Performance Max search terms: where to see them and how to block the bad ones
In Google Ads open Campaigns, then Search terms, and choose "Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max". Data goes back to March 2023. You can block bad searches with negative keywords at account or campaign level, up to 10,000 per campaign, and they apply to Search and Shopping inventory.
Where the report is
Google's help page: go to the Search terms report in the Campaigns menu and choose "Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max" (Google Ads Help). It shows metrics per search term with the landing page and the ad format, split between Shopping ads and Text ads.
What it leaves out
- Data starts in March 2023.
- Store visits and store sales conversions aren't in the report.
- Google suggests judging by conversions, not clicks, because some conversions happen without a direct click.
Blocking bad searches
Since 2025 Performance Max accepts campaign-level negative keywords, up to 10,000 per campaign, applied to Search and Shopping inventory (Search Engine Land). For Display and Video, the equivalent is excluded content keywords.
A 15-minute routine
- Open the report for the last 30 days, sort by cost.
- Mark the terms with zero conversions that spent more than your average cost per conversion.
- For each one ask: do we sell that? If not, add it as a campaign negative.
- Two weeks later, compare cost per conversion before and after the day you added them.
A note on Ads MCP: today its audits read Search campaigns' search terms, not Performance Max ones. For Performance Max, this report is the place.
Ads MCP is a read-only Google Ads connector for ChatGPT, Claude and other AI assistants. It finds the searches that spend without converting and hands you a file to import. Free: 50 tool calls a month.
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