How much of your spend do you think is going toward terms that are visible in your search term reports, versus those hidden by Google Ads under the “other” category?

Adthena reviewed accounts in different locations and found that, on average, 51% of spend is associated with search terms that Google Ads doesn’t surface, categorizing them as “other terms” or similar. As marketers, we must ask ourselves: How much of our budget is slipping through the cracks?

(Example of search term report over the past 12 months showing £5 million of ad spend hidden under ‘Other search terms’ – revealing a significant gap in visibility.) 

The report above reveals a large portion of ad spend hidden under “other terms.” For example, one account showed £5 million in ad spend attributed to these untracked terms. This lack of transparency leaves marketers with limited visibility into performance and market trends.

Similarly, not much insight for search terms is available for PMax campaigns; during some research last year Adthena found that the PMax search terms report only showcased where 26% of the campaign traffic was directed.

Why do these hidden search terms matter?

Performance visibility

Google’s failure to disclose certain search terms creates blind spots in performance analysis and reporting. Knowing that 51% of your ad budget could be wasted on non-converting terms is alarming. This data gap skews performance metrics and risks leading future strategies in the wrong direction.

Reporting challenges

Without full insight into search terms, reporting becomes incomplete. A significant portion of your budget may be going toward underperforming search terms, yet you lack the data to identify them accurately. This reporting gap hinders your ability to provide accurate performance assessments and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.

Optimization

Without visibility into hidden terms, identifying negative keywords becomes nearly impossible which limits campaign optimization.

How Adthena can help optimize your search terms

Without full visibility into certain search terms, identifying negative keywords and optimizing campaigns can be difficult. Adthena’s insights can help you to overcome these limitations by providing deeper intelligence and strategic insights to improve your campaign performance.

For example, VodafoneZiggo achieved a 500% increase in orders by utilizing Adthena’s insights to enhance their paid search strategy. By reallocating spend based on Adthena’s data, they increased non-brand term investment by 45%, which boosted impression share by 70%. They also paused five underperforming “Lone Ranger” terms, saving five figures annually, and implemented automation tools that saved the team 16 hours per month per person.

 “The valuable insights we get from Adthena are simply unavailable elsewhere. It helps ensure that every hour and Euro we invest in paid search is spent wisely.” — Jerry Jacobs, Paid Search Lead

Explore how Adthena can optimize your campaigns with data-driven insights.