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Amol Ghemud Published: February 18, 2019
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To set the scene, you have signed up for a PPC campaign, added your payment information and possibly created a few ads, coming to grips with matching relevant keywords to the right campaign or ad group.
The next thing that you do is to make these ads live. All this seems simple enough. But being an intuitive inbound marketer, you know fully well that your job does not end here.
For many, investing in PPC campaigns can pinch their pockets pretty deep. However, using the right strategies and tactics, this is a valuable marketing tool, as opposed to a resented, money-wasting pastime for marketers.
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To make the most of your PPC campaign budget, the key is to use a combination of sense and logic along with data that custom designs the ads to suit your specific requirements.
Zero in on particular buyer personas, a by-product of which helps you to get rid of any unwanted visitors who have very less chances of converting into a sale.
As a diligent marketer, you follow through the guidelines of assessing the quality score of your campaigns, performing A/B testing for your ad formats, revisiting and updating your keywords, adding any new features, extensions, etc.
But, have you forgotten the most important element that has can turn the tables around completely?
Negative Keywords
PPC campaigns and negative keywords go hand-in-hand. It is almost impossible for your Google Ads account to effectively function without using negative keywords. The impact of these keywords on the overall campaign is immense as it increases the rate of conversion and controls unwanted clicks.
Negative keywords are often overlooked by PPC campaigners. But these words and phrases are absolutely essential in preventing your ads from being triggered by particular search query.
Negative keywords lay emphasis on your specific campaign goals and help send the desired traffic to your website.
Running PPC campaigns are an expensive affair and you wouldn’t want to overspend. Negative keywords help to save money by eliminating search queries that are irrelevant.
For those who are yet to fathom the effectiveness of using negative keywords, it is time that you understand the power these magic keywords hold, which makes it mandatory for marketers to incorporate them in their campaigns. But, first, let’s dig deeper into what negative keywords actually are.
What Are Negative Keywords and How to Find Them?
Simply put, negative keywords, or sometimes referred to as excluded keywords are supported by Google Ads. This is an easy way to eliminate unqualified traffic to your site for the purpose of enhanced sales and visibility.
The list of negative keywords only targets those searchers who are specifically looking for your product.
Image: Negative keywords
You can set negative keywords either at the ad group level or campaign level.
Image: Campaign level negative
Image: Campaign level negative
The list of PPC negative keywords should include obvious, basic words like, “free”, along with general phrases and terms.
Image: Campaign level negative
When you feel stymied with the negative keyword list, you can use the keyword selector tools to identify the terms most commonly searched for your type of product. You need to head to the Google Ads keyword planner and follow these steps.
Enter your keyword.
You will get back results showing keywords by their relevance, competition and average monthly searches.
To select keywords, you need to keep in mind the following:
Intent of the query.
What the user is trying to find
When you write “free”, the audience immediately expects to get something for free when they enter your website.
But you are selling your products or services for a price and the audience quickly gets disappointed and leaves. This will cost you precious money that you have spent on your PPC campaign.
For instance, if you are an online game retailer and people are coming to your website thinking that you are offering free games online, but you are not, it will cost you money.
If you are not providing “free games online”, attracting the audience with that keyword will just be a waste of your money and time.
To make sure that freeloaders stay out of your website, you have to create a negative keyword list with the terms “free”, “online” and “play”.
Image: Negative keywords
The perfect time to create a negative keyword list for your PPC campaign is at the very outset of launching the campaign. In addition to that, most marketers believe in checking the list again when your campaign goes live and update it on a regular basis whilst the campaign is still ongoing.
Within every Google Ads account, you will find a report that shows the exact query that a searcher has typed before clicking on a specific ad.
This is called the Search Terms Report or SQR. The report will help you in finding negative keywords for your PPC campaigns.
In the current Google Ads interface, you can reach the report by navigating to an ad group or campaign. Click on the keywords tab and select “Search Terms”
Image: Search terms
The searchers intent will be revealed through the keywords. Based on that, enter your negative keywords.
Why Is It Essential to Keep Updating Your Negative Keywords List On A Daily Basis?
Running a PPC campaign with a strong negative keyword list ensures that your ads are visible to only those people who are actually looking for your products or services.
Here are 5 reasons that will convince you to keep your negative keywords list updated on a daily basis.
