What is a negative keyword list and how does it work?

A negative keyword list is a collection of terms that you want to exclude from triggering your ads. By adding these terms, your ads won’t appear when users search for those specific words or phrases, helping you avoid irrelevant traffic and focus on the right audience.

Full Explanation

A negative keyword list is designed to prevent your ads from showing for certain search queries that you consider irrelevant or unproductive. When you add a term to this list, it applies across all your ad campaigns and ads, serving as a filter. You can also organize these excluded terms by saving them as a new list, making management easier and more consistent across your advertising efforts.

Step-by-Step Breakdown

Create your negative keyword list by identifying terms that might lead to irrelevant clicks.
Add these terms to your list to ensure your ads won’t show for searches containing them.
Apply the negative keyword list to all your campaigns, so it affects all your ads uniformly.
Regularly review the search terms report to see what people are searching for when your ads appear.
Add any unwanted or irrelevant terms from those reports to your negative keyword list to continually refine your ad targeting.

Real Examples

You might add general or unrelated terms such as ‘prices’, ‘how to’, ‘DIY’, ‘Costco’, or ‘Home Depot’ to your negative keyword list. For example, if you are running ads for a specific product or service and want to avoid showing ads to users who are just looking for pricing or do-it-yourself guides, excluding these terms helps save ad spend and increase the quality of your traffic.

Common Mistakes

Not reviewing and updating your negative keyword list regularly, which can lead to wasted ad spend on irrelevant searches.
Applying negative keywords too broadly, potentially excluding valuable traffic.
Failing to save your negative keywords as a list, causing inconsistency across campaigns.

FAQs

Can I use one negative keyword list for multiple campaigns? Yes, a negative keyword list can be applied to all your campaigns and ads.

How often should I update my negative keyword list? You should check search terms regularly and add unwanted terms daily or as often as you run your ads.

What types of terms should I add to my negative keyword list? General terms that do not match your campaign goals, like ‘prices’, ‘how to’, or unrelated brand names such as ‘Costco’ or ‘Home Depot’.

Key Takeaways

A negative keyword list helps prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant search terms.
It applies to all campaigns and ads once added and can be saved as a list for convenience.
Regularly reviewing search terms and updating your list improves ad relevance and performance.
Including general or unrelated terms like ‘DIY’ or competitor names ensures better targeting and budget efficiency.