Curiosity pattern
- Query sounds broad, education-heavy, low urgency
- Clicks happen, sales handoffs do not
- Repeats weekly because no negative discipline
Search terms
Google Ads Search Terms Triage: Stop Paying for Curiosity Clicks
Most accounts don’t have a bidding problem first. They have a search-terms hygiene problem: curiosity queries left open, buyer queries left unclaimed.
- MineRead live queries weekly, not monthly postmortems.
- FilterNegative DIY, jobs, and curiosity patterns fast.
- Promote + routeClaim buyer terms and send them to matching pages.
Most accounts leak budget in the search terms report before they leak in bidding strategy. If you do one discipline every week, do this one.
Curiosity traffic vs buyer traffic
Don't let both classes live in the same ad group and expect stable CPA.
Buyer pattern
- Intent-modified query with clear commercial action
- Converts into qualified calls/forms, not just events
- Promoted into dedicated exact/phrase + page match
Search terms is where the account tells the truth
Campaign naming can look clean while the search terms report is quietly buying non-buyers. If you only review top-line CPA, you miss the query-level leaks that actually set lead quality.
The weekly operator loop is simple: mine terms, filter junk, promote winners, and route each intent cluster to the right page. This is how you stop paying premium CPCs for research clicks that never close.
What to cut first (before changing bids)
Start with intent mismatches sales would never call qualified. Keep this list open while reviewing live terms.
- DIY, free, jobs, template, and definition-style queries when you sell done-for-you services
- Broad curiosity phrases that trigger long sessions but no qualified calls or forms
- Geos you do not serve, especially when they absorb high CPCs
- Repeated low-quality variants that should live in shared negatives
What to promote and isolate
When a query shows buyer intent and survives lead-quality checks, claim it deliberately. Don’t leave proven terms buried in mixed ad groups where RSA relevance and page matching get diluted.
- Promote high-intent queries into exact/phrase themes with dedicated ad copy
- Split mixed intent themes when one headline can’t honestly serve both
- Route each promoted theme to a page that finishes that exact promise
Triage only works when tracking and pages agree
If conversion tracking is inflated or page message match is weak, search-term decisions drift fast. A “winner” query on dirty conversion data is still fiction.
Use this alongside conversion tracking hygiene and Search structure discipline so promotions are based on qualified outcomes, not vanity conversion volume.
30-minute weekly workflow
- Pull the previous 7–14 days of search terms by campaign theme
- Mark each term: keep, negative, or promote
- Add negatives immediately (campaign/ad group/shared list as appropriate)
- Promote buyer terms to tighter match buckets with matching RSA themes
- Check that promoted terms land on the right page and fire clean primary conversions
Related operator links
Use Google's baseline on Search terms insights for mechanics, then pressure-test term quality against conversion tracking signal quality and Search structure discipline.
Need query-level cleanup without a rebuild circus?
Send your vertical, monthly Search spend, and whether calls or forms close deals — I’ll tell you where search terms, tracking, or page match is leaking money first.