1. High Targeted Ads
Google Ads make it easy to set up a campaign with various keyword match options. However, even then, using modified broad, broad or phrase match keywords will require you to use negative keywords.
Using these match type ads, you make sure that your campaigns show up as a result for keywords other than the ones that you have entered.
For instance, the broad match term “plumber in Maryland” could show up as available plumber jobs in Maryland. Unless you want CVs instead of clients, this keyword works fine. But, other than that, you wouldn’t want to pay for such results.
In this case, by adding the negative keyword “job”, you will be able to exclude your ad from searches that include the word “job”. So, you can avoid reading the resumes of all those would-be plumbers and only connect with customers who need the services of a plumber.
2. Save Money and High ROI
Negative keywords help save money by getting rid of all the irrelevant keywords. One single keyword may not make a world of difference to your campaign and its results.
But, once you have built an exhaustive list of negative keywords, you will begin to notice things like, lower spend, higher click through rates and higher conversions.
Image: Paid conversions
With negative keywords, you can enhance your accuracy and target your customers better than ever. Of course, you could use a list of exact match keywords, but that would make you lose out on a lot of keywords.
Instead, it is easier to just tell Google the search terms for which you do not wish your ad to be shown.
3. Exercise Full Control on When Your Ads are Shown and When They’re Not
We already know that the primary benefit of this approach is saving money on per lead costs. The secondary benefit is to safeguard your quality score as your ads won’t show up for anything and everything.
Most importantly, your ad will not be prompted in the course of search requests that are related with bad press in your niche including scandals, disasters, poor imagery for your industry and legal judgements.
For instance, let’s assume that you are a travel agency providing cruise ship vacations. When a consumer performs a search query looking for details on cruise ship vacations, news and photos of disasters related to the shipping industry will be the first results.
Of course, because a ship disaster is fresh in the news, it will appear first. But nobody wants to be reminded that their ships can sink or capsize when they are searching for a cruise vacation!
That is exactly why any smart travel agency owner would pull the plug in any and all words and phrases that refers to ship disasters in their PPC campaign.
This will prevent – the agency’s name from getting tied to such tragedies, when the prospective consumer is searching with an intent to purchase online.
4. Quality Score of Your Campaign is Boosted
Google assigns quality scores to PPC ads based on a number of factors, such as relevancy of your ads to the landing pages of your website.
To put it simply, when your ad copy, including the keywords that you bid on are related closely to your landing page, Google rewards you.
So, a little effort to find and implement PPC negative keywords will not just help you generate high-quality leads, the search giant will also make sure that your ads acquire a high ranking position when they show up.
As if these weren’t enough already, you will also find that a high quality score means that you have to pay less money for your ads.
What does this mean?
You will pay a much lower CPC (cost per click) and also enjoy lower bid prices. All of this together will put on the fast track to getting positive returns on your investment.
5. Sift Out the Disinterested
Let’s face it. There will always be people who are either interested or cannot care less in what your business is offering. Or maybe they are simply not a good fit for your business.
You already know that you have to pay for keyword-generated clicks, irrespective of whether the clicks are genuine. Then, why wouldn’t you want to protect your marketing budget from bad, irrelevant clicks?
By using negative words and phrases, you will be able to prevent your ad from showing up for those people who you do not wish to convert into leads.
When choosing negative keywords, you need of phrases and words that attract leads for industries that are very different from yours. In case your business model is a B2B, then you would obviously not want to attract B2C leads.
In Summing Up
Setting up negative keywords are ideal for busy digital marketers as it pinpoints directly where you are losing money in your Google Ad campaigns. This allows you to instantly take corrective measures at the source of waste.
Geared towards getting the digital marketers work done faster and enhance the bottom line, the benefits of daily negative keywords update boosting your PPC campaign outweighs any adverse impacts for sure.
For those who are yet to convert in to believers, here’s a short recap:
Saving your marketing budget as individual negative keyword exactly tells you how much money is being wasted in a specific ad group or campaign, thereby allowing you to filter out any unwanted clicks.
Saving time by not having to comb through every inch of your Google Ads account.
Enhancing overall workflow by guiding the marketer to any corrective actions that will have a significant impact on your visitor conversions, revenue and profits in the long run, so you are absolutely sure that your time and efforts have been well managed.
