Google announced that the Google Ads search term report now has, on average, 6.5 times more query data than since the company hide search term data back in September 2020. Google said "we're able to show you more queries that meet our privacy standards in the search terms report for Search and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns."
We thought this was coming when Google Ads, for a short period of time, stop hiding search term data back about a month ago.
Google explained that "this data will now be shown in your reports for queries you received starting from February 1, 2021. This update can help you identify more relevant keyword themes, making it easier to optimize your ad copy, landing pages, and more. These metrics will now be more consistent with the rest of the metrics in Google Ads."
But there is a caveat - Google will be removing some of your query data that does not meet its privacy requirements. Google said "as part of our ongoing commitment to privacy, we’re working to make our privacy thresholds consistent across Google. Over the next few months, you’ll see more changes across our other tools–including how we handle historical data. In Google Ads, this means that historical query data in your account that was collected prior to September 1, 2020 and doesn’t meet the current thresholds for the search terms report will be available in your reporting until February 1, 2022."
So make sure to download that data ASAP before it is gone. But going forward, it seems like we will have more data than we had after September 2020 but less data than we had before September 2020. George at Search Engine Land dug into that over here.
If you are using the Google Ads API for any of this, you will want to see the changes on that over here.
Here is how Ginny Marvin from Google put it:
With this latest tech update, advertisers will now see on average 6.5x more queries in their reports. We’re also continuing to invest in new ways to surface query themes while maintaining user privacy. You’ll start to see more on the Insights page in the coming months.
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) September 9, 2021
Here is some of the industry reaction:
With a backfill to feb if I’m reading it correctly. https://t.co/FdRVIMwqCz
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) September 9, 2021
Thank you 🙏 #ppcchat https://t.co/3ppoNpTEn0
— Menachem Ani Ⓜ️ (@MenachemAni) September 9, 2021
keep an👁️on also... "In the coming months, we'll be giving you even more resources on the Insights page to help you understand the search query themes that drove performance ...—even if those queries don’t appear in your search terms report." https://t.co/wv4XHvUFmD #ppcchat https://t.co/vZ5WacHWrn
— Greg (@PPCGreg) September 9, 2021
Great summary on today's @GoogleAds changes. My big takeaway: go export your account search query data. #ppcchat https://t.co/2IwcRnL0Rr
— Kirk Williams 🚴 (@PPCKirk) September 9, 2021
Oh man - this is (potentially) good news. Proof will be in the pudding, but losing most of the search terms was really painful. https://t.co/hQ1T5kS2Ep
— Fred Pike (@fred_pike) September 9, 2021
Forum discussion at Twitter.
