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

An advertiser recently asked Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, about an issue with seeing a high percentage of ad spend and conversions falling under “Other” search terms.

Inquiry Into Ad Spend Anomalies

The advertiser explained that for a campaign using all exact match keywords, 80% of ad spend and 90% of conversions were attributed to “Other” search terms. Their client said these conversions seemed low quality and not ideal.

Google’s Privacy Thresholds At Play

In response, Marvin explained that search queries not meeting privacy thresholds set by Google Ads are aggregated into the “Other” search terms category.

She recommended using Search Terms Insights on the Insights page, which analyzes query categories driving activity to understand performance better.

“Queries that do not meet our privacy thresholds are aggregated in within the “other” search terms line. Search Terms Insights (on the Insights page) can be helpful to better understand the query themes/categories driving activity though. The category groupings take all search terms into account, including those not included in the search terms report for privacy reasons.”

As Marvin noted, Search Terms Insights considers all search terms, including those left out of the standard search terms report, for privacy reasons. The tool groups terms based on intent and attributes to provide metrics for each category and subcategory.

New Insights For Campaign Optimization

As explained in a Google support page Marvin linked, Search Terms Insights helps advertisers understand how customers search for and engage with their business on Google.

The automated groupings provide key metrics without requiring advertisers to comb through individual terms, some of which are kept private.

Advertisers can view and download search terms insights anytime after March 2023 by switching to custom date ranges. The downloads contain aggregated metrics for categories and more granular data on subcategories.

Accessing & Utilizing Search Terms Insights

Search Terms Insights are accessible in account and campaign views. This recently added capability in the Google Ads API works with Search, Performance Max, Shopping, and other campaign types.

The new insights provide advertisers with comprehensive data on all search terms, even private ones. It offers detailed breakdowns of search topics, subtopics, and key metrics.

With regularly updated data, advertisers can refine campaign targeting and creative to align with shifting interests.

In Summary

Marvin’s guidance aims to help advertisers leverage Search Terms Insights to better understand the ambiguous “Other” search terms they may see in their campaign data.

Advertisers struggling with conversions attributed to “Other” terms can analyze the tool’s category groupings to understand campaign performance better.

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