A PPC manager shared a lesson from their first big beauty account on Reddit. They had just built out their first major campaign structure and created an ad group for the “shampoo” category. Negative keywords were in place, and everything looked solid.

What they didn’t realize?

That there are shampoos for dogs and cats.

So, their ads for human haircare were showing up for searches related to pet shampoo. It was a simple oversight, but an expensive one.

At first glance, the fix seems obvious: block the irrelevant searches and protect your budget, right?

But as Google Ads has evolved, so has the way negative keywords actually impact your campaigns.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about building a negative keyword strategy that eliminates waste without limiting your growth.

What are negative keywords?

Negative keywords are search terms that prevent your ads from appearing in Google search results. When you add them to your campaigns, you tell Google not to show your ads when people include those words in their searches.

How do negative keywords differ from regular keywords?

Regular keywords help your ads reach people. Negative keywords keep them out.

Suppose you add “luxury handbags” as a regular keyword. Your ad shows up for people searching for that. But if you add “DIY” as a negative, you won’t show for “DIY luxury handbags.”

Regular keywords work on a targeting system. You pick terms that match what you sell. Negative keywords work on an exclusion system. You pick terms that don’t match what you offer.

Both types work together. Your regular keywords cast a wide net to catch relevant searches. Your negative keywords tighten that net to filter out waste. Without negative keywords, you may end up showing up in places you never intended.

Why negative keywords matter for campaign performance

Every click costs you. When someone searches for “cheap designer dresses” and clicks your ad for a $900 designer gown, you just paid for a shopper who was never going to convert. Negative keywords stop these bad clicks before they happen.

Here’s how negative keywords help protect your key metrics:

• Lower cost-per-click: You’re not fighting for spots in auctions you don’t want
• Higher click-through rates: Only people who actually care see your ads
• Better Quality Score: Google likes relevance, so you get rewarded with lower costs
• More conversions: Because your traffic is actually in the market for what you offer

Without negative keywords, you’re paying to advertise to the wrong people. Think of a high-end electronics store forgetting to block “refurbished.” They’d end up getting a flood of bargain hunters, not buyers.

This was echoed by PPC professionals in a recent poll conducted by Optmyzr CEO Frederick Vallaeys, which showed that 77% believed removing all negative keywords from a Google Ads account would worsen performance.

However, it’s worth noting that the impact of negative keywords isn’t always straightforward. A 2024 study by Optmyzr analyzing over 7,000 Performance Max campaigns found that campaigns using account-level exclusions had a median CPA of $21.45 and ROAS of 425.28%, compared to campaigns without exclusions, showing a median CPA of $18.55 and ROAS of 423.44%—a 0.24% difference in conversion rate.

This suggests that how you apply negative keywords matters just as much as whether you use them at all. And this starts with understanding the basics of how negative keywords work.

How do negative keywords work in Google Ads?

When someone searches on Google, the system checks their query against both your positive and negative keywords. If the search matches a negative keyword, your ad gets blocked before it enters the auction. This all happens in milliseconds, and you won’t pay anything because your ad never gets considered for that search.

Where negative keywords can be applied (account, campaign, ad group levels)

You can set negative keywords at three levels in Google Ads, and each one changes how broadly your exclusions work.

• Account-level negatives

Account-level negative keywords affect every campaign in your entire account. These keywords indicate search intents that are irrelevant to your entire business. It could be job searches, mistaken searches, location searches, brand-specific searches, etc. Building a list of account-wide negatives will save you a lot of time and money.

But here’s a critical warning: don’t overdo it. As PPC expert Andrew Lolk points out, “We just see people are just overusing negative keywords,” and in many cases, “you’re much more likely to make a mistake and exclude things too broadly.” As your product lines evolve and match types expand, overly aggressive account-level negatives can quietly block valuable traffic you didn’t intend to exclude.

• Campaign-level negatives

Campaign-level negative keywords only affect ad groups within a specific campaign. You might use these when different campaigns target different audiences or goals. For example, one campaign might exclude “sports shoes” from campaigns with running shoes, while another might keep it.

