Negative keywords are an important part of any Google Ads build out, and there is often a misunderstanding of how they work. From our experience, this misunderstanding ends up limiting their use, which impacts performance.
Negative keywords are one tool in the toolbox, and understanding how they work can take a solid Google Ads build to a high performing one.
Negative Keywords Act as a Filter, Not as a Matching Mechanism
When you target a keyword in Google Ads, the ads algorithm does a lot of interpretation. Google’s system is trying to determine “what is this searcher searching for?” It’s trying to understand the intent.
Broad match will pull in synonyms and related ideas. It will also pull in close variants, which covers plurals, misspellings, and reordered phrasing.
Negative keywords work differently. Google’s documentation explains that negative keywords won’t match close variations, and they don’t expand based on implied intent. For example, if you add free as a negative keyword, the system will block searches containing “free.” It won’t expand to “freebie,” “no cost,” or “complimentary.”
Additionally, if you want to stop an ad from showing for plurals, you’d need to add that keyword separately. So shoe set as a negative will let “shoes” pass through.
Match Types Mean Something Different When It Comes to Negatives
You can still choose Broad, Phrase, or Exact as you would with targeted keywords, but negative keywords act differently. The chart below shows how, using “cheap hotels” as the negative keyword.
| Match type | How you write it | Blocks a search when | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Negative broad | cheap hotels |
It contains all of your words, in any order, with other words allowed | “hotels that are cheap” is blocked. “hotels” alone is not. |
| Negative phrase | "cheap hotels" |
It contains your words in that order, with other words allowed around them | “cheap hotels near me” is blocked. “hotels cheap” is not. |
| Negative exact | [cheap hotels] |
It is exactly your words, with nothing added | “cheap hotels” is blocked. “cheap hotels near me” is not. |
Simply put, Broad will block the most and Exact will block the fewest. Broad negatives aren’t expanded the way Broad targeted keywords are. They won’t pull in related searches or synonyms. Essentially, they just ignore the order of the words.
For single words like “free,” Phrase and Broad act the same, blocking any search with “free” in it. An Exact match negative for [free] would only block the word “free” on its own.
Negative Keyword Placement (Account, Campaign, or Ad Group)
A negative keyword can live in a few different places, depending on your need.
- Account level is for keywords that do not fit your business.
- Campaign level is for keywords that don’t belong in one campaign but may belong in another.
- Ad group level is for specific filtering. For example, say you have a client with a fitness center, and you’re targeting “gym” in one ad group and “fitness center” in another. If the matching is Phrase or Broad, both of those ad groups could compete, since Google may see the terms as synonyms. Adding
fitnessas a negative in the Gym ad group, andgymas a negative in the Fitness Center ad group, keeps the targeting tidy and where you expect. Because negatives are literal, “gyms” would need its own entry too.
Generally, starting at the narrowest part of the structure (the ad group) is best. It allows you to test for unintended blocks and see how negatives are impacting volume.
Negatives Do Not Have Metrics
You do not bid on negative keywords, and they do not have a Quality Score. You also won’t see impressions or clicks. They simply block your ads from entering the auction. Their value comes from keeping your ads from showing up in places they shouldn’t.
Negatives Can Block Your Targets
Be mindful of how you’re building out your negative lists and how they can impact your targets. If “shoes” is a negative keyword and you’re bidding on “running shoes,” the negative keyword will block your ad from showing.
Getting into a good cadence of auditing your targeted keywords along with your negative keywords will help make sure you’re showing up when you want to.
How to Find Negatives
- Open the search terms report and read the queries that triggered your ads.
- Look for words that point to a different intent: “jobs,” “DIY,” “definition,” “reviews,” or a competitor’s name you don’t want to bid against.
- Add them at the lowest level that makes sense, and pick the match type on purpose.
- Add the variants, such as plurals and common misspellings.
- Return to the report every few weeks, since search behavior shifts over time.
Think of negative keywords as a filter and make them a part of your initial build as well as a part of your maintenance routine.