How to Set Up Google Ads Search Terms Report for Local Businesses

To set up a Google Ads search terms report for a local business, create a repeatable review that connects each query with the service offered, the location served, the response path, and the eventual customer outcome. Start with the search terms report, then classify queries into promote, investigate, or exclude. Reconcile the result with qualified calls, appointments, store visits, completed jobs, and margin before changing keywords or negatives.

Google’s search terms report shows searches that resulted in an ad impression. It is useful for discovering how people describe a local need, but a click alone does not prove that the person was in the service area or that the business could fulfill the request. The setup below makes those local distinctions visible.

Decide what the local report must answer

Before exporting rows, define the decisions the review is supposed to support. A plumber, dentist, retailer, and multi-location repair company may all use the same report, but they do not qualify demand in the same way. Write down the services that are actually available, the locations that can be served, hours for new inquiries, minimum job values, and any appointment or emergency rules.

The first questions should be concrete:

Did the search describe a service the business offers?
Was the person looking in a city, neighborhood, branch area, or travel radius the business can serve?
Did the query imply a useful next step such as a call, booking, quote, visit, or purchase?
Could the business respond at the time and capacity suggested by the ad?
Did the interaction become a qualified lead or completed job?

Keep these rules beside the report rather than relying on memory. “Near me” is a location clue, not proof of serviceability. A city name may refer to a competitor, a job search, or a place outside the actual route. A query for a service may be promising while still requiring a different technician, appointment type, or landing page.

Use a date window that matches the sales cycle. A same-day locksmith can review calls quickly; a remodeling company may need several weeks before a query can be connected to an estimate and signed job. If the business is seasonal, compare similar periods rather than treating a holiday or weather spike as a permanent change.

Prepare local conversion and location context

The report becomes much more useful when its query rows can be joined to the outcomes the owner cares about. Review the account’s conversion actions and label which ones are observations and which ones are business outcomes. A form submission, phone call, directions click, booking request, store visit, qualified lead, attended appointment, and completed job should not all be treated as interchangeable.

For each conversion path, confirm:

the destination page names the relevant service and location;
the phone number routes to a staffed person or a monitored callback queue;
the booking calendar shows the real availability and service boundaries;
forms capture enough information to qualify location and need; and
the event is counted once and can be reconciled with the business system.

Google’s measurement guidance is a useful reference for separating advertising measurement from later business outcomes. For local work, add a simple outcome field outside the ad platform if needed: unqualified, qualified, booked, showed, completed, canceled, or lost. The purpose is not to create false precision. It is to prevent a cheap form or missed call from looking like a successful customer acquisition.

Also document location settings and the service boundary. Note whether the business operates from a storefront, serves a radius, has separate branch pages, or accepts customers only in selected postal areas. If several branches share campaigns, retain a branch or destination field in the review. A query can be commercially strong but assigned to the wrong location.

Build a repeatable search terms review

Open the search terms report for a consistent date range and include the fields needed for a decision: search term, campaign, ad group where available, keyword, match type, impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, and conversion value. Add location, device, time, landing page, and call or booking outcome when the account’s reporting setup makes them available. Exporting more columns is not a substitute for a clear action, so remove fields that no one will inspect.

Use a stable review cadence. A high-volume emergency service may need a short weekly review, while a lower-volume professional service may need a longer monthly window. The schedule should be frequent enough to catch waste and slow enough to avoid reacting to random rows. Keep a dated copy or a decision log so changes can be tied to what was seen.

Review rows in this order:

expensive searches with no useful outcome;
searches that produced calls, bookings, or qualified leads;
recurring searches that reveal a missing service or landing page;
location, job, research, support, and free-intent patterns; and
low-volume rows that may need more evidence before action.

Do not infer that a query was valuable solely because it had a conversion. Read the search, check the recorded lead, and ask whether the service and location were right. Likewise, do not exclude a term simply because one click was unproductive. Local demand can be sparse, and a legitimate phrase may need a better response path rather than a negative keyword.