• Ad group-level negatives

Ad group-level negative keywords give you the most precise control. They only block terms in one ad group. This helps when you have tightly themed ad groups and need to prevent overlap.

What are the different negative keyword match types?

Google Ads offers three negative keyword match types that control how strictly your ads are filtered from searches. Each type blocks searches differently, so understanding when to use broad, phrase, or exact match affects how much irrelevant traffic you filter out.

Negative broad match

Broad match negatives block your ad if the search includes all your negative keyword terms, regardless of their order. This is the default if you don’t use any special formatting.

Let’s say you add “organic snacks” as a negative broad match. Your ad won’t show for “cheap organic snacks” or “snacks organic for kids.” But if someone searches “organic healthy bars,” you might still show up because “snacks” isn’t in the search.

Broad match negative keyword: organic snacks

Broad match works well when you want to cast a wide net and filter out clearly irrelevant searches. It saves time because you don’t need to add every possible variation of unwanted terms.

The downside is that broad match can sometimes let through searches you’d prefer to block. If a search query breaks up your negative keyword terms with enough other words, your ad might still appear. You need to review your search terms report regularly to catch these gaps.

PPC expert Navah Hopkins points out that negative keywords do not account for close variants. For instance, if you add ‘cheap’ as a broad match negative keyword to prevent your luxury hotel ads from showing for budget-related searches, it will block queries containing ‘cheap’ but may still allow variations like ‘affordable luxury hotel’ to trigger your ads. Understanding these nuances is crucial for effective ad targeting.

Negative phrase match

Negative phrase match requires the exact phrase to appear in that specific order, though additional words before or after are allowed. You need to indicate phrase match by putting quotation marks around your negative keyword, like “organic snacks.”

If you add “organic snacks” as a negative phrase match, your ad won’t show for “buy organic snacks” or “organic snacks for toddlers.” But “snacks organic and gluten-free” could still slip by.

Phrase match negative keyword: “organic snacks”

This match type gives you more control than a broad match while still filtering a reasonable amount of traffic. Use it when word order matters or when broad match blocks too many searches you actually want.

In fact, if you’re in an industry where the brand names can burn through cost with zero conversions, phrase match negatives are usually more effective than exact match negatives when excluding competitor brand searches..

A Reddit user explained this well, “The brand name issue is especially brutal in B2B software, where Google thinks “QuickBooks” and “business accounting software” are interchangeable. I’ve found that adding brand exclusions as phrase match negatives works better than exact match negatives for catching those variations… also helps to exclude common software suffixes like “app”, “platform”, “tool” as phrase negatives.”

However, be careful when excluding generic suffixes like ‘app’ or ‘tool’ as these can sometimes block legitimate searches.

Negative exact match

Negative exact match only blocks searches that contain the exact keyword terms in the exact order, with no additional words. You indicate an exact match by putting brackets around your negative keyword, like [organic snacks].

Add [organic snacks] as a negative exact match, and your ad is blocked only for the search “organic snacks.” If someone searches “best organic snacks” or “organic snacks online,” your ads will still be displayed.

Exact match negative keyword: [organic snacks]

Exact match negatives are rarely used for broad filtering because they’re very narrow. You’d need to add hundreds of variations to block all the searches you don’t want.

But sometimes you just want to block one specific search, nothing else. Exact match makes sense when you want to block one specific query and allow close variations. That’s when using an exact match makes sense.

How to choose the right negative keyword match type

The following table gives you an idea of how each of the match types functions for the keyword “discount gadgets.”

Switch to a negative phrase match when you notice a broad match is blocking searches you actually want. This happens when your negative keywords contain common words that appear in relevant searches.

Use exact match when you want to block one specific query without affecting related variations.

How to find negative keywords for your campaigns

Finding negative keywords requires reviewing actual search data, studying your industry, and using specialized tools. Each method reveals different types of irrelevant searches that drain your budget.

Use the Google Ads search terms report

The search terms report shows you the exact queries people typed before clicking your ads. You’ll find it under the “Insights and reports” -> “Search terms.”

