Consumer expectations for privacy are higher than ever. In fact, searches on Google for “online privacy” increased by more than 50% between spring 2019 and spring 2020.1 That’s why, last year, we updated the search terms report and Dynamic Search Ads search terms report to meet new privacy thresholds. These thresholds ensure user anonymity by only reporting on terms that have seen sufficient search volume across all Google searches. After making these updates, we heard feedback from many of you that you want more data. Since then, we’ve been exploring new, privacy-safe ways to get you the insights you need to run more effective campaigns.
Starting today, we're able to show you more queries that meet our privacy standards in the search terms report for Search and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns. This data will now be shown in your reports for queries you received starting from February 1, 2021. This update can help you identify more relevant keyword themes, making it easier to optimize your ad copy, landing pages, and more. These metrics will now be more consistent with the rest of the metrics in Google Ads.
As part of our ongoing commitment to privacy, we’re working to make our privacy thresholds consistent across Google. Over the next few months, you’ll see more changes across our other tools–including how we handle historical data. In Google Ads, this means that historical query data in your account that was collected prior to September 1, 2020 and doesn’t meet the current thresholds for the search terms report will be available in your reporting until February 1, 2022.
Our goal is to provide you with a deeper understanding of how your customers find you on Search. In the coming months, we'll be giving you even more resources on the Insights page to help you understand the search query themes that drove performance in your campaigns—even if those queries don’t appear in your search terms report. This can help you save time and gain a better understanding of consumer intent, all while maintaining user privacy.
Posted by Pallavi Naresh, Senior Product Manager, Google Ads
1. Google Data, Global English, Apr 15, 2020–Jun 13, 2020 vs Apr 15, 2019–Jun 13, 2019.