Skip to content
GetProfit
Log in

← All terms

Negative keywords

Negative keywords are words and phrases you add in Google Ads so that your ads don't show for searches that contain them.

How it works

Negative keywords have match types too, but Google applies them more literally:

  • broad, the default, paper plates: blocks searches that contain all its words, in any order;
  • phrase, "paper plates": blocks searches that contain these words in this order;
  • exact, [paper plates]: blocks only that search.

A negative also blocks misspellings, but not synonyms or the singular and plural: you add those separately.

You can add negatives to an ad group, a campaign, a shared list (up to 20 per account, 5,000 negatives each) or the single account-level list. A Performance Max campaign accepts keywords only as negatives, up to 10,000. Our guide to negative keywords in Performance Max covers which level to use there.

Candidates for negatives come from the search terms report. A separate guide covers finding negative keywords for Shopping and PMax without cutting off future sales.

Where you see it

The portal’s change feed lists added negative keywords and who added them. A single negative shows with its match type; a batch shows as a count.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop’s cost per conversion is 133 (40,000 ÷ 300 orders). The search term “paper plates” spent 420 this month, 3.2 times the cost per conversion, and brought no conversions.

The shop adds the phrase negative "paper plates". Ads stop showing for “cheap paper plates” but not for “paper plate” until the shop adds the singular. An exact negative would block only “paper plates”.

How GetProfit reads it

In GetProfit’s methodology, a search term with no conversions becomes a candidate for an exact match negative once it has spent over twice the cost per conversion. Past three times, it becomes a candidate for a phrase match negative. At 3.2 times, “paper plates” fits the phrase negative.

Not to be confused with

  • Brand exclusions — lists of brands rather than words; according to Google, they also catch most misspellings of a brand.
  • Placement exclusions — exclude websites, apps and videos, not searches.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “A negative in one campaign keeps the search out of the account.” Right: it works only in that campaign. To block the search across the account, attach a list to every campaign or use the account-level list.

Sources