Start by sorting the report by cost or impressions. Look for queries that spent money but generated no conversions.

You can also filter by conversion rate to find queries with high clicks but low performance. For instance, if a search term got 50 clicks and zero conversions, it’s better to investigate whether it’s relevant.

Pay attention to close variants of your keywords. Someone searching for “used shoes” when you only sell new shoes is a perfect negative keyword candidate. The same goes for wrong product types, competitor names, or locations you don’t serve.

PPC expert Adam Gorecki from Intigress offers practical advice: “If you don’t have time to review everything, start with the search terms getting the most impressions—then move on to the ones costing you the most.” In other words, prioritize by impact. Ignore the one-off impressions and go after what’s driving cost and volume.

Analyze competitor and industry research

Your industry already has common negative keywords that most advertisers block. Research what searches typically waste budget in your space before you spend money learning the hard way.

One way is to search for your top keywords and see which companies appear in the ads. If you spot ads from businesses that clearly aren’t in your lane, that’s a sign those search terms are pulling in the wrong crowd. Jot down those terms for your negative keyword list.

Customer support tickets and sales call transcripts show you what confused prospects search for. If people frequently contact you, thinking you offer services you don’t, add those terms as negatives.

Build a list of common low-intent modifiers relevant to your business (e.g., ‘salary,’ ‘training,’ ‘course’), and location-specific terms outside your service area and test whether they generate qualified traffic before excluding them account-wide.

Leverage Optmyzr’s negative keyword tools

Manually finding keywords and going through the Google Ads Search Terms report one by one is possible when you’re dealing with a small product list or campaigns. But for agencies juggling multiple client accounts, manually hunting for negative keywords isn’t realistic.

Instead, you can use Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder to automatically scan search term reports across your entire Google Ads MCC and flag wasteful queries based on performance thresholds you set.

Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder automatically scans your search terms data and flags potential negatives based on performance thresholds. The tool groups similar queries together so you can spot patterns faster than manually reviewing thousands of search terms.

You can then add those keywords to your account or campaign in bulk, and also to your shared negative keyword list.

Traffic Sculptor takes this further by automating negative keyword discovery across multiple campaigns. It flags queries being matched to less relevant keywords (often due to broad or phrase match) and recommends exact match negative keywords at the ad group level to route searches to the right ads.

Both tools work across campaign types, including Performance Max campaigns, where negative keyword management is more limited. They help you maintain consistent negative keyword lists without spending hours in spreadsheets each week.

How to add negative keywords in Google Ads: A step-by-step guide

You can add negative keywords at different levels in your Google Ads account, and each option gives you different control over where your ads won’t show. The method you choose depends on whether you want to block terms across your entire account, within specific campaigns, or just certain ad groups.

Add negative keywords at the account level

• Click Admin -> “Account settings” on your Google Ads account.
• Click to expand the “Negative keywords” section.
• Click the plus button and enter your negative keywords with one word or phrase per line. And click “Save.”
• To change the match type for the negative keyword, click the dropdown in the “Match type” column and choose from broad, phrase, or exact match types.

Account-level negatives automatically apply to all search and shopping inventory across relevant campaign types. You can add up to 1,000 negative keywords at this level. This is the fastest way to block irrelevant terms across your entire account without manually updating each campaign.

Display campaigns rely more on placement and content exclusions rather than keyword-based negatives.

Add negative keywords at the campaign and ad group level

To edit negative keywords for a specific campaign or ad group:

• Go to “Audiences, keywords, and content” -> “Keywords.”
• Then choose the “Negative keywords” tab.
• Click the plus button to add new terms.
• Type or paste your negative keywords into the box. (Remember that each keyword should be on its own line.)
• Choose your match type from the dropdown menu.
• Click “Save” when you’re done.
• Similarly, to add negative keywords to an ad group, select the ad group, click “Keywords” under “Audiences, keywords, and content,” and follow the same steps.

When adding negative keywords to a search campaign, you can choose the match type using specific symbols. For Display and Video campaigns, all negative keywords will be broad match, and the match type cannot be changed.

