Where is my Google Ads money actually going?

The owner of a small aircon servicing company in Jurong has run Google Ads for a year. Since the summer the bill has crept up. The phone hasn't rung any more often.

One evening, in his van between jobs, he opens the list Google keeps of what people typed before they clicked his ad. "Aircon servicing course." "Aircon servicing jobs." "How to clean aircon filter myself." "Aircon servicing JB."

A student, a job seeker, a man with a screwdriver, and someone across the Causeway. He paid for every one of those clicks.

Where does your Google Ads money go?

Every dollar goes on a click, and every click starts with words a person typed. Those words are often not your keywords: Google also shows your ad for searches it judges to be related, and since September 2026 many campaigns have it pick more of them by itself. Google keeps the full list for you, in a report called Search terms. Read it once a week, block the searches that will never buy, and put more behind the ones that bring bookings. That is how the same budget starts bringing in more customers.

You pay for what people type

A keyword is what you tell Google you want to be found for. A search term is what a real person typed. Google's own help page explains it with flowers: someone types "red roses", and an advertiser who chose the keyword "roses" can show up for it.

Most of the time that is exactly what you want. The trouble starts at the edges. Google can match your ad to searches that are only related to your keywords, which can include searches that don't carry their direct meaning. Its help page on blocking searches uses the example of an optician selling eyeglasses whose ads could reach people shopping for wine glasses.

Think of a roadshow promoter at an MRT exit, paid for every flyer that leaves his hand. A good one picks out the people who look like your customers. An eager one hands a flyer to everyone who walks past, and you pay for each of them.

Since September, Google picks more of the searches itself

Google is moving advertisers onto a setting it calls AI Max for Search. Starting in September 2026, campaigns that used Google's broad match setting are being upgraded to it automatically. With it, Google can show your ad for searches your keywords don't cover at all, to catch customers you might otherwise miss, and that matching is on by default.

That can be good news. Some of those searches will be real customers you would never have thought to aim at. But it also means more of your money now goes on searches nobody in your business ever chose, and you only see which ones if you look. Google marks them in the same list: add the column called Source to see which searches came from its own matching.

Read the list once a week

In your Google Ads account, the list sits under Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms. Sort it by cost, so the searches that took the most money are at the top. Then ask three questions of each one.

1. Would this person hire us? "Aircon servicing course" is someone who wants to learn your trade, not pay for it.
2. Are they somewhere we serve? "Aircon servicing JB" is a real customer, for a company in Johor Bahru.
3. Do they want the job done, or want to do it? "How to clean aircon filter myself" is looking for instructions, not a technician.

Every search that fails a question goes on your list of negative keywords: the words that tell Google never to show your ad for them. Block the word, not the whole search: "course", "jobs", "myself", "JB".

There's one catch, from Google's own page. A blocked word does not block its close variants. Blocking "flowers" stops "red flowers" but not "red flower". So blocking "course" leaves "courses" open. Add both.

Then put more behind the searches that bring customers

The list has a second job, and it's the one that grows the business. Somewhere in it are the searches that turned into bookings: "aircon chemical wash Jurong West", "aircon leaking water", "aircon not cold". Those people need a technician this week.

Give each of those its own keyword, an ad that answers it in its first line, and a page on your website that answers the same thing. Google's own advice on the report points the same way: focus your keywords on what you actually offer, and use the searches for new ad and page ideas. Then move the money you stopped spending on courses and job seekers onto these.

To know which searches brought jobs, Google has to know which clicks became a call or a booking. So ask whoever runs your ads one plain question: "Can you show me which searches brought us jobs last month?" If nobody can, start there.

What to do this week

1. Open your search terms and sort them by cost. Read the top fifty.
2. Block the searches that will never buy: jobs, courses, do-it-yourself, places you don't serve. Add the close variants too.
3. Mark the searches that brought a call or a booking, and give each its own ad and page.
4. Add the Source column and look at how much of last month's spend went on searches Google found by itself.
5. Put twenty minutes in your calendar, the same day every week, for the list.
6. Ask for the list. If an agency runs your ads, ask for the search terms every month. It's your account and your money, and you should see what it paid for.

Questions owners ask

Should I switch off Google's new matching?

Not straight away. Read a few weeks of what it brings first, because some of its searches may be customers your keywords missed. If they keep failing the three questions, Google lets you switch it off for each ad group, and you can keep your ads away from searches for other companies' names with brand exclusions.

Why can't I see every search in the report?

Google leaves out searches that only a few people typed, to protect their privacy. The searches that took most of your money are still there, and those are the ones that matter.

How often should I check my search terms?

Every week while a campaign is new, or after a big change such as Google's move to its new matching. Once the list stops surprising you, every two weeks is usually enough.

Do I need an agency to run my Google Ads?

Not to read the list: any owner can do that in twenty minutes a week. An agency earns its fee when you run several campaigns, when a week of wasted clicks costs real money, or when nobody in the company has the time to look. AI WISE is a Singapore-based digital marketing agency serving Asia, and we run Google Ads judged by what each new customer costs: every week the money moves to the searches that bring customers in, and the ones that never buy are blocked. See how we run Google Ads.