What is the difference between campaign level and ad group level negatives?

Short Answer: Campaign level negatives exclude your ads from certain search terms across all ad groups in an entire campaign, while ad group level negatives only exclude your ads for specific search terms within a single ad group.

Full Explanation

Campaign level negatives are keywords or search terms that you want to exclude from triggering your ads throughout the whole campaign. This means that none of the ads in any ad group inside that campaign will show when those specific negative terms are searched. On the other hand, ad group level negatives work on a smaller scale—they exclude search terms only within a specific ad group, affecting just the ads contained inside that particular group.

Step-by-Step Breakdown

Campaign Level Negatives: Applied once at the campaign setting, impacting every ad group within it uniformly.
Ad Group Level Negatives: Applied within an individual ad group, affecting only ads in that group.
Result: Campaign negatives provide broader exclusion, while ad group negatives offer targeted control.

Real Examples

Although we won’t introduce new examples, imagine if you add a negative keyword at the campaign level: your ads will never show for that term regardless of the ad group. Conversely, if you add the negative keyword at the ad group level, only the ads in that ad group are prevented from showing for the term, while other ad groups’ ads may still appear.

Common Mistakes

Incorrectly adding a negative keyword at the campaign level when the intention was to limit it to a single ad group.
Failing to add necessary negatives at the campaign level, causing ads to show in unwanted contexts across multiple ad groups.

FAQs

Can campaign level negatives be overridden by ad group level settings?: No. Campaign level negatives apply to the whole campaign and cannot be overridden by ad group settings.
Do ad group negatives affect other ad groups?: No. Ad group negatives only apply within the specific ad group they are added to.

Key Takeaways

Campaign level negatives exclude search terms across all ad groups within a campaign.
Ad group level negatives exclude search terms only within a particular ad group.
Choosing the right level for negatives allows for more precise control over where your ads appear.