Create and manage shared negative keyword lists

To create a new negative keyword list:

• Click the Tools icon on your Google Ads account.
• Click the “Shared library” dropdown, then “Exclusion lists.”
• Go to the “Negative keyword lists” tab and click the plus button.
• Name your list something specific and add your negative keywords.

You can create a maximum of 20 negative keyword lists per account, with up to 5,000 negative keywords in each list.

To add a negative keyword list to multiple campaigns:

• Select the negative keyword list you’d like to add and click “Apply to campaigns.”
• Check the boxes for the campaigns you’d like to apply the list to.
• Click “Done.”

You can use a single negative keyword list for up to 1,000 campaigns at a time in Google Ads.

To remove the negative keyword list from multiple campaigns, you can check the campaigns that you want the list to be removed from, and choose “Remove list from selected campaigns.”

Shared lists save time because you can apply them to multiple campaigns simultaneously. When you update the list later, the changes apply automatically everywhere, making it ideal for managing recurring negative keyword patterns across multiple campaigns.

How to add negative keywords quickly with Optmyzr

While Google Ads provides basic negative keyword management, Optmyzr streamlines the entire process with automated analysis and bulk application features that save significant time, especially when managing multiple accounts or campaigns.

Use the Negative Keyword Finder tool to find grouped search terms quickly

The Negative Keyword Finder tool automatically analyzes your search terms report from the last 90 days and lists the ones that haven’t converted. It breaks down queries into individual words and aggregates performance data for each term.

You’ll see suggestions displayed with individual words, along with the complete search queries containing those words. Each suggestion shows impressions, clicks, CTR, cost, average CPC, and conversions.

Here’s how you can use the Negative Keyword Finder to find and add negative keywords quickly:

• Select the suggestions you want to add as negative keywords. You can add either individual words or complete search queries—or both.
• Click each suggestion to choose your match type (phrase match is the default; you can change it to broad or exact).
• Use the bulk selection feature to change match types for multiple keywords at once.
• Once you’ve reviewed your selections, click “Review and Upload.”
• Choose whether to add them to an existing shared negative list, create a new shared negative list, or add them as account-level negatives. (If creating a new list, name it and select which campaigns to apply it to.)

This way, you can add negative keywords at the account or campaign level.

Use Traffic Sculptor to refine ad group targeting

Traffic Sculptor optimizes how search queries flow between ad groups within a single campaign by eliminating internal competition.

Let’s say you sell shoes and have two ad groups: one targeting “women’s shoes” and another targeting “women’s running shoes.” When someone searches for “women’s running shoes,” both ad groups might show ads, but the “women’s running shoes” ad group has more specific, relevant ads that perform better.

Traffic Sculptor automatically finds these situations where the same search triggers multiple ad groups in your campaign and tells you which ad group is winning. It then recommends adding that search term as a negative keyword to the lesser-relevant ad group so only your best, most relevant ad shows.

To find such negative keywords on Traffic Sculptor:

• Navigate to the Manage & Optimize -> Search Queries & Keywords -> Traffic Sculptor.
• You can choose a campaign based on conditions like campaign type, bid strategy, Google Ads labels, and Optmyzr labels.
• Once you have chosen your campaign, choose a filtering preference: “Conservative” for keywords with at least 10 impressions, “Default” for at least 5 impressions, or “Aggressive” to see all suggestions regardless of volume.
• Select the suggestions you want to implement and click “Add Negative Keywords” to add them as exact match negatives at the ad group level.

This prevents the less relevant ad group from showing ads for those queries while allowing the more relevant ad group to capture that traffic.

Traffic Sculptor works particularly well for Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns where you want to prevent them from capturing traffic that should go to your keyword-based campaigns. The tool shows search terms triggering your DSA ads, and when you have more relevant keyword campaigns, those should handle those queries instead.

Use Sidekick to chat and surface missed opportunities

With Optmyzr Sidekick, you can surface negative keyword opportunities with a simple question. For example, you can request: “Find search terms from the last 6 months with 50+ impressions and zero conversions, or 5+ clicks, $20+ spend, and zero conversions. Exclude brand terms.”

