If you’ve ever managed a Google Ads account, tried to manage a Google Ads account, or poked around in a Google Ads account, you’ve probably seen the terms “keywords,” “search terms,” and “search themes.” To make it even more confusing, sometimes the term “keyword” is lengthened to “search keyword.” While these all sound very similar, they play different roles in how your account is run.
What Are Keywords?
Keywords, or search keywords, are words or phrases that you choose to target to determine when your ad can appear. When building a Search campaign, you have to strategically select the keywords that best represent your product or service. Keywords are the foundation of a Search campaign, so they need to be as relevant to your offering as possible.
With keywords, Google allows you to use “match types” to specify how closely a search must match your exact keyword in order to trigger your ad – broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Unfortunately, Google’s match types have become a little muddy, and even exact match is no longer exact. In order to make sure your keywords are pulling in the right searches, you’ll likely have to do some clean-up of your search terms, which is a beautiful segue into my next subject.
What Are Search Terms?
Think of a search term as a keyword’s counterpart. While keywords are the words and phrases you choose to target, search terms are the words and phrases that people actually type into Google search, which then triggers your ad. The hope here is that you have a strategic enough keyword list for those search terms coming through to be relevant. For example, if you’re targeting “wedding photographer” as a keyword, depending on your match type, you could pull in a search term as broad as “photo printing near me.” If this is the case, definitely re-evaluate your match types, and add negative keywords to your campaigns.
When looking through search terms, negative keywords are a huge part of the puzzle. You want to make sure you’re telling Google exactly what you want to show for and exactly what you do not want to show for.
What Are Search Themes?
Search themes are like the new baby brother of keywords. They came about in 2024 and were created as more of a guide for Google’s machine learning, rather than words and phrases that you actively bid on. Unlike keywords, search themes are only used within Performance Max campaigns, helping nudge Google towards relevant queries. Because you cannot use keywords in PMax campaigns, search themes are great when you want to give Google more information that may not be clear on your website. For example, if you sell fishing gear and you want to push for Father’s Day, you can add search themes such as “father’s day gifts,” “gifts for dad,” “great gifts for him,” etc.
Search themes are a great tool for feeding Google’s AI but are different from keywords and search terms, as they are not directly being targeted or pulled through from searchers.
Keywords, Search Terms & Themes Explained
Although keywords, search terms, and search themes sound similar, it’s important to know the difference between them and how to use them in your Google Ads account. Keywords are the terms you choose to target. Search terms come through based on what people actually search on Google (and may or may not be relevant to your current keywords).
Lastly, search themes are phrases you can add to your PMax campaigns to help Google learn more about your product or service in order to weed out the irrelevant traffic. Learning the distinction between the three will help you spend smarter and target more accurately.
