What is the difference between keyword and search term reporting in Ads Manager?

Ads Manager has separate Keywords and Search Terms tabs, and they answer different questions. Keywords are the terms you choose to bid on. Search Terms are the actual queries users typed that triggered your ads. Understanding the difference tells you when to work in each tab and why the available columns and actions differ.

Keywords: the terms you bid on

The Keywords tab shows the keywords you have added to your ad groups and how each is performing. Because these are terms you actively manage, this tab gives you the full set of management controls. From the Actions menu and the table, you can:

Activate or pause keywords
Update keyword bids
Apply AI Smart Bidding settings and add keywords to the Automation Cart
Add a keyword as a negative keyword
Upload or copy keywords

The Keywords tab also carries columns specific to keywords you manage, such as Keyword Status, Apple Share of Voice, Automation Status, Goals, and Cost Per Goal.

Search Terms: what users actually typed

The Search Terms tab shows the real queries that triggered your ads, including terms you never explicitly added. Since these are queries rather than terms you manage, the tab does not offer bidding, pausing, or automation controls. From the Actions menu, you can:

Add a search term as a keyword
Add a search term as a negative keyword
Copy or download the selected search terms

What is shared and what differs

Both tabs share the same core Ad Performance metrics, such as Spend, Impressions, Taps, Installs, Tap-through Rate (TTR), Conversion Rate, and Average CPA. Both also support customizing which columns appear through the Columns editor.

What differs is the management layer and the available metrics: the Keywords tab adds bidding, automation, and keyword-specific columns that the Search Terms tab lacks, and some metric categories, such as In-App Conversion metrics and Cohort metrics, are available at the keyword level but not at the search term level.

	Keywords	Search Terms
What it shows	Terms you bid on	Queries users actually typed
Bidding and pausing	Yes	No
AI Smart Bidding and Automation Cart	Yes	No
Add as negative keyword	Yes	Yes
Add as keyword	Not applicable	Yes
Core performance metrics	Yes	Yes
In-App Conversion metrics	Yes	No
Cohort metrics	Yes	No

When to use each

Use the Keywords tab to manage the terms you are actively bidding on: adjusting bids, pausing underperformers, and applying automation or AI Smart Bidding.

Use the Search Terms tab to discover what users are really searching. Strong-performing search terms can be added as new keywords, and irrelevant or wasteful ones can be added as negative keywords to stop spend. This makes the Search Terms tab the natural starting point for refining your keyword list over time.

Need more help?

If you have further questions on the process, contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager or contact the support team via live chat!