Negative Keywords in Google Ads: What They Are and How to Use Them
Choosing the searches you don't want to appear for matters as much as choosing the ones you do. Here's how negative keywords work and how to use them to stop wasted spend.
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When it comes to running successful search campaigns, finding the right keywords is crucial. But it's just as important to identify the searches you don't want your ads to show for. That's what negative keywords are for, and they play an essential role in refining and optimizing your campaigns. In this article we explain what negative keywords are, how to find and use them and what they can do for your results.
What Are Negative Keywords?
A negative keyword is a word or phrase you add to your Google Ads account to stop your ads from appearing for certain searches. Using negative keywords helps you reach the right audience and prevents you from wasting budget on irrelevant clicks.
How do negative keywords work?
When someone searches on Google, Google Ads decides which ads are eligible to show based on the advertisers' keywords. When you add a negative keyword, you're telling Google not to show your ad for searches that contain that term, even if one of your regular keywords would otherwise match.
Benefits of Using Negative Keywords
- Saves money: excluding irrelevant searches means fewer clicks from people who were never likely to convert.
- Increases relevance: filtering out unwanted traffic means your ads are more likely to appear in front of the right people at the right time.
- Improves click-through rate: when your ads are shown to a more targeted audience, a larger share of the people who see them click.
- Improves performance: your budget is focused on searches that are relevant and likely to drive conversions, which helps you meet your campaign goals.
- Saves time: with less irrelevant traffic muddying your data, it's easier to see what's working and where to focus your optimization.
How to Use Negative Keywords
Find negative keywords
One of the most effective ways to find negative keywords is the search terms report in Google Ads. It shows the actual searches that triggered your ads. Look for searches that aren't relevant to what you offer, then add the unwanted terms as negative keywords.
It's also worth brainstorming before you launch. Think about words that signal a different intent, such as "jobs", "DIY", "free" or "used", or products and services you don't offer.
Add negative keywords to your campaigns
Adding negative keywords is simple. In your Google Ads account, open the campaign or ad group you want to update, go to the keywords section and select negative keywords. Enter your terms, choose whether to add them at campaign or ad group level and specify the match type.
You can also add a search term as a negative directly from the search terms report, which is often the quickest way to work.
Negative Keyword Match Types
Negative keywords use match types too, but they behave differently from regular keywords. Most importantly, negative keywords don't match close variants such as misspellings, plurals or synonyms. If you want to exclude both "repair" and "repairs", add both.
Negative broad match
This is the default. Your ad won't show if the search contains all of your negative keyword's terms, in any order. Adding the negative broad match keyword "free" would stop your ad from showing for searches like "free shipping", "free books" and "free movies". A two-word negative like "running shoes" would block "shoes for running" but not a search for just "shoes".
Negative phrase match
Your ad won't show if the search contains the exact terms in the same order, even with other words before or after. Adding the negative phrase match keyword "cheap flights" would stop your ad from showing for "cheap flights to Europe" and "cheap flights from Los Angeles", but not for "cheap last-minute flights".
Negative exact match
Your ad won't show only if the search is exactly your negative keyword, with no extra words. Adding the negative exact match keyword "flights to Paris" would stop your ad from showing for the search "flights to Paris", but it would still show for "flights to Paris from New York" or "cheap flights to Paris".
What Is a Negative Keyword List?
A negative keyword list is a saved set of negative keywords you can apply to multiple campaigns at once. Lists are created in the shared library in Google Ads, which makes them ideal for terms you want to exclude across your whole account, such as "jobs" or "careers". You can still add individual negatives to specific campaigns or ad groups when they only apply there.
How negative keyword lists improve performance
By routinely reviewing and updating your negative keywords, you make sure your ads keep showing to people who are likely to convert. This tends to raise your click-through rate and conversion rate while reducing wasted spend.
How to build a comprehensive list
The best way to build a strong list is to combine analysis with brainstorming. Review your search terms report regularly and note any irrelevant searches your ads appeared for. Add those terms as negatives. Then brainstorm related words and phrases you don't want to show for, and organize them into themed lists, such as job seekers, competitors or free and DIY searches, so they're easy to manage.
Examples of Negative Keywords
Common negative keywords
Many advertisers exclude terms like "free", "jobs", "careers", "salary", "DIY" and "how to" when they sell a paid product or service and don't want informational or job-seeking traffic. Whether a term belongs on your list depends on your business: "cheap" might be a great keyword for a budget retailer and a poor one for a luxury brand.
Finding negatives in the search terms report
Imagine you sell shoes. Looking at your search terms report, you might find that your ads appeared for searches like "shoe repair" or "shoe polish". Adding "repair" and "polish" as negative keywords prevents your ads from showing for those searches in the future.
Negatives for a specific campaign
Negative keywords should reflect what you're promoting. If you're advertising a high-end restaurant, you might add negative keywords like "fast food", "cheap eats" and "drive thru" so you only reach people looking for the experience you offer.
How Negative Keywords Improve PPC Campaigns
They save ad spend
- Preventing irrelevant traffic: your ads aren't shown to people searching for something completely different from what you offer.
- Avoiding wasted clicks: you stop paying for clicks that are unlikely to convert.
- Driving higher-quality traffic: more of your visitors are genuinely interested, which means a higher share become customers and your cost per conversion falls.
They improve click-through rate
Negative keywords refine your targeting so your ads appear mainly for people interested in what you offer. When fewer people see ads that don't apply to them, a higher percentage of impressions turn into clicks, which also helps your expected CTR in Google Ads.
They improve ad relevance
By excluding searches your ads don't answer, negative keywords help ensure your ads match what people are actually looking for. That supports better Quality Scores and helps you get more value from your budget.
Don't Overdo It
Negative keywords are powerful, so use them carefully. Adding broad negatives too quickly can block searches that would have converted. Before adding a term, check whether it could appear in valuable searches, and make sure your negatives don't conflict with keywords you actually want to target. Google Ads will flag conflicts between your negative keywords and active keywords, so review those alerts.
Conclusion
Negative keywords stop your ads from appearing in irrelevant searches, saving money and improving performance. Check your search terms report regularly, understand how negative match types work, use shared lists for account-wide exclusions and keep your negatives up to date. It's all about making sure your ads reach the right people.
