How do I know which keywords drive real conversions?

Part 1: Start with conversion measurement you can trust (otherwise “best keywords” is guesswork)

Define what a “real conversion” is in your business

Before you look at any keyword report, decide what you actually mean by a real conversion. In many accounts, the keyword with the “most conversions” is simply the keyword that triggers the easiest-to-complete action (for example, a page view, a low-intent form step, or a click-to-call that never connected). If you don’t separate true outcomes (purchase, qualified lead, booked appointment, signed contract) from “nice-to-have” engagement, your keyword decisions will systematically drift toward low-quality volume.

Use Primary vs Secondary conversion actions to keep reporting honest

The single most common reason advertisers misread keyword conversion performance is that they’re blending micro-actions and macro-actions together. In Google Ads, conversion actions roll up into conversion goals, and those actions can be set as Primary (used for bidding and shown in the main “Conversions” reporting) or Secondary (observation-only, shown in “All conversions”). That means “Conversions” should reflect the actions you’d be happy to pay for repeatedly, while “All conversions” is where you can still monitor the supporting steps without letting them distort keyword ROI.

Make sure your campaigns are optimizing toward the same “real” goals you’re judging keywords by

Keyword performance is only as meaningful as the goal the campaign is actually optimizing toward. If a campaign is optimizing to one set of goals while you’re evaluating keywords using a different set of actions, your “winners” and “losers” won’t line up with how the system is making bidding decisions. Align your account-default goals and any campaign-specific goals so the conversions you care about are both (a) reported clearly and (b) eligible to influence automated bidding where appropriate.

Strengthen measurement with enhanced conversions and offline conversion imports (when applicable)

If you’re in lead gen, healthcare, B2B, or any business where the real sale happens after the click, you’ll often find that the keywords “driving conversions” are simply driving submissions, not revenue. This is where improving measurement changes everything. Enhanced conversions can help recover conversions that would otherwise be missed and can improve bidding inputs by matching hashed first-party data. For sales that close offline (CRM, phone, in-person), importing offline conversions—ideally upgraded through enhanced conversions for leads—lets you evaluate keywords based on the outcomes that matter (qualified, closed, value), not just the earliest online event.

Quick diagnostic checklist (do this before trusting any keyword conversion report)

• Confirm your “real” actions are set as Primary and the softer steps are Secondary.
• Confirm the campaigns you’re analyzing are actually using the conversion goals you intend to optimize and report against.
• Confirm you’re not accidentally judging keywords by “All conversions” when you mean “Conversions” (or vice versa).
• If sales happen later, confirm you’re capturing lead quality or offline outcomes back into Google Ads (not just form fills).

Part 2: Find which keywords drive conversions (and which merely look busy)

Start at the Search Keywords view, then segment by conversion action

When you want to know which keywords drive real conversions, don’t just sort by Conversions and call it a day. Instead, view keyword performance for an appropriate date range and then use conversion segmentation so you can see which conversion actions each keyword is producing. Segments like “Conversion action,” “Conversion category,” and “Conversion source” are built specifically to unpack what’s inside your conversion totals and keep you from optimizing toward the wrong event.

One important nuance: conversion-based segments work correctly only when you’re looking at conversion-related columns (like Conversions, All conv., Conversion value). If you segment by conversion action and then wonder why Clicks or Cost becomes blank, that’s expected behavior—those columns don’t reconcile cleanly at that segmented level.

Evaluate keyword impact using value, not just count

Two keywords can both generate 10 conversions and still have completely different business impact. If you can assign values (even estimated values) to different conversion actions, you unlock a much more reliable way to identify “real conversion” keywords: you evaluate by conversion value, value per conversion, and return metrics instead of raw counts. This is also the cleanest way to avoid losing data when you have multiple actions at different funnel depths, because you can optimize to value rather than trying to isolate one action via campaign-level goal selection.

Use the Search Terms report to uncover the real queries behind “keyword conversions”

Your keyword list is not the same thing as the actual searches people typed. The Search Terms report shows the queries that resulted in your ads being shown, and it’s where you’ll often discover the truth: the keyword you think is “driving conversions” may be matching to multiple intents—some great, some terrible. This is especially critical when match behavior is broad enough that a single keyword can map to many different real-world needs.

