Rows are filled from a completed search theme brief. Themes are grouped by the campaign they run in, because two themes only compete when they can enter the same auction, and that is decided at campaign level.
Before you add a theme
1
Read the coverage table below
If an existing theme already covers this intent, extend it rather than adding a second one.
2
Check the boundary against its nearest neighbour
Name what the new theme covers that the neighbour does not. If you cannot, it is not a new theme.
3
Fill in the brief, then add a row
A row with no brief behind it is a name, not a theme.
The register
Each row should have a link in every column. An empty cell is the finding, not a formatting gap. Rows 1 and 2 show examples using Doughnut Labs, a SaaS company that sells disruptive Doughnut Technology. Delete them and fill in your own.What each theme covers
The overlap check. Two themes whose intents cannot be told apart in one line are competing, whatever their keyword lists say.Status values
Merged and retired rows stay in the register. A theme that was tried and folded into another one is the most useful row here, because it stops the same theme being proposed again in six months.
Review
Themes accumulate. Nothing in Google Ads ever suggests that a group has stopped earning its place, so the review has to be scheduled rather than triggered. At each review, for every live theme:- Does the search terms report still match the intent statement, or has the theme drifted?
- Does any search term appear under two themes? That is a boundary problem, not a bidding one.
- Is the landing page still live, and does it still carry the promise the brief recorded?
- Did the theme prove what the brief said it would prove?
Related resources
- Search theme brief The workbook a row here is filled from.
- Search theme template The blank sheet for a theme you are adding now.
- Search theme concepts Why themes overlap, and what to do about it.
- Google campaign brief Where the campaigns in this register are defined.
- Campaign library Where the campaign briefs themselves are filed.