Negative Keywords: What They Are & How to Use Them

What Are Negative Keywords?

Negative keywords are words oregon phrases you tin adhd to pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to forestall your ads from appearing connected irrelevant sites oregon videos. Or successful hunt results erstwhile users hunt for those presumption (or intimately related terms).

For example, a luxury footwear retailer moving a hunt run mightiness adhd “cheap” arsenic a antagonistic keyword successful Google Ads. To forestall their ads from appearing erstwhile radical hunt for inexpensive shoes.

Negative keyword targeting tin assistance you to:

• Save money. Search advertizing works connected a PPC basis.Negative keywords assistance you debar paying for clicks from radical who aren’t funny successful your products oregon services. 
• Improve your Quality Score. Negative keywords tin marque your ads much applicable to your landing pages and boost your Quality Score (a Google metric that affects whether and wherever your ads show).
• Boost conversions. Because antagonistic keywords assistance you walk your fund much efficaciously and gain amended advertisement placement, you tin expect much clicks and conversions (e.g., sales). 
• Protect your marque image. If you don’t usage antagonistic keywords, there’s a bigger accidental your marque volition beryllium associated with presumption oregon topics you don’t similar (e.g., “cheap”).

What Are the Negative Keyword Match Types?

When you adhd a antagonistic keyword to a campaign, you request to take a keyword lucifer type. This determines the scope of queries that are excluded.

Let’s research the these lucifer types done immoderate antagonistic keyword examples:

Broad Match Negative Keywords

Broad lucifer is the default mounting for antagonistic keywords successful Google Ads.

If a hunt query includes each of your antagonistic keyword presumption successful immoderate order, your advertisement won’t beryllium triggered.

For example, if your antagonistic keyword is “mountain bikes,” and idiosyncratic searches for “bikes mountain,” your advertisement won’t show. Because it contains each of your antagonistic keyword terms. 

But your advertisement mightiness show if the hunt includes lone immoderate of your antagonistic keyword terms. Even if the hunt has presumption that are very adjacent to your antagonistic keyword.

Using the aforesaid example, if idiosyncratic searches for “mountain bike,” your advertisement could show. Because your antagonistic keyword included the “s” successful “bikes.”

Here’s a graphic to assistance illustrate:

Phrase Match Negative Keywords

With antagonistic operation match, your advertisement volition not amusement if the hunt query includes the circumstantial keyword presumption successful the specified order.

Although the hunt query tin see further words, your advertisement won’t show arsenic agelong arsenic it contains each of your keyword presumption successful the aforesaid sequence.

For example, if your antagonistic keyword is “mountain bikes,” and idiosyncratic searches for “trek upland bikes,” your advertisement won’t show. 

Your advertisement can look if the bid of the keyword presumption is antithetic oregon if the presumption person an other character. For example, if idiosyncratic searches for “bikes mountain.”

Exact Match Negative Keywords

With antagonistic nonstop lucifer keywords, your advertisement won’t amusement if the hunt query precisely matches the keyword presumption successful the nonstop aforesaid order—without further words oregon characters.

If your antagonistic keyword is “mountain bikes,” and idiosyncratic searches for “mountain bikes,” your advertisement won’t show. 

But if idiosyncratic searches for “bikes mountain” oregon “mountain bike,” your advertisement could appear. 

Google Ads accounts are organized successful 3 levels: account, campaigns, and advertisement groups. 

Like so:

You tin adhd antagonistic keywords astatine the account, advertisement group, and run level. 

Account-level antagonistic keywords use to all campaigns wrong your account. 

Instead of adding the aforesaid antagonistic keywords to each campaign, you tin negociate them astatine the relationship level. To prevention clip and trim the chances of quality error.

For example, you tin make a database of hunt presumption you see harmful for your brand. And use it instantly to each campaigns astatine the relationship level. 

Campaign-level antagonistic keywords use to all ads wrong that campaign.

If you adhd “free” arsenic a campaign-level antagonistic keyword, nary of your ads successful that run volition look for searches containing the connection “free.” 

Ad group-level antagonistic keywords use to specific advertisement groups wrong a campaign. To springiness you much power implicit which ads amusement up for which searches. 

Let’s accidental you’re moving a vacation footwear campaign. And you person an advertisement radical for “running shoes” and different advertisement radical for “dress shoes.” 

You mightiness privation to adhd “formal” arsenic a antagonistic keyword for the “running shoes” advertisement group. And “casual” arsenic a antagonistic keyword for the “dress shoes” advertisement group. 

Like so:

Use campaign-level antagonistic keywords for wide presumption that are irrelevant for your full campaign. 