Sidekick runs those rules and returns suggested search terms grouped by campaign.

Each suggestion includes supporting metrics (impressions, clicks, conversions, cost) and a short justification, along with a recommended scope (campaign-level or account-level). The results are organized clearly so you can see where waste is concentrated without manually filtering reports.

Sidekick does not apply changes automatically. Instead, it provides a preview link so you can review, adjust the scope if needed, and then decide whether to apply the negatives. This keeps the workflow conversational while still giving you control.

Advanced negative keyword tactics

Most advertisers treat negative keywords like a one-time setup task, but strategic use requires ongoing analysis and structural thinking. The tactics below focus on data patterns, campaign architecture, and timing rather than simple keyword blocking.

Use N-gram analysis to find hidden patterns

N-gram analysis breaks down your search terms into single words, two-word phrases, and three-word phrases. You then review performance metrics for each fragment rather than for full search queries.

This method reveals patterns you’d miss by looking at complete search terms. For example, instead of analyzing “affordable lawyer near me” and “affordable legal help” separately, n-gram analysis shows you the combined performance of every search containing “affordable.”

PPC expert Bob Meijer from The PPC Edge uses this exact approach when auditing exclusion lists. In a recent newsletter, he shared how he used Claude to perform n-gram matching to cross-check the conversion of search terms against exclusion lists. This helped him identify negatives that were accidentally blocking valuable traffic.

You can use the Search Term N-Grams tool on Optmyzr to show you a visual word cloud of your search term patterns and quickly add negative keywords to your account and campaigns directly.

Here’s how you can find negative keywords and add them instantly:

• Navigate to the Manage & Optimize -> Search Queries & Keywords -> Search Term N-Grams tool to open the tool on Optmyzr.
• Select your metric under “Pick Search Terms By” (impressions, clicks, or conversions work best for finding negative keywords).
• Choose “Color Code Search Terms By” to visually identify high or low performers—darker colors indicate higher values for your selected metric.
• Select your N-Gram size: choose 1-Gram for individual words like “free,” 2-Grams for phrases like “free shipping,” or up to 6-Grams for longer phrases.
• Review the word cloud, where larger text indicates higher volumes, and the list below.
• You can directly click the word and click “Add as a Negative Keyword” to select the match type and add it as a campaign or account-level negative and to a shared list.
• You can also bulk-select from the list below to add as negative keywords in a single action.

If you want to dig deep, you can also click on “Count” in the table to see all the exact search queries containing that term, along with their individual performance metrics.

This approach removes guesswork because you’re making decisions based on aggregated data rather than individual search terms that might not have enough traffic to be statistically significant.

Segment campaigns with negative keywords for better control

Segmenting campaigns with negatives keeps them from competing against each other. You can split by intent, product line, or funnel stage, then use negative targeting to ensure each campaign gets the right traffic.

PPC strategist Josiah Daves emphasizes the importance of logical keyword segmentation in his LinkedIn post about negative keyword strategy. He recommends a systematic approach to “apply every keyword as an exact match negative to every other ad group” to prevent crossover between ad groups.

For example, if you run separate campaigns for your own brand versus generic terms, add your brand as a negative in the generic campaign. That way, brand searches never slip through and mess up your data or budgets.

The same goes for product categories. Say you sell headphones and speakers in different campaigns, you can add “speakers” as a negative in the headphone campaign, and vice versa. This stops the campaigns from triggering ads for each other’s products.

The key is planning your negative keyword lists before launching campaigns. Without proper segmentation, your campaigns cannibalize each other’s traffic and can muddy your performance data.

Adjust negative keywords based on seasonality

Your negative keyword strategy should change with your business calendar. Terms that waste budget during slow periods might convert well during peak season.

During the PPC Town Hall discussion, Andrew Lolk shared an important perspective on how you can combine negative keywords with Smart Bidding to handle seasonal variations. He explained, “If we’re selling swimwear, a keyword like ‘swim trunks with legs inside’ might not perform well in September but could be great in May and June.”

