Negative keywords: the setting that stops wasted ad spend

What a negative keyword does

A negative keyword tells Google not to show your ad when a search contains a certain word or phrase. If you clean carpets and do not sell them, "carpet store" and "carpet installation" are searches you want nothing to do with. Add them as negatives and your ad stays out of those auctions entirely, so you never pay for the click.

Negatives matter more than they used to. Google's match types now read keywords by meaning rather than exact wording, and broad match in particular reaches searches you would never have thought to add yourself. That reach can find good customers. It also finds plenty of people who will never pay you, and negative keywords are the fence that keeps them out.

Think of your keywords as the searches you invite and your negatives as the ones you turn away at the door. An account needs both to stay pointed at paying work.

The searches that waste money for local businesses

Wasted searches fall into a few familiar groups, and a new account usually turns up some of each early on. Which ones apply depends on your business. A roofer who offers free estimates should not block "free", while a company that never discounts might happily block "cheap".

• Job seekers: "hvac technician jobs", "plumber salary", "how to become an electrician"
• Do-it-yourselfers: "how to fix a running toilet", "diy gutter cleaning"
• Wrong service: a junk removal company showing for "dumpster rental" when it does not rent dumpsters
• Wrong place: a town with the same name in another state, or a part of the metro you do not serve
• Wrong buyer: words like "wholesale", "used" or "parts", depending on what you sell
• Research only: "dental hygienist school", "what does a probate lawyer do"
• Other companies: searches for a competitor's name, if you have decided not to bid on them

Finding them in the search terms report

The search terms report lists the actual searches that triggered your ads. Google holds back some low-volume searches for privacy, but what it shows is plenty to work with. Sort by cost, start at the top, and ask one question of each line: would I be glad to get a call from this person?

If the answer is no, add a negative. If it is a search you want more of, add it as a keyword so you can bid on it on purpose and write an ad that speaks to it. If you are unsure, leave it and look again next time, once it has more history.

Look at searches that got clicks but no conversions, too. A search that has eaten money for weeks and never produced a call is a candidate for a negative even if it looks reasonable on paper. On a new account, do this every week. Once the obvious waste is gone, less often works, but do not stop, because people keep inventing new ways to search.

Match types work differently for negatives

Negative keywords have match types, and they behave more literally than regular keywords do. A regular keyword reaches close variants like plurals and misspellings. A negative does not. If you block "job", add "jobs" as well, and if you block "salary", consider "salaries".

There are three negative match types, and picking the right one is the difference between a clean cut and an accidental block.

• Negative broad match: blocks searches that contain all of the words, in any order
• Negative phrase match: blocks searches that contain the words in that exact order, even with other words around them
• Negative exact match: blocks only that exact search, with no extra words

How not to block your own customers

The danger with negatives is overdoing it. A negative that is too wide can quietly shut off good searches, and you never see what you blocked, because the ad never showed and the search never reached your report.

A family law firm that offers a free first meeting would block real clients by adding "free" as a negative, since "free consultation divorce lawyer" is exactly the kind of person it wants. A pest control company that blocks "bugs" to avoid entomology students might also block "bed bugs exterminator". Before adding a single-word negative, check it against your own keywords and your best search terms from the past few months. If it would have blocked any of them, use a phrase or exact negative instead.

Google can also warn you when a negative conflicts with one of your own keywords. Read those warnings rather than dismissing them, because a conflict means a keyword you are paying to manage cannot show at all.

Where each negative should live

Negatives can sit at different levels. Adding one to a single ad group or campaign keeps it local to that spot. Shared negative keyword lists let you apply the same set across several campaigns, which is handy for the job-seeker and DIY words that every campaign should skip. Google also lets you add negatives at the account level, which applies them more broadly still.

Levels also stop your own campaigns from stepping on each other. If you run one campaign for water heater repair and another for water heater replacement, negatives in each can help push each search to the campaign and ad that fits it.

Performance Max and other automated campaign types handle negatives differently from standard search campaigns, and Google has been changing what they allow. Check what your campaign type supports before assuming a negative is doing its job there.

Keeping the list current

Negative keywords are never a one-time setup. New searches appear, seasons change what people look for, and Google's matching shifts over time. A short weekly look at the search terms report costs far less than a month of clicks from people looking for jobs.

If someone manages your ads, ask to see the negative keyword lists and when the search terms were last reviewed. It is one of the quickest ways to tell whether an account is being looked after or left to run on its own. Northward's Google Ads Management is $499 a month, with the ad budget paid straight to Google and a weekly report you can check this against.