And usage advertisement group-level antagonistic keywords for circumstantial presumption that are applicable to immoderate advertisement groups but not others.

Further reading: What Is Google Ads & How Does It Work? A Comprehensive Guide

How to Find Negative Keywords

Here are 5 ways to find antagonistic keywords for your PPC campaigns: 

Do Keyword Research

Start with immoderate basal keyword research utilizing a keyword probe tool. 

This helps you spot what radical are searching for successful your niche. And uncover thousands of keyword ideas.

Start by entering your campaign’s main keyword into the Keyword Magic Tool. Then, prime your determination and click “Search.” 

You’ll get a database of keyword ideas based connected your effect keyword. And adjuvant metrics similar mean monthly hunt volume, search intent (the crushed for a searcher’s query), outgo per click (CPC), and more. 

Like this:

Note each the keywords (or parts of keywords) that are irrelevant to your campaign. 

For example, if you ain a premium footwear store, you mightiness find irrelevant hunt presumption similar “cheap shoes,” “outlet shoes,” oregon “second manus shoes.”

These are each imaginable antagonistic keywords. 

See What Competitors Are Bidding On

Competitors (and indirect competitors) whitethorn bid connected keywords that are akin to yours but not precisely applicable to your brand.

So, their keyword lists tin supply bully inspiration for antagonistic keywords.

You tin analyse a competitor’s PPC keywords with Semrush’s Advertising Research tool.

Just participate their domain, take your country, and click “Search.”

Then, scroll down to the “Paid Search Positions” table.

In our example, we’ve analyzed a discount footwear retailer. 

From these results, a luxury footwear retailer mightiness take antagonistic keywords similar “discount boots” and “kids nikes connected sale.”

Search Manually connected Google

If you don’t privation to usage a antagonistic keyword tool, you tin hunt manually connected Google. 

Simply hunt a word related to your intended ad, past scan the results leafage for irrelevant terms. 

For example, if you merchantability nonrecreational upland bikes, hunt for “mountain bikes.” 

You whitethorn spot irrelevant keywords specified arsenic “emountain” oregon “recreational bikes.” 

And adhd immoderate unrelated keywords to your antagonistic keywords list. 

Google’s autocomplete diagnostic tin besides assistance you place antagonistic keywords. 

Start typing your main keyword to spot a drop-down database of related presumption radical hunt for:

In this example, you could adhd “mountain bikes decathlon” and “mountain bikes walmart” to your list. 

Those astir apt won’t beryllium applicable to nonrecreational upland bikers. 

Add different missive aft your keyword to spot adjacent much suggestions:

Consult Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is simply a escaped keyword probe instrumentality for PPC. And it tin assistance you find antagonistic keywords. 

In the main menu, click “Discover caller keywords.”

Then, input your main keyword and click “Get results.” 

You’ll get a database of keyword ideas. 

Like so:

Look for immoderate keywords that are irrelevant to your run and adhd them to your antagonistic keyword list. 

Further reading: Google Keyword Planner: How to Use It for SEO and PPC

Analyze the Google Ads Search Terms Report

The Google Ads “Search terms” study shows a database of queries radical person utilized that triggered your ad. 

See it successful your Google Ads account nether “Campaigns” > “Insights & reports” > “Search terms.”

While browsing, you whitethorn find hunt presumption that aren’t applicable to your campaign. 

For example, successful this case, we tin spot “winter canine shoes” and “do dogs request shoes.”

From here, you tin adhd antagonistic keywords straight to an advertisement radical oregon campaign, an existing antagonistic keyword list, oregon a caller list. 

How to Use Negative Keywords successful Google Ads

After identifying the antagonistic keywords for your campaigns, it's clip to adhd them to your Google Ads account. 

Here’s how:

Add Negative Keywords from the Search Terms Report

From your “Search terms” report, cheque the boxes adjacent to the keywords you’d similar to adhd arsenic antagonistic keywords. 

Then, click “Add arsenic antagonistic keyword.” 

Now you tin take to adhd the antagonistic keywords to an advertisement group, campaign, caller antagonistic keyword list, oregon an existing list. 

Select the enactment you want, and click “Save.” 

Add Negative Keywords from the Dashboard

You tin besides make antagonistic keyword lists extracurricular of the “Search terms” report.

In your Google Ads account, click “Campaigns.” 

Then, prime the “Audiences, keywords, and content” drop-down successful the paper and prime “Negative hunt keywords.” 

Then, click the bluish positive button.

Click “Select a campaign” and take the run you privation to adhd the antagonistic keywords to. 

