# Mine the Google Ads search terms report

> Tier: recipe. Operating recipe: real tool sequence, core rules, known traps.

The search terms report read both ways: winners worth promoting to keywords, and junk worth negativing.

**Intent.** The real queries behind the keywords: converters to add, junk to negative.

## When to use

- Weekly on active search accounts.
- After adding broad match.

## When not to use

- Right after launch: terms need clicks before the report says anything.

## Sources

Required: Google Ads

## Preconditions

- The account is ticked in the dashboard, confirmed via list_accounts.

## Inputs

- `window`: Analysis window. Default: last 30 days.

## Procedure

1. Pull search terms with spend, clicks, conversions. — tools: `google_ads_get_search_terms`
2. Bucket: converting terms absent from keywords, junk above the click floor, the rest. — tools: `google_ads_get_keyword_performance`

## Decision rules

- **When** A term converts repeatedly and no keyword matches it exactly → **conclude** Promotion candidate: add as exact, with its own bid.
- **When** A term is off-intent regardless of clicks → **conclude** Negative it on theme and name the keyword that let it in.

## Evidence requirements

- Every figure carries its account, metric and window.
- Anything below a readable sample size is reported as unjudged, not as zero.

## Human approval boundary

- The readout changes nothing. Any change it motivates goes through Safe Writes: preview, human confirmation, then apply.

## Failure modes

- Google omits low-volume terms: the report is a floor, not the whole truth.
- Conversion lag makes this week's terms look unconverting.

## Output

- **Readout**: The figures, with windows and accounts named.
- **Flags**: What deserves a deeper skill or a human decision.

## Related

- Skill: [google-search-waste](https://www.getmcpads.com/skills/google-search-waste.md)