Needs Review holds the terms that aren't a confident yes or no - where there are both useful and wasteful signals, or where acting automatically would be too risky to do for you.
Common reasons: partial relevance, a few clicks but no clear result, location ambiguity, competitor intent, or genuinely mixed performance. Each row still shows a best-fit suggestion and a reason - it just wants a human to make the call.
How to clear it:
Open the Needs Review queue.
For each term, weigh intent, local relevance, brand status and conversions.
Click Positive to add it (you'll pick match type and ad group) or Negative to block it.
Leave anything you're unsure about - it'll keep gathering data.
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How review works
The queues, the columns, and what to check before applying.
Positives - adding keywords
Promote proven search terms into keywords.
Negatives - blocking waste
Stop paying for terms that don't work.