His point highlights why negative keywords should be a dynamic tool rather than a permanent block. As he explains, negatives are “a black-and-white, on-or-off switch, while smart bidding should have the flexibility to adjust bids for a search term or product based on device, audience targeting, and seasonality.”

And this makes sense. Consider a tax preparation service. During tax season:

• You exclude terms like “free tax software,” “DIY tax filing,” and “cheap tax prep” because you’re at capacity and focused on high-value clients.
• You have limited bandwidth, so blocking low-intent traffic protects your budget for ready-to-buy searches.

But during the off-season, you have more availability to nurture the leads and build your pipeline. Here’s what you can do:

• Remove those same negatives and let Smart Bidding do its work, which means the algorithm can bid lower on “free tax software” searches to capture budget-conscious leads at a profitable cost.
• These users might convert to tax planning services, bookkeeping, or be nurtured for next year’s tax prep.
• Terms like “DIY tax filing” could capture people who tried doing it themselves, got frustrated, and are researching options for next year.
• Smart Bidding adjusts bids based on conversion likelihood, so you’re not overpaying. You’re just staying visible when you have the time and capacity to work on longer-term leads.

Rather than permanently blocking terms that seem low-intent, use negatives during high-demand periods when your capacity is limited, then remove them during slower periods, letting Smart Bidding find profitable opportunities at lower costs. The algorithm can identify which of those searches are worth a $2 bid versus a $20 bid based on historical conversion data, user signals, and seasonality patterns.

Map out your busy and slow periods on a calendar and build shared negative keyword lists for each season. Set reminders to review and swap them out as your business cycles change. This systematic approach ensures you’re not leaving money on the table during high-opportunity periods or wasting budget during slower times.

Use Google Alerts to exclude irrelevant keywords based on current events

Nicholas Woodward from Pack and Send says, “Major events, shocking news, and viral content can disrupt a search campaign like an earthquake. Take preemptive measures to ensure that current events or a sudden rise in related searches do not affect your campaign.”

A Reddit user running a campaign for a local carpentry business discovered this the hard way when “carpenter please please please” showed up as a search query. It turns out people were searching for Sabrina Carpenter’s song “Please Please Please” and the old band The Carpenters, not custom decks and pergolas. They quickly added songs, lyrics, bands, and music-related terms to their negative keywords to stop bleeding budget on music fans.

As your campaign targets specific terms, viral moments or trending topics can hijack your traffic. Negative keywords help you exclude all the noise and focus on real buyers.

You can set up Google Alerts for your main keywords combined with trending topics. When something goes viral that overlaps with your terms, add those variations to your negative keywords immediately before your budget disappears into irrelevant clicks.

4 common negative keyword mistakes and how to avoid them

Most folks add negative keywords to cut wasted spend, but it’s surprisingly easy to go too far or use the wrong match types. So here are some of the biggest mistakes you need to watch out for.

Mistake #1: Over-blocking traffic with too many negatives

It’s tempting just to keep adding negatives, but you can end up shrinking your reach so much that you barely show up at all. If your impressions suddenly tank or your search terms report looks suspiciously empty, you might be blocking too much.

Give your negative keyword lists a monthly checkup. Look for terms that might be blocking good searches.

Here are signs that you’re over-blocking:

• Impressions dropped, but your bids stayed the same
• Very few search queries are showing in reports
• Your top keywords have low search volume

What to do instead?

Give your negative keyword lists a monthly checkup. Review your search terms report to see what’s actually getting through. Remove negatives one at a time and monitor your traffic over the next week, starting with the ones closest to your core products or services.

If you’re inheriting an account, audit the negative keyword lists before running any campaigns.

Mistake #2: Using the wrong negative keyword match types

It’s easy to add negative keywords to broad matches without considering what else they’ll block.

If you add “shoes” as a broad match negative, Google blocks every search result that contains the word “shoes”. That means “leather shoes,” “dress shoes,” and “office shoes” all get blocked, even if those searches would have been good for your business.

This mistake compounds when you’re working with Smart Bidding. The algorithm needs room to test different variations and contexts, but overly broad negative match types create hard stops that prevent optimization.

