Keywords & Targeting
N-gram Analysis
N-gram analysis breaks search terms into their component one-, two-, or three-word sequences and aggregates performance by sequence, revealing which words drive waste or conversions across thousands of individual queries.
In practice
A search terms report with ten thousand rows is impossible to read query by query. N-gram analysis solves that by splitting every query into its words and word pairs, then summing clicks, cost, and conversions for each. Suddenly you can see that the word free appeared in 400 queries, cost a meaningful share of the budget, and converted twice, or that a particular city name converts at three times the account average.
We run it at the one-gram and two-gram level on any account with meaningful volume. Single words with high cost and zero conversions become negative candidates, checked against the active keyword list first so a word that appears in your best keyword is never negated. Two-grams surface phrases worth promoting to exact match keywords.
It is also the fastest way to audit a new account: an hour of n-grams tells you where the previous manager was leaking money.
Why it matters
It turns an unreadable search term report into a short list of words to negate and phrases to bid on.
RELATED TERMS
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are terms added to a campaign, ad group, or shared list that prevent ads from showing on searches containing them.
Search Terms Report
The search terms report lists the actual queries that triggered your ads, with performance metrics for each, as opposed to the keywords you bid on.
Exact Match
Exact match is a Google Ads keyword match type, written in brackets, that shows ads for searches with the same meaning or intent as the keyword, including close variants.
Written by Ilya Bulychev, Founder, Live PPC Ads. Part of the PPC Glossary.
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