Search terms showing with no keyword against them - is that a reporting gap?

Real, and worth explaining to the client properly because it changes how they should read their own reports. An empty keyword column means the query genuinely had no keyword. That happens when a campaign has AI Max enabled: it can match a search directly, without any keyword of yours being involved. So there's nothing missing - there was never a keyword to record. Check the campaign's settings and you will almost certainly find AI Max switched on. Two practical consequences: Keyword-level reporting for that campaign is incomplete by construction. It describes the part of the traffic that came through your keywords. The search terms describe all of the part Google shows you. Negatives have to go at campaign level on that campaign. An ad group negative can't block a query that didn't enter through an ad group, and it will come back through a different one. Worth adding, since you're explaining this to a client: we deliberately import these rows rather than skipping them. Asking Google for search terms broken down by keyword makes the keywordless rows disappear from the response entirely - the spend is real, and the naive query simply doesn't return it. If their previous reporting showed no such rows, that is the likely reason rather than the traffic being new.