Google Ads negative keywords: stop paying for wrong clicks

A negative keyword is a word or phrase you add to Google Ads so your ads don’t show when someone searches for it. A plumber who adds “plumbing jobs” stops paying for job seekers, and you find negatives like it in the search terms report, which shows the real searches that triggered your ads.

What are negative keywords in Google Ads

In Google’s words, negative keywords “let you exclude search terms from your campaigns”. They work alongside your normal keywords, which choose the searches you want to appear for. Google’s own example in its guide to negative keywords is an optician who adds “wine glasses” to stop paying for people shopping for glassware.

Because broad match reaches related searches, it is where negatives do most of the work. Broad match is the default for normal keywords, and Google’s keyword matching guide says broad match ads may show on searches related to your keyword, “which can include searches that don’t contain the direct meaning of your keywords”. Google also said in May 2023 that 15% of the queries it gets each day are ones it has never seen before. New searches turn up all the time, which is why the search terms report needs regular checks.

A search term and a keyword are different things. The search terms report guide defines a search term as what a person types into Google, and a keyword as what you add to an ad group to target them.

How do negative keyword match types work

Negative keywords come in broad, phrase and exact match, and each blocks a different set of searches. They work differently from normal keywords: they don’t match close variants such as plurals.

• Negative broad match is the default. It blocks a search that contains all your words, in any order.
• Negative phrase match blocks a search that contains your words in the same order, with or without extra words. Type it in quotation marks: “plumbing course”.
• Negative exact match blocks only that exact search, with no extra words. Type it in square brackets: [plumbing course].

Here is how each would treat the negative keyword plumbing course, applying the rules from Google’s help page:

Search	Broad	Phrase	Exact
plumbing course	Blocked	Blocked	Blocked
plumbing course leeds	Blocked	Blocked	Can show
course in plumbing	Blocked	Can show	Can show
plumbing courses	Can show	Can show	Can show
emergency plumbing	Can show	Can show	Can show

A negative on plumbing course does not block plumbing courses, because negatives don’t match plurals. Google says you need to add singular and plural versions, and synonyms, yourself. Add both “course” and “courses” if you want both gone.

You don’t need to add capitals or misspellings separately: Google says negatives “automatically account for casing and misspellings”.

Google’s negative keywords guide notes one limit: if a search is longer than 16 words and your negative comes after the 16th word, the ad can still show.

How do I find negative keywords in the search terms report

Add negatives straight from the search terms report, which lists the real searches that triggered your ads. Google’s guide sets out the steps:

1. In Google Ads, click the Campaigns icon.
2. Open the Insights and reports drop-down and click Search terms.
3. Tick the searches you never want to pay for again.
4. Click Add as negative keyword.
5. Choose where it goes: the ad group, the campaign, or a negative keyword list. Click Save.

Watch the match type before you save. In Search campaigns, Google adds negatives from this report as exact match by default. If you tick “plumber jobs leeds”, you only block that exact search, and “plumber jobs bradford” carries on costing you money. Edit the entry to the part that is actually wrong, here “plumber jobs” in quotation marks, which makes it phrase match and blocks it with any town on the end.

When reading the report, sort by cost and look for words that reveal a different intent: jobs, salary, course, free, DIY, how to, second hand, or a service you don’t offer. Some of these, such as jobs, free and how to, can also appear in buyers’ searches.

The report does not show everything. Google says some search terms without enough query activity are left out to protect privacy, so it is not a complete list of every search.

Where should I add negative keywords

Add a negative at the widest level where it is always wrong. Google Ads gives you four places:

• Ad group: blocks the search for that ad group only.
• Campaign: blocks it for one campaign.
• Negative keyword list: a named list you apply to several campaigns at once. You can have up to 20 lists of up to 5,000 negatives each.
• Account level: one list of up to 1,000 negatives that applies to the search and shopping inventory of Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns. Find it under Admin, then Account settings, then Negative keywords.

