Google Ads Is No Longer Showing A Significant Amount Of Search Query Data To Advertisers

I am livid. Google Ads decided that starting in September of 2020 it was going to stop showing paying advertisers a certain amount of query data. What is query data you might be wondering? Well, when you target ads by keywords in Google Ads, the queries that searchers actually input or speak are what trigger your ads to display. Google Ads matches the query words and their interpretation of intent to the keywords you have chosen to target. For example, your keyword might be "it services" but the query that triggered your ad might be "how much should it services cost." Historically, advertisers have had access to the majority of this query data.

Why does it matter - you may be wondering?

Well, query data is very valuable to advertisers in a number of ways. It gives you a window into how Google Ads views terms in relation to each other. It gives you a window into how people are actually talking about or searching for things that you've deemed as worth targeting. But most importantly, visibility into search queries allow advertisers to make decisions about EXCLUDING traffic that is not what they are looking for or is a bad match for their product or service offerings. Said traffic is excluded by adding words or phrases to what is called a negative keyword list. A negative keyword list does exactly what it sounds like it would do - if a word or phrase on your negative list is part of a query, then that query will not (or at least should not) cause your ad to trigger/display for that query.

Why is Google Ads doing this?

Well, according to their official statements on the matter it is for user privacy...

From a Search Engineland article on this topic:

As we reported yesterday, Google has notified advertisers the search terms report will “only include terms that were searched by a significant number of users.” It has given no details about what “significant” means. The company told us the reason for the change is “to maintain our standards of privacy and strengthen our protections around user data.”

The privacy argument rings really hollow to experienced PPC managers. By wrapping this change in the cloak of "privacy" Google can claim a noble reason for this change.

What has the impact been on accounts so far?

Well, for many accounts the impact has been significant. Keep in mind that data is only available for part of September at the time of the writing of this post, but even with that small data set, some of the numbers are staggering. I asked PPC professionals on Twitter to share what they are seeing and here are some of the responses I received:

Are you livid yet? Feeling like you need to go take a look at what is happening in your campaigns or get on the horn with your PPC agency? I don't blame you. This seems to be impacting all accounts. Some are being hammered and others are seeing more like 20% of queries no longer visible.

Seer Interactive is tracking data at scale and sharing their findings too:

Just to be 100% clear for non PPC professionals on what this means...

• You can no longer see a percentage of the search queries that resulted in clicks (and sometimes conversions) in your Google Ads campaigns. A query is literally what a person used for their search.
• PPC professionals continually monitor query data in Google Ads accounts to look for undesirable traffic and apply negative keywords to campaigns based on what we find in the query reporting. Google Ads will often make bad matches. One example could be if you are targeting "milk chocolate" you will very likely match to "chocolate milk" queries. Not the same thing...
• PPC professionals also monitor query reports for terms that convert really well and then will take those terms and phrases and potentially target them directly, add them to landing page copy, ad them to ad copy, etc.
• PPC professionals also review query reports to make sure that negative keyword that have already been applied to the account are, in fact, stopping the undesirable traffic
• You are being asked to just "trust Google Ads" that your ads are only displaying for highly relevant queries.
• Google Ads' "close variant" matching consistently makes terrible matches. PPC professionals work tirelessly to cut down on this for you by mining query reports for bad matches and adding them as negative keywords to your campaigns.
• There is no longer an effective way to stop this traffic because you CAN'T SEE WHAT IT WAS. Are you comfortable not really knowing if 30% or more of the queries that triggered your ads and resulted in a click were actually relevant or desirable traffic for you?

What can be done?

You don't have to just accept this change. There is a petition to let advertisers opt out of this new policy - sign it.

If you have Google Ads reps, let them know that this is unacceptable. The more brands they hear this from, the better chance there is to have any kind of change happen on this front.

Spread the word! We need powerful voices outside of the PPC industry to be screaming about this. Have a connection that you think would care about this and amplify it? Share this and ask them to make some noise about it publicly. Know someone at a major brand that advertises on Google Ads - let them know what is happening. Have a connection with a tech reporter? Even better!

Have data you want to share with me as I compile how this is impacting real accounts? You can message me here or DM me on Twitter (my DMs are open) @NeptuneMoon.