Negative keywords are one of the most powerful tools in PPC campaigns. Use it correctly and you can boost your click through rate and ROI, whilst reducing your CPC. Negative words help you to target your ads and increase conversion rates.
If you are yet to give importance to the usage of negative keywords in your PPC campaigns. The five reasons must have been an eye opener. Implement them now to give your ads that much needed push.
Negative keywords are a foundational element for budget protection and conversion rate enhancement in your paid search efforts. They act as a precise control mechanism, ensuring your ads are only displayed to searchers with a high probability of converting by actively excluding those with irrelevant intent. For instance, by adding terms like “free” or “jobs” to your negative keyword list, you prevent your ads for a paid product from showing to users seeking no-cost alternatives or employment opportunities. This strategic exclusion directly improves the quality of your traffic, raises your click-through rate, and boosts your Quality Score. A well-maintained list in Google Ads ensures that every dollar spent is directed toward attracting genuine prospects, not just unqualified visitors. Understanding this mechanism is the first step to transforming your PPC campaigns from a costly expense into a profitable investment, a topic explored more deeply in the full analysis.
Neglecting negative keywords is one of the most common and costly mistakes in PPC management, leading directly to wasted ad spend and diluted campaign data. When you fail to exclude irrelevant search queries, you pay for clicks from users who have no intention of purchasing your product or service. Imagine you sell premium software but your ads appear for searches like “free software tutorial” or “software developer jobs”. These clicks deplete your daily budget, lower your conversion rate, and signal to Google Ads that your landing page is irrelevant to the searcher, which can harm your Quality Score. Implementing a robust negative keyword list from the start safeguards your investment by focusing your resources exclusively on searchers who exhibit commercial intent. This simple practice significantly increases the rate of conversion and is essential for achieving a positive return on your marketing efforts, as detailed throughout the complete guide.
The decision to apply negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level depends entirely on the specificity of the exclusion and your account structure. Applying a list at the campaign level is ideal for universal exclusions that apply to all your products, such as terms like “free,” “reviews,” or “jobs.” This is efficient and prevents you from having to add the same keywords to every ad group. In contrast, using ad group level negatives provides granular control. This is necessary when a keyword is undesirable for one product but relevant for another. For example, a shoe retailer might add “men's” as a negative to an ad group for women's heels but not to a campaign for athletic sneakers. Choosing the right level prevents you from accidentally blocking relevant traffic while ensuring each ad group is highly targeted. The full article provides more scenarios to help you master this strategic choice.
Building your initial negative keyword list is a proactive measure to prevent budget waste before your campaign even gathers data. A simple, effective process involves three core steps to get started within your Google Ads account. First, brainstorm and list obvious, universally irrelevant terms related to your offerings, such as “free,” “hiring,” “example,” or “DIY.” Second, use the Google Ads Keyword Planner by entering your primary keywords; analyze the results not for what to target, but for what to exclude, looking for terms with misaligned user intent. Third, think critically about your buyer persona and anticipate searches they would not use. For a premium service, this might include terms like “cheap” or “discount.” Following this foundational setup process ensures your initial budget is spent attracting qualified leads rather than irrelevant clicks. Discover more advanced techniques for refining this list over time by exploring the full content.
An accounting firm can dramatically improve its lead quality by using negative keywords to disqualify searchers who are not seeking professional services. Their ads are meant for businesses or individuals needing tax preparation, but without negatives, they might attract clicks from people searching for “accounting jobs,” “free tax software,” or “how to learn accounting.” These clicks are expensive and will never convert. The firm should build a negative keyword list in their Google Ads campaign that includes:
By eliminating non-commercial intent, the firm ensures its budget is spent on reaching potential clients, thereby increasing its conversion rate and overall campaign profitability. This example highlights how tailored lists are vital, a concept we examine further.
As search behavior evolves, a static negative keyword list becomes increasingly ineffective. You must shift from a 'set and forget' mentality to a dynamic, ongoing process of refinement based on real-time data from your search query reports in Google Ads. With the rise of long-tail and conversational searches, context is more important than ever. Your future strategy should involve continuous analysis and adaptation. This means regularly reviewing the exact phrases that trigger your ads and adding irrelevant variations to your negative lists. Furthermore, consider organizing negatives by theme (e.g., competitor names, informational intent, job seekers) to manage them more efficiently. Staying agile and responsive to how users actually search is key to future-proofing your PPC performance and ensuring you do not fall behind. The complete article offers more insight into building a resilient, long-term strategy.
