Negative keywords are like a bouncer at a club – they prevent unwanted guests from entering. In Google Ads, negative keywords are words or phrases that tell Google not to show your ads when someone searches for those terms. Think of them as the opposite of regular keywords. Regular keywords tell Google when to show your ad, while negative keywords tell Google when not to show it.
The term “negative” refers to the fact that these keywords exclude your ads from certain searches. They’re essential for refining your targeting and ensuring your budget isn’t wasted on clicks from people who are never going to buy your product or service. Essentially, they help you focus your advertising efforts on the people who are looking for what you do on Google.
Any Google Ads Agency will tell you that negative keywords are a must-have for any successful Google Ads campaign. We build negative keyword strategies into every new campaign from day one, so you avoid unnecessary ad spend right from the start. And negative keywords don’t just save you money; they help you get the most from your budget.
Here are 5 reasons you should always add negative keywords to your Google Ads campaigns.
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing to people searching for things you don’t offer, eliminating wasted spend on clicks that won’t convert.
By excluding irrelevant searches you’re targeting only relevant searches which ensures your ads reach the right customers and your ad copy speaks directly to them.
When your ads are seen by genuinely interested customers, your conversion rate rises, resulting in more sales.
A higher CTR tells Google your ads are relevant, which can improve your Quality Score and lower ad costs.
By targeting effectively, you’ll see a better return for every pound you spend. Negative keywords are key to optimising campaigns and driving profit.
Simply put, negative keywords are essential for efficient Google Ads. They help you attract the right customers and maximise your advertising ROI.
To illustrate the importance of negative keywords, let’s look at some examples across different industries. Categorising them can help you think strategically about your negative keyword lists.
Ecommerce:
"high heeled boots""biker boots""mens dresses""fancy dress costumes""dress alterations""cheap handbags""replica handbags"When thinking of negative keywords, think about similar searches like the examples we have given above that could show for the ads you are running and also think about what your Google Ads goal is.
For example, if your Google Ads goal is based on sales (if you’re ecommerce) or leads (for service-based businesses) you want to target keywords at the bottom of the funnel, the people who are ready to buy NOW. There will be keywords for searches for people at the top of the funnel that wouldn’t align with your Google Ads goal that you also need to add as negative keywords.
Some good examples of negative keywords for people at the top of the funnel are related to searches where people are searching on Google for the answer to their problem, the difference and why this puts them at the top of the funnel is because they are not looking for a specific brand or solution YET. Examples of this are keywords such as “best”, “how” and “top 10”.
There are 3 different negative keyword match types: broad match, phrase match or exact match.
A negative broad match keyword is when you tell Google not to show your ad if the search contains all of your terms. Your ad can still show if the same words are in the search query in a different order.
With a negative phrase match keyword, you’re telling your ad not to show for a specific phrase, but only if it’s searched in the exact same order. Your ad can still show if other words are in the search query.
A negative exact match keyword is when Google stops your ad from showing because the exact term has been searched on Google and in the same order without extra words. Your ad can still show if the term is searched with extra words in front or after it.
Symbols used to have a significant impact on keyword targeting. Characters like ampersands (&), accent marks (á), and asterisks (*) could alter a word’s meaning, affecting how search engines interpret it. A good example is “resume” and “résumé”—two distinct terms. Previously, adding “resume” (without the accent) as a negative keyword would unfortunately prevent your ads from showing for searches containing “résumé” (with the accent). You had to include both versions as negative keywords to ensure proper blocking.
Now, thanks to improvements in Google’s language models, the system’s understanding of language and user intent has improved considerably. This leads to more relevant search results for your campaigns. As a result, negative keywords are now even more critical for building highly targeted and effective campaigns.
The Google Ads search term report tells you the exact search queries that people have typed in Google for your Google Ads to show.
Because the search term report shows you the real searches that made your ads show up, it’s your best friend for helping you find negative keywords. Make it a habit to review this report and add any irrelevant terms as negative keywords.
Negative keywords can be applied to your entire Google Ads account, at a campaign level or at an ad group level.
Navigate to the level that you want to add your negative keywords (Account level, campaign level or ad group level) then click “Tools” > “Shared library” > “Exclusion Lists”
Once you’re in ‘Exclusion lists’ you can easily add negative keywords individually or create a negative keyword list and apply this at the level you need.
For efficiency, especially when managing large accounts, you can add negative keywords in bulk using negative keyword lists or the Google Ads Editor. We recommend creating and storing negative keywords in a list for improved management. This list can then be readily applied to your campaigns, streamlining the process compared to managing individual keywords.
Imagine you have a long list of words or phrases that you never want your ads to show for, no matter which campaign you’re running. Manually adding these negative keywords to every single campaign would be incredibly time-consuming. That’s where negative keyword lists come in.
A negative keyword list is a collection of negative keywords that you can create once and then apply to multiple campaigns or ad groups. Think of it as a master list of terms you want to exclude.
The free Google Ads Editor is a powerful tool for managing your Google Ads accounts. Its key benefits include bulk editing and the ability to work offline. This can significantly improve efficiency and save you valuable time.
A negative keyword is a search query you don’t want your ad to show for and a positive ‘general’ keyword is a search query you do want to show for.
As mentioned in this article, using the Google Search terms report can be a useful tool to help you identify searches where your ad has shown which isn’t driving the traffic you want that you can then add as negative keywords. Another useful resource is that you can download pre-populated negative keywords online that you can bulk add to your account/campaigns. If you do use these, make sure you review the negative keywords to ensure none would block your ads showing for queries you would want your ads to show for.
Yes, we recommend using Gemini to help find negative keywords. To do this you need to give Gemini a description of the types of searches that you want to be found for and then ask it to list some negative keywords that are relevant to the business. Make sure you read through and check the list of keywords and add these on top of the list of generic keywords you add.
Yes, to ensure that they are still relevant and not blocking potential traffic you do want – especially if the strategy has changed or what the business sells has. If there are campaigns for one that needs KW’s and negatives, but not the other, duplicate the list. You can have up to 20 negative KW lists with 5,000 keywords each.
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