“Other search terms” in Google Ads: the spend you can’t see
Updated June 12, 2026
"Other search terms" is where Google Ads aggregates queries that triggered your ads but fall below its privacy thresholds: searched too rarely, across all of Google, to be shown individually. You pay for those clicks; you just can't see the queries. The hidden share can dominate: 68% of spend in the campaign below. You can't negate what you can't see, but negative keywords still block hidden queries at matching time, so pattern-based negatives and tighter match types shrink the blind spot.
A real incident: 68% of spend, invisible
A B2B search campaign (same account as the daily-budget overdelivery incident) spent $647.88 across June 1–11. The search terms report accounts for $207.27 of it. The other $440.61 — 68% of spend, 225 of 299 clicks — sat in a single unexpandable row labeled "Other search terms." A sibling campaign in the same account sat at 37%. Nothing flags this; the report looks complete until you do the subtraction.
What “Other search terms” actually is
Google's search terms report documentation says it plainly: "some search terms that don't have enough query activity are omitted from the search terms report in order to keep with our standards on data privacy." Since September 2020, a query must have sufficient search volume across all of Google, not just in your account, to be shown individually. Everything below that undisclosed threshold rolls into one row: combined cost, clicks, and impressions, no queries.
The clicks are real and billed normally. The only thing withheld is what the person typed.
Why the hidden share gets so large
The threshold filters out rare queries, and rare queries are exactly where phrase and broad match expand to. The more Google's matching stretches your keywords into novel long-tail searches (the pitch for broad match, and the reality of niche B2B vocabularies), the more of your spend lands below the reporting threshold. Hence the gap between the two campaigns above: the 68% one matches into a wide, rare-query space (41,000 impressions at 0.72% CTR); its sibling runs tighter keywords against well-known category terms and keeps 63% of spend visible.
To measure your own blind spot, read the "Other search terms" row's cost, or subtract visible search-term cost from campaign total. Track the percentage monthly. The campaign above drifted from 56% hidden in May to 68% in June. Nothing in the console surfaces that.
What still works against queries you can’t see
Negative keywords apply at matching time, not reporting time. A negative keyword blocks a query before any privacy threshold is involved, so negatives work on hidden queries too. You just can't write them reactively, term by term. Negate patterns instead of queries:
- Mine the visible terms for wasteful words. If "free" or "tutorial" shows up in queries you can see, the hidden tail contains more of the same. Negate the word as phrase match and the invisible cousins die with it.
- Tighten match types where the hidden share is high. Exact match keeps spend reportable; reserve broad match for campaigns where the blind spot is an accepted cost of discovery.
- Use search terms insights for themes. The insights page groups low-volume queries into subthemes "without exposing the queries themselves" — coarse, but the only official window into the withheld portion.
- Judge opaque campaigns by outcomes. When 68% of queries are invisible, the search terms report can't tell you whether spend is wasted; conversions and cost per conversion are the only honest signal.
How the investigation actually ran
The numbers above came from one prompt to an AI agent on an account that runs on Adjar: query campaign totals and the per-term report, subtract, return the hidden share per campaign.
DB Access Control total $647.88 | visible $207.27 (304 terms) | hidden $440.61 (68%)
DB Change Mgmt total $1,384 | visible $873.06 (842 terms) | hidden $511.08 (37%)
Because negatives live in version-controlled config, the fix is a reviewable diff; because the check is a query, the hidden-spend share lands in every monthly report.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "Other search terms" mean in Google Ads?
It's the aggregate row in the search terms report holding every query that triggered your ads but didn't meet Google's privacy thresholds. Google shows you the row's combined cost, clicks, and impressions, but not the queries themselves, and the row can't be expanded.
- Why can't I see all my search terms?
Since September 2020, Google only shows terms with sufficient search volume across all of Google, to keep individual searchers anonymous. Everything below that threshold is omitted from the report and rolled into "Other search terms". Google doesn't disclose where the threshold sits.
- How much spend goes to hidden search terms?
It varies enormously by account and match-type mix. In the real example in this article, one campaign had 68% of spend hidden while a sibling campaign in the same account sat at 37%. To measure yours, subtract the cost of all visible search terms from the campaign's total cost, or read the "Other search terms" row directly.
- Do negative keywords work on search terms I can't see?
Yes. Negative keywords apply when Google matches a query to your ad, before any reporting threshold, so a negative blocks hidden queries too. The catch is you have to guess the pattern: mine your visible terms for wasteful words and negate the word, not the exact query, so the hidden cousins get blocked with it.
- How do I reduce "Other search terms" spend?
Tighten match types where the hidden share is high, add pattern-based negatives mined from the queries you can see, use the search terms insights page for themes that include withheld queries, and track the hidden-spend percentage per campaign month over month so drift gets caught early.