When you find search terms that reliably produce your primary conversions, you can promote those queries into tighter, more controlled keyword targets. When you find search terms that spend without producing your real conversions, you add them as negatives to stop paying for the wrong intent. This one workflow—promote the winners, negate the waste—usually produces the fastest improvement in keyword-level conversion efficiency.

Use keyword diagnostics and Quality Score as supporting evidence (not the final answer)

It’s worth diagnosing keywords and monitoring Quality Score components to understand whether a keyword is eligible to show and whether relevance and landing page experience are limiting performance. But treat these as “why” signals, not “what matters” signals. A keyword with an average Quality Score can still be your most profitable keyword, and a keyword with a great Quality Score can still be a poor business fit if it attracts the wrong intent.

Don’t judge today’s keyword performance too early

Keyword reports are not always complete intraday, and you can also see natural delays in conversion reporting. Practically, that means two things: first, don’t overreact to same-day keyword data; second, use enough historical range to smooth out day-to-day volatility. If your business has longer consideration cycles, you’ll also want to factor in conversion delay before you “pause the losers,” because some keywords convert later than others.

Part 3: Prove the conversions are “real” (and not an attribution or measurement mirage)

Understand attribution before you crown a keyword winner

Keywords often play different roles in the path to conversion. Some are closers (brand, high-intent), others are introducers (research, comparison). If you only look at last-click style reporting, you’ll tend to overvalue closers and undervalue introducers. That doesn’t mean you should blindly fund upper funnel terms—but you should validate performance with attribution reporting and model comparison so you can see whether a keyword is assisting conversions that would otherwise not happen.

In modern attribution reporting, the available models are streamlined; several older models were deprecated in late 2023. So if you’re following an old playbook that references first-click or position-based models, update your approach and focus on today’s supported model comparisons and path-based insights.

Use the right “conversion column” for the decision you’re making

Think of your columns as decision tools. “Conversions” is for the actions you truly want to optimize toward (primary actions). “All conversions” is for understanding the full set of observed and secondary actions. If your team is making keyword decisions and budget decisions from different columns, you’ll get internal conflict and inconsistent optimization. Agree on which column is the source of truth for “real conversions,” and use the other for context.

Separate lead volume from lead quality with imported outcomes

If you sell anything that requires human follow-up, the most profitable keywords are often not the ones with the lowest cost per lead. They’re the ones that create the highest rate of qualified outcomes and closed revenue. The cleanest way to identify these keywords is to import downstream outcomes (qualified lead, opportunity, closed-won) back into the ad platform so your keyword reporting reflects business reality.

A practical “real conversion keyword” workflow you can reuse every month

Run a monthly review that starts with keyword performance segmented by conversion action, validates winners at the search term level, and then checks whether those wins hold up under attribution and delay considerations. If you consistently (1) keep primary conversions clean, (2) add value where possible, (3) promote winning search terms and negate waste, and (4) feed offline or qualified outcomes back into reporting, your keyword list naturally evolves toward the terms that drive not just conversions, but the conversions your business can actually scale profitably.

If you’re trying to figure out which keywords drive real conversions (not just easy-to-trigger micro-actions), the first step is making sure your measurement is telling the truth: separate primary conversion actions (sales, qualified leads, booked calls) from secondary ones, align your campaign goals with those primary actions, and, if your revenue happens later, strengthen the signal with enhanced conversions and offline conversion imports. From there, evaluate keywords by conversion action and by value (not just conversion count), verify what they’re actually matching via the Search Terms report, and sanity-check results with attribution and conversion delay before you pause “losers” or scale “winners.” If you want a more automated way to keep this workflow consistent, Blobr plugs into your Google Ads and runs specialized AI agents that continuously analyze keyword performance and search terms, surface wasted spend and high-intent opportunities, and turn best-practice checks into clear, prioritized actions you can review and apply on your terms.