What to do instead?

Start with exact match negatives as your default, then expand only to phrase or broad match if the data proves it’s necessary.

Before adding any negative as a broad match, search your own search terms report for variations of that word to see what you’d be blocking. For example, if you want to block “cheap,” first search your report for all terms containing “cheap.” You might find “cheap” + premium product names that actually convert well.

Force yourself to justify why each negative needs a broader match type. This extra step prevents over-blocking mistakes.

Mistake #3: Failing to update negative keyword lists regularly

Your negative keyword lists need regular updates because search behavior changes and new junk traffic appears over time. Old lists miss new irrelevant searches and might still block terms that are now relevant to your business.

Andrew Lolk shared a powerful case study during the PPC Town Hall about the dangers of outdated negative keyword strategies. He described taking over an account where “the previous agents had overly focused on negative keywords and tried to enforce strict control. Every keyword they added as a normal keyword in the account was also added as a negative in the dynamic search ads campaign.”

The result of removing these over-aggressive negatives? “We saw an increase in CPC. That’s fine. But we also saw a 6x or 5.5x increase in revenue simply by doing that,” Andrew remarked.

What to do instead?

Build a two-list system:

• Evergreen negatives (competitor names, job searches, and completely irrelevant categories) that you can review annually
• Seasonal negatives (terms that don’t work during certain periods) that you swap in and out based on your business calendar.

Set specific calendar reminders to activate/deactivate seasonal lists. For example, a tax prep service might block “free tax software” during peak season when at capacity, then remove it during off-season to let Smart Bidding capture budget-conscious leads at lower bids.

Mistake #4: Adding “proactive” negative keywords without statistical significance

One of the most damaging practices combines two errors: adding what Andrew Lolk calls “proactive negative keywords” before you have sufficient data to make an informed decision.

As Andrew explained in a recent YouTube video, “You add them (negative keywords) based on your gut feeling or one bad week or nine clicks and no conversions, and the result is that you’re cutting out search terms that might have just needed a lower bid or a different season to perform or simply just needed more time.”

This is important, especially when you use Smart Bidding, since it doesn’t bid the same amount for every search. As Andrew puts it, “A search term might be profitable on desktop but not on mobile. Smart Bidding adjusts for that. A search term might lose money at a $1 cost per click, but it will perform excellently at 25 cents. Again, Smart Bidding handles that nuance. In shopping campaigns, a search term could be unprofitable for one product, but great for another. You can’t segment for that, but Smart Bidding can.”

When Andrew analyzed accounts using click-bucket methodology, he found that accounts had $136,000 in spend on low-ROAS search terms, but “it’s all of these zero to 10 search terms. They don’t have statistically significant data, actually, to exclude anything.”

But if you exclude all terms with 0-10 clicks that look like waste, you may end up excluding high-performing terms that just haven’t been converted yet. His data-driven analysis showed that “roughly between four to 8% is the actual negative keyword or spend we can actually remove by adding negative keywords,” which is far less than most advertisers assume.

What to do instead?

Follow a data-driven framework. Don’t add negative keywords for terms with meagre clicks (insufficient data), and only make decisions when you have statistical significance (at least 20+ clicks).

You can build this analysis manually in Google Sheets by exporting search terms data and creating click buckets, or use tools like Optmyzr’s Search Term N-Grams to categorize search terms by performance and statistical significance.

How to measure the impact of negative keywords: key metrics to track before and after adding negatives

You need to track specific metrics before and after adding negative keywords to see their real effect on your campaigns. Start by recording baseline numbers for at least two weeks before making changes.

Track these key metrics:

• Wasted spend: Money spent on clicks that never convert
• Conversion rate: How many clicks turn into actual customers or leads
• Cost per conversion : The amount you spend to get one conversion
• Clicks: How often your ads get clicked

Look at your search terms report or Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder and Search Term N-Grams tool to identify which queries drove clicks but produced no conversions. This shows you where the budget leaked before adding negatives.