Enter your antagonistic keywords. One per line. 

You tin bespeak the lucifer benignant by using these peculiar symbols:

• Nothing for broad match: example
• Quotations for phrase match: “example”
• Square brackets for exact match: [example]

Then, cheque “Save to caller oregon existing list.” And sanction your caller database oregon prime an existing list. 

Finally, click “Save.”

After creating your antagonistic keyword lists, use them to your campaigns oregon advertisement groups.

In your Google Ads relationship dashboard, click “Campaigns.” 

Select the run you privation to adhd the antagonistic keywords to. And click the “Audiences, keywords, and content” drop-down. 

Then, click “Search keywords.”

Click connected “Negative Keywords” astatine the top.

Then, click the bluish positive fastener and prime “Use antagonistic keyword list.” 

Now, cheque the container adjacent to the antagonistic keywords database you privation to use to the campaign. 

And click “Save.”

Best Practices for Negative Keywords

To marque the astir of your antagonistic keyword strategy, see the pursuing champion practices: 

Add Plural and Singular Keywords

The much circumstantial you tin beryllium with your antagonistic keywords, the amended targeted your ads volition be. 

That means it’s omniscient to adhd some singular and plural forms of keywords to your list. So you tin debar showing up for searches that see either version. 

For example, let’s accidental you don’t privation to fertile for “shoes.” You’d besides privation to adhd “shoe” to your antagonistic keyword list. 

This elemental measurement tin assistance you boost click-through rate (CTR) and artifact unwanted postulation from some singular and plural queries.

Use Symbols with Care

It’s important to enactment that Google Ads lone recognizes 3 kinds of symbols erstwhile it comes to antagonistic keyword matching:

• Ampersands: Google does not dainty “&” and “and” the same. So, you mightiness privation to adhd some versions of your antagonistic keyword (e.g., “Dolce & Gabbana” and “Dolce and Gabbana”). 
• Accent marks: Google does not dainty letters with and without accent marks (e.g., “e” and “é”) the same. So, you mightiness privation to adhd some versions of your antagonistic keyword (e.g., “René Caovilla” and “Rene Caovilla”).
• Asterisks: Google does not fto you usage “*” arsenic a catch-all added to the extremity of a bid of letters to exclude each keywords that incorporate that circumstantial missive bid (like “zucc*” to screen some “zucchini” and the communal misspelling “zuccini”). So, you should lone usage the awesome successful the precise uncommon cases erstwhile your people users mightiness see it.

All different symbols are ignored oregon invalid. So it’s champion to permission them out.

Letter capitalization doesn’t matter, either.

For example:

• The antagonistic keyword “childrens shoes” volition besides exclude the query “children’s shoes”
• The antagonistic keyword “k swiss” volition exclude besides the query “K-swiss”
• The antagonistic keyword “dr martens” volition besides exclude the query “Dr. Martens”

Experiment with Different Match Types

You tin besides play astir with antithetic lucifer types for your antagonistic keywords. 

For example, you tin artifact retired immoderate hunt that includes your antagonistic keyword with wide lucifer negatives. 

Whereas with nonstop lucifer negatives, you’re capable to artifact retired the nonstop term. 

This gives you much power implicit which queries trigger your ads.

Find and Remove Low-Performing Keywords

Keep an oculus connected your “Search terms” reports and look for keywords that get tons of impressions but don’t execute well. 

For example, keywords that person precocious impressions but debased CTRs oregon debased Quality Scores. 

You tin adhd these arsenic nonstop lucifer antagonistic keywords to boost those metrics. 

This way, you tin marque the astir retired of your advertizing budget.

Continuously Monitor and Review

Regularly usage the hunt presumption reports, conversion data, and lawsuit feedback to find caller antagonistic keyword opportunities (or measure however the existent ones are performing). 

Keeping your antagonistic keyword lists updated ensures they’re inactive applicable and lucifer your run goals. 

Keep Optimizing Your Keyword Lists

Finding and adding antagonistic keywords is important. But don’t halt there. 

PPC is perpetually evolving. Rankings change, competitors change, and algorithms change. 

So, you should support an oculus connected your run information and often optimize your keyword lists.

And you tin bash that with the PPC Keyword Tool. 

It tin assistance you cross-reference keywords betwixt antithetic advertisement groups, adhd antagonistic keywords you hadn’t considered, and seamlessly import everything into Google Ads. 

Just import your keywords, and the instrumentality volition automatically suggest recommendations. 

Do this monthly oregon each different week if you’re moving aggregate campaigns astatine once.