Classify every query into a local action

Create three primary queues: promote, investigate, and exclude. “Promote” can mean adding a carefully chosen keyword, improving an ad or page, or simply retaining the theme for observation. “Investigate” is for promising rows where the location, call quality, service, or attribution is not yet clear. “Exclude” is for a repeatable mismatch that the account should not pay to attract.

For promote candidates, record the exact wording, service, area, outcome, and proposed destination. A query for “same day boiler repair in Northside” tells you more than a broad “plumber” click if the company actually handles that job and route. The next step might be a dedicated service-area page or a more precise ad group, not an immediate bid increase.

For investigate candidates, preserve uncertainty explicitly. Examples include a qualified-looking call with no disposition, an out-of-area name that could refer to a branch, or a search for a service that the owner may add next month. Assign an owner and a review date. Unresolved rows should not silently become either permanent keywords or permanent negatives.

For exclude candidates, state the reason and scope. Common local mismatches include jobs the business never performs, training or employment searches, repair instructions, free or low-value requests, parts-only shopping, competitor support, and locations the business cannot serve. A negative that is too broad can block a valuable service or a legitimate location, so test the wording against known good searches before applying it.

Add negative keywords with scope and evidence

Google’s negative-keyword guidance should be considered alongside the account’s campaign structure. Add a negative only after reading the actual query and deciding whether it is universal, campaign-specific, or tied to one service. “Jobs” may be appropriate across a lead-generation account, while a location or service phrase may be wrong for one branch and right for another.

Maintain a negative log with the query, reason, owner, date, scope, and a review condition. Separate universal exclusions from local exclusions. A group of irrelevant DIY searches can be useful as a shared list, but a phrase containing a city name, product type, or service should be checked against every branch before it is shared.

After a negative is added, watch both waste and qualified coverage. If irrelevant impressions fall but qualified calls also disappear, inspect the match and scope before adding more exclusions. Do not use negatives to solve a landing-page, staffing, or conversion-tracking problem. A business that cannot answer a good call has an operations issue; blocking that search hides the evidence.

Connect search terms to calls, bookings, and jobs

The local setup is complete only when the report can be reviewed against the handoff after the click. Sample recorded calls and form submissions for the period. Mark whether the person was in the area, wanted an available service, had a viable timeline, and reached the right response path. For bookings, distinguish a request from an attended appointment. For retail, distinguish a directions click from an in-store visit or completed purchase when that information exists.

If a query has strong local intent but weak outcomes, inspect the handoff in sequence:

the ad promise and service name;
the location and hours shown on the page;
the phone or booking route;
the qualification questions and response time; and
the outcome recorded by the owner or CRM.

This sequence keeps the account from making a bid or keyword decision before it knows where the customer journey failed. A missed call at closing time should not be labeled bad traffic. A recurring search for an unsupported address may be a targeting problem. A high-click term with no completed work may be a sales, price, capacity, or follow-up issue.

Use the local-business Performance Max guide for broader account context when the search terms review sits beside other campaign types. adz.so can help inspect supported account data and organize analysis, but it does not answer calls, make booking decisions, or determine the boundary of a local service area.

Use a local checklist before publishing changes

Before applying keywords, negatives, or page changes, confirm:

the date range and season are documented;
service, location, branch, and hours rules are current;
conversion actions are distinguished from qualified business outcomes;
high-cost and high-value queries were reviewed first;
every promote or exclude decision has evidence and a scope;
negative keywords were checked against known good searches;
the destination page, phone, form, and booking path were tested;
changes have an owner, date, and rollback or review condition; and
the next review is scheduled far enough ahead to observe the effect.

Make one meaningful class of change at a time when possible. If you add negatives, rebuild a page, change location settings, and alter conversion counting in the same hour, the next report cannot tell you what helped. Keep a short change log with the affected campaign and the expected signal.

The goal of setting up a local Google Ads search terms report is not a perfect list of phrases. It is a reliable route from query to service fit, location, response, and completed work. Start with a small, consistent review, protect good coverage with careful negative scope, and let qualified local outcomes—not clicks alone—decide what to do next.