After adding negative keywords, watch for a rise in clicks. Your ads will stop showing for irrelevant searches, which means more clicks from people who actually want what you offer.

Your conversion rate and CPC should improve after a few weeks because you’re filtering out people with the wrong intent.

Be careful when attributing changes. If you adjust bids or ad copy at the same time, you won’t know which change caused the improvement. Make one change at a time and wait at least one to two weeks before adding another optimization. This lets you see what each change actually does to performance.

Build a sustainable negative keyword strategy

Wasting money on clicks that never convert is one of the biggest problems in Google Ads. People search for things that sound related to your business, but they’re actually looking for something completely different. When your ads show up for the wrong searches, you pay for clicks from people who will never become customers.

A sustainable negative keyword strategy needs regular maintenance and clear processes. You can’t just set it up once and forget about it.

Start by creating a master negative keyword list for all your campaigns, a few more campaign-specific lists with caveats for seasonal changes, and review your search terms report regularly.

Want to quickly find out your negative keywords and add them to your campaigns and accounts?

Try Optmyzr for free for 14 days

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I add negative keywords to my Google Ads campaign?

You can add negative keywords in three places: at the ad group level, campaign level, or account level. At the ad group level, go to your ad group settings, click on “Keywords,” then select “Negative keywords” and add your terms. For campaign-level negative keywords, navigate to your campaign settings, select “Keywords,” and choose “Negative keywords.”

You can add account-level negatives directly in Account settings, or create shared negative keyword lists and apply them to multiple campaigns. Go to “Tools,” select “Negative keyword lists,” create a new list, and add your keywords. You can then apply this list to multiple campaigns at once.

What are the best practices for using negative keywords to optimize campaign performance?

Start by reviewing your search terms report regularly to spot irrelevant queries. Add negative keywords that clearly don’t align with your business goals, such as “free,” “cheap,” or “jobs” if you’re not offering those options.

Use broad match negative keywords sparingly because they block more searches than you might expect. Phrase and exact-match negatives give you more control. Don’t go overboard in the beginning. Wait for actual search data before adding too many negatives.

Group your negative keywords into lists by theme. This makes management easier when you run multiple campaigns.

Is there a limit to the number of negative keywords I can use in my Google Ads account?

Google allows up to 10,000 negative keywords per campaign. At the account level, through shared negative keyword lists, you can have up to 20 lists with 5,000 negative keywords each.

These limits are high enough that most advertisers never hit them. If you’re getting close to these numbers, you probably need to rethink your targeting strategy instead of adding more negatives.

How frequently should I review and update my list of negative keywords?

Check your search terms report at least once a week when you first launch a campaign. New irrelevant searches usually pop up during the first few weeks as Google learns your audience.

After your campaign stabilizes, you can review it every two to four weeks. High-spend campaigns need more frequent checks than low-budget ones. Set calendar reminders so you don’t forget.

What’s the difference between broad match, phrase match, and exact match negative keywords?

Exact match negative keywords block only the exact term you specify. If you add [red shoes] as an exact match negative, your ad can still show for “red running shoes” or “buy red shoes.”

Phrase match negatives block searches that include your exact phrase in that order. Adding “red shoes” as a phrase match blocks “buy red shoes” and “red shoes sale” but not “red running shoes.”

Broad match negative keywords block all searches that contain your negative keyword terms, but they don’t block close variants like misspellings or similar phrases. If you add “free” as a broad match negative, your ad won’t show for searches with “free” in them, but it might still appear for “complimentary” or “no cost.” Google’s negative keywords don’t work the same as regular broad match keywords; they’re more restrictive and literal.

Does Google account for misspellings in negative keywords?

Yes, Google automatically accounts for misspellings and casing. In practice, if a misspelling is common or considered a close variant, Google may still serve your ad unless you manually add that specific misspelling as its own negative keyword.

Does Google account for synonyms in negative keywords?

No. Unlike regular keywords, which use AI to match your ads to synonyms and related intent, negative keywords do not match to synonyms. For instance, if you add “shoes” as a negative, your ad could still show for “sneakers,” “boots,” or “footwear”.