Digital marketing glossary
What are negative keywords in Google Ads?
Written and reviewed by L.K. Monu Borkala · Updated
Definition
A negative keyword is a word or phrase you add in Google Ads (or Microsoft Ads) to stop your ads from showing when a search includes it. Negative keywords keep your budget away from searches that won't turn into customers, such as people looking for free versions, jobs or a different product.
How it works
You can add negative keywords to a campaign, an ad group or a shared list used across campaigns. Like normal keywords, they have match types, but they behave more strictly: negative keywords don't automatically cover close variants, synonyms or misspellings, so you may need to add both 'job' and 'jobs'. Negative broad match blocks searches containing all the words in any order; negative phrase match blocks the exact words in that order; negative exact match blocks only that exact search. The best source of negatives is the Search terms report, which shows the real searches that triggered your ads. Review it every week, especially in a new campaign.
Example
Picture a driving school in Chandigarh bidding on 'driving classes'. The Search terms report shows clicks from 'driving classes jobs', 'free driving classes video' and 'driving licence online apply'. The school adds 'jobs', 'free', 'video' and 'licence apply' as negative keywords. Wasted clicks fall sharply, and the same daily budget now brings more real enquiries.
An illustration: the business and the rupee figures are made up to show how the idea works.
Common mistake
Adding a negative keyword that blocks good traffic, such as excluding 'price' when many genuine buyers search 'driving classes price'. Another mistake is setting negatives once and never checking the Search terms report again.
Where you learn it
- Module 7: Google Ads
- Class: Search Campaigns
- Module 15: Marketplace Selling
- Class: Marketplace Ads (Sponsored Products)
Related terms
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