A list such as “Not customers” is built once and then applied to every campaign that needs it. For a plumber it might hold salary, vacancies, course, courses, apprenticeship and apprenticeships as broad negatives, and “plumber jobs” and “plumbing jobs” as phrase negatives. A broad “jobs” would also block “plumber for small jobs”, which is a customer.

What are good negative keyword examples

Good negatives name what you don’t sell or who isn’t a customer: job seekers, students, bargain hunters, or people after a service you don’t offer. No list works for everyone, so check these candidates against your own search terms report:

Business	Search that wastes money	Negative to add	Match type
Plumber in Leeds	plumber apprenticeship leeds	apprenticeship	Broad
Private dentist in Manchester	nhs dentist manchester	nhs	Broad
Family solicitor in Bristol	free legal aid divorce	legal aid	Phrase
Café in Brighton	brighton café for sale	for sale	Phrase
Estate agent in Reading	estate agent salary reading	salary	Broad
Online leather wallet shop	leather wallet pattern pdf	pdf	Broad
Driving school in Norwich	driving instructor jobs norwich	jobs	Broad

Each choice needs a second look before you add it. The dentist only adds “nhs” if they take no NHS patients. The solicitor uses phrase match, so a search is only blocked when “legal aid” appears together, in that order. The driving school can use a broad “jobs” because, unlike a plumber, its customers don’t search for “small jobs”. And the wallet shop should not add “free” as a broad negative, because that would block “leather wallet free delivery”, which is someone ready to buy.

How do I reduce wasted spend with negative keywords

Sort your search terms report by cost, find the searches that were never going to become customers, and block the word that makes them wrong rather than one search at a time. Say a plumber in Leeds spends £600 a month on Google Ads, with broad match keywords such as plumber leeds and emergency plumber. The figures below are made up to show how to read the report.

Sorting the last 30 days of search terms by cost shows:

• plumber jobs leeds, plumbing jobs near me, plumbing vacancies leeds: 22 clicks, £48
• plumbing course leeds, plumbing apprenticeship: 14 clicks, £31
• how to fix a dripping tap, how to fix a toilet that keeps running: 9 clicks, £17
• bathroom fitter leeds: 11 clicks, £29 (they don’t fit bathrooms)

That is £125 of the £600, about 21%, spent on people who were never going to book.

The fixes:

1. Build a “Not customers” list (salary, vacancies, course, courses, apprenticeship and apprenticeships as broad, “plumber jobs” and “plumbing jobs” as phrase) and apply it to every campaign.
2. Add “how to fix” as a phrase negative rather than a broad “how to”. A broad “how to” would also block “how to find an emergency plumber in leeds”, which is a customer.
3. Add “bathroom fitter” and “bathroom fitters” as phrase negatives to the campaign.
4. Check the keywords tab and make sure no negative overlaps plumber or emergency (an overlapping negative stops your own ad showing).

Next month, that £125 can go towards searches such as emergency plumber leeds instead.

What are common negative keyword mistakes

The common mistakes are a negative that overlaps your own keywords, too many negatives, expecting Display and Video campaigns to treat negatives the way Search does, and symbols that Google reads differently.

A negative that overlaps one of your normal keywords stops your ad showing, according to Google’s guide to adding negatives. Check new negatives against your keyword list before saving.

Google also warns that if you use too many negative keywords, your ads might reach fewer customers. A week after adding a batch, check impressions and clicks on your main keywords, and remove any negative that is blocking searches you want.

On Display and Video, Google treats every negative as broad match, and ads may still occasionally appear on pages containing the excluded terms. Google says site category options and content exclusions are the best ways to keep those ads off unrelated sites and videos.

Google also treats some symbols as different words. Its guide says “socks & shoes” and “socks and shoes” are different negatives.

What to do next

Open your search terms report, set the date range to the last 30 days and sort by cost. Anything you would not pay for again goes in as a negative, in your “Not customers” list or the campaign. Repeat every month, or every week while a campaign is new.

Reading the search terms report every week is part of our Google Ads service.

If you would rather have someone look first, Padon’s free check compares your business with its competition nearby and emails you a short report within two working days.