{"id":26290,"date":"2025-07-17T00:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.karooya.com\/blog\/?p=26290"},"modified":"2025-07-17T00:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:36:11","slug":"ppcchat-google-ads-hidden-queries-what-it-means-for-your-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karooya.com\/blog\/ppcchat-google-ads-hidden-queries-what-it-means-for-your-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"PPCChat | Google Ads Hidden Queries – What It Means for Your Accounts | 15th July 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During this week’s PPCChat session, host Boris Beceric<\/a> sought experts’ views on Colin Slattery<\/a>‘s article on hidden search terms<\/a>, performance gap on visible and hidden search terms, tactics used to limit wasted spend from hidden terms and more<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Q1: Did you read Colin Slattery\u2019s article on hidden search terms in Google Ads? What were your key takeaways or reactions?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Yes – an excellent and thorough analysis! Key takeaways are that, as we all suspected, hidden search terms are generally poor-performing terms, and we need a way to opt out of these. @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, seems like another way for Google to waste our money. @AnthonyVillanueva<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought Collin did some heyvy lifting by pulling all that data (you can’t pull just from the MCC).
I wasn’t surprised to see the analysis, it confirmed what I’d suspected all along. It also made me do similar analysis on my accounts (ongoing) – for reference, monthly spend in the 7 figures. @BorisBeceric<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, completely agree. For some small accounts with high CPC\u2019s – hidden search terms end up being an additional tax for having small budgets with no transparency. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Really well thought out and super interesting conclusions. @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still see super long tail “there is no way more than one person searched this” queries in my SQR though, so I’m not sure what to make of the findings\/theory. @revaminkoff<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly @revaminkoff<\/a>– there is no rhyme or reason to what’s hidden and what’s not. @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

@revaminkoff<\/a> yes, the whole “privacy” thing doesn’t sit well with me. Like I can see searches for “mortgage low credit score and here is my social security number” with 1 impression, but somehow I can’t see the costly searches that didn’t convert? @BorisBeceric<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right – I don’t think it’s “privacy” accordingly? Or I don’t think privacy explains all of it, I guess. @revaminkoff<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s so easy to just assume nefarious reasons at this point. And even if it’s indeed privacy, Google has never given a better argument than just “trust me bro”. @BorisBeceric<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an incredible way of putting numbers behind (everyone’s) suspicions. It was entertaining, well-written, and highly informative. Google could react, but my gut is that this “privacy curtain” will hold and provide the shield they need to continue extracting revenue. At least we all know now, with data in our collective back pockets. @teabeeshell<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

well and the old adage – never assume nefarious intent when simple incompetence explains it. Google has a galactic dataset to work with daily, so running a dumb algo that sweeps some things but not others WHILE gemini is moving into AI overviews and parsing search terms means arbitrary weirdness is very likely. @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

@JuliaVyse<\/a> dunno, I always assumed that Google, with the highest density of PhDs in the world, would be able to make more sense of the giant pile of data they’re sitting on. @BorisBeceric<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q2: Performance Gaps: Colin\u2019s data showed a big performance gap on visible vs hidden search terms. Have you observed similar gaps in your own accounts?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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No, but my assumption is that on straight lead gen or ecom, it’s more apparent than in my foot-traffic attributed accounts. @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes – it’s something I’ve noticed for 15+ years at this point though. Other has always had lower CTR and higher CPAs than whatever is shown. @revaminkoff<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see varied performance between accounts when it comes to visible vs other search terms.
Most notably, it’s much worse on high CPC, high competition lead gen accounts. @revaminkoff<\/a> and it’s almost always on lead gen accounts? @BorisBeceric<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely. But not always in the same direction. Sometimes the hidden terms are the only ones with conversions; other times they’re complete junk. @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, for some accounts and that\u2019s where it gets infuriating if your hidden search terms have 30% of cost and contribute only 10% of conversions as an example. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In broad strokes, within “Other search terms” in mostly DTC\/ecomm I’ve seen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n