In 2026, Google has enhanced the Insights tab to give more transparency. Rather than a list of thousands of individual keywords, Google clusters your traffic into “Search Categories” based on consumer intent.
Step-by-Step: Finding the Report
Select your Campaign: Click on the specific Performance Max campaign you want to analyze.
Go to the Insights Tab: In the left-hand page menu, click Insights and reports, then select Insights.
Find the Search Terms Insights Card: Scroll down until you see the card titled “Search terms insights.”
Expand the Data: Click View detailed report. This will show you the categories (e.g., “Men’s Waterproof Boots”) rather than just individual words.
Understanding the Data Columns
When you look at this report, you will see several key metrics that help you understand if the AI is targeting the right “themes”:
Search Category: The intent-based grouping (e.g., “Luxury Watches”).
Search Volume: The overall popularity of this category across Google.
Conversion Value / Conversions: How much revenue that specific category is driving.
Source Column (New for 2026): This tells you if the category was triggered by your Search Themes (the signals you manually added) or by Google’s Keywordless AI (the AI finding traffic on its own).
Pro-Tips
1. Seeing the Actual Search Terms
The categories are useful, but sometimes you need the raw data.
How: Click the down arrow (∨) next to any Search Category. This will expand the list to show the specific search terms that make up that category.
Limit: Note that Google still hides “low-volume” terms for privacy, which will be grouped under “Other search terms.”
2. Spotting “Brand Leakage”
A common issue in 2026 is PMax “stealing” traffic from your branded Search campaigns.
Instruction: In the Search Category report, look for your own brand name. If you see your brand name driving 80% of the conversions in a PMax campaign meant for prospecting, you should use Brand Exclusions (found in Campaign Settings) to push that traffic back to your Search campaigns.
Salesforce