Negative keywords are a powerful lever for improving your Quality Score because they directly increase the relevance between your ads and the users who see them. Google Ads rewards this relevance. When you exclude irrelevant search terms, you ensure that your ads are shown to a more targeted audience, which naturally leads to a higher click-through rate (CTR), a key component of Quality Score. A higher CTR signals to Google that your ad is a good match for the search query. This improvement in Quality Score results in a lower cost-per-click (CPC) and better ad positions, allowing you to get more value from your budget. Mastering negative keywords is therefore not just about avoiding bad clicks; it is a core tactic for optimizing the fundamental economics of your entire campaign. For a deeper look at this relationship, continue on to the full post.
While failing to add negatives is a common mistake, a more subtle and damaging error is being overly aggressive and blocking qualified traffic. This often happens when marketers add broad-match negative keywords without understanding their reach. For example, adding the broad negative “services” to a campaign for “IT consulting services” could block your ads from showing on highly relevant, long-tail searches. The solution is to be precise with your match types. Use exact or phrase match for your negative keywords whenever possible to avoid unintended consequences. Regularly audit your search query report against your negative list to ensure you are not inadvertently excluding valuable queries. This diligence prevents your cost-saving tool from becoming a barrier to growth, a critical balance discussed further in the complete guide.
An e-commerce store for high-end appliances must use negative keywords to filter out shoppers with misaligned purchase intent, thereby protecting its margins. Using the Google Ads Keyword Planner, they would enter a core term like “blender.” The tool would return a list of related searches, and their job is to identify the irrelevant ones. They would immediately flag and add terms that signal a focus on low cost or repairs, which do not align with their premium positioning. The resulting negative keyword list would include:
Repair and parts queries: “repair,” “parts,” “fix,” “broken”
Informational or review searches: “reviews,” “vs,” “comparison”
This proactive filtering ensures their ad spend is reserved for users searching with terms like “best professional blender” or “Vitamix blender,” leading to higher conversion rates. This case illustrates a core principle you can learn more about in the article.
For mature accounts, maintaining efficiency requires a systematic, ongoing process for negative keyword discovery, moving beyond a one-time setup. The most critical practice is the disciplined, regular review of the Search Terms Report within your Google Ads account. Schedule time weekly or bi-weekly to analyze the exact queries that triggered your ads. During this review, you should actively look for and exclude any irrelevant or low-performing search terms that have slipped through. This iterative refinement process helps you adapt to changing search trends and user behavior. It also uncovers new negative keyword ideas you would not have anticipated. By treating negative keyword management as a continuous optimization task rather than a setup chore, you ensure your campaigns remain highly targeted and profitable. The full guide offers more strategies for advanced account management.
A clean, well-managed negative keyword list is essential for obtaining trustworthy A/B testing results. Negative keywords improve the quality and consistency of the traffic being sent to your test variants. When you filter out irrelevant search queries, you ensure that the audience evaluating your ads and landing pages is composed of genuine prospects with a consistent level of intent. Without this control, your test data can be skewed by clicks from users who were never going to convert, regardless of the ad copy or page design. For instance, clicks from job seekers will show low engagement on a product page, masking the true performance of your test. Improving traffic quality through negative keywords provides a cleaner signal, allowing you to confidently determine which ad or page actually performs better with your target audience. This foundational practice is key to effective testing, a point we elaborate on in the full article.
Differentiating between a low-performer and a true negative comes down to analyzing user intent, not just performance metrics. A low-performing keyword may be relevant but needs a better ad or landing page, while an irrelevant query has a fundamental mismatch with your offering. To make this distinction, ask what the user is trying to find. For example, if you sell new cars, the query “ford fusion reviews” might have a low conversion rate but is still relevant to a potential buyer in the research phase. In contrast, the query “ford fusion mechanic jobs” is completely irrelevant and should be added as a negative. Focus on the searcher's goal. If the intent is misaligned with a potential sale at any stage of the funnel, it is a candidate for your negative keyword list. This critical analysis ensures you optimize for relevance, not just react to surface-level data, a technique explored further within.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
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