How triage sorts search terms

Which terms are checked?

Terms not yet added or excluded that, over the last 60 days, drew at least two clicks, spent at least three times the account's average CPC over the same days, or recorded a conversion. Each morning, after the read, up to 300 terms per account go to the model, the most active first; the rest wait for the next morning. Terms sorted by rule (below) have no limit. A term you have decided is not sorted again unless new evidence reopens it.

What runs before any model?

Two rules, for every term:

• A term naming a competitor from business context becomes a judgment call, with the competitor's badge, whether or not it converts. Excluding or targeting a competitor is always your call.
• A term with at least one conversion in the last 60 days becomes an Opportunity where it can be added (it ran in Search or Performance Max) and is not already a running keyword or search theme; otherwise it is marked No action.

What does the model read for the rest?

The term and its figures, the campaign types it ran in and the keyword that triggered it, the business context, and what the account sells: the products it served in the last 90 days, its product categories, its keywords, ad headlines and landing pages, each checked for every one of the term's product words. It also reads your earlier decisions and the reasons you gave. It returns a negative, a judgment call, an opportunity or no action, with a confidence and its reasoning, which are kept.

Which rules check the model's answer?

• A negative or a No action below 55% confidence becomes a judgment call.
• An opportunity without at least one whole conversion becomes No action: opportunities are earned.
• A negative the model calls "not sold", or gives no reason for, goes to judgment when a served product, a product category or one of the account's keywords holds every one of the term's product words; the card says Moved to judgment: the model called it not sold.
• A term the model names as a competitor becomes a judgment call, whatever the model decided.

Why do my decisions stick?

A term you decided is not asked about again unless new evidence reopens it (below). Your recent decisions and their reasons go to the model each time it sorts, and it is told to give a variant of a decided term (a plural, another spelling or word order) the same decision. Two kinds of new evidence reopen a decision: a term you marked No action that starts converting comes back as an opportunity, and one that keeps spending with no conversion comes back as a proposed negative when, since your decision, it has spent at least twice the account's average cost per conversion or drawn at least three times the account's clicks per conversion. A competitor term you chose to leave that crosses the same line comes back as a judgment call, never a negative.

What happens when business context changes?

Terms you have not decided are marked Outdated context and sorted again against the new context from the next morning. Only the fields triage reads count, so a change to seasonality or private notes marks nothing. Terms you have decided keep your decision.

What is the confidence worth?

It is the model's claim, and a claim is not proof. So each waiting negative and opportunity also shows how often you have agreed with ones like it on this account, and approving in bulk opens only on your own record: at least 50 decisions, not counting bulk approvals, with at least 95% agreed (triage).