Negative Keyword Lists

The Untapped Power of Negative Keywords — Why Most Brands Bleed Money Here Everyone on Amazon obsesses over adding more keywords. More campaigns. More impressions. More traffic. But here’s what they’re missing: Sometimes the biggest growth comes not from adding, but from cutting. We’ve audited hundreds of accounts and consistently found: ➣ 20–40% of spend wasted on irrelevant, low-intent keywords ➣ Competing with irrelevant branded queries that never convert ➣ Paying for traffic that’s curious — not committed Why this happens: ➣ Sellers assume all traffic is good traffic. ➣ Agencies fear pruning aggressively because it “lowers metrics.” ➣ Nobody’s watching search term reports close enough. How we approach negative keyword optimization strategically: ✅ Weekly keyword audits. We don’t just “set and forget” negatives. Every week we analyze search term reports to spot irrelevant queries bleeding budget. ✅ Competitive defense. We block competitors’ branded terms (where winning is unlikely & costly) unless there’s clear evidence we can convert. ✅ Buyer intent first. If a keyword shows traffic but no meaningful conversions after enough spend, we cut it. No mercy. ✅ Granular campaign separation. We keep discovery and proven campaigns separate — so negative pruning happens without affecting scaling campaigns. We once worked with a brand that cut just 14 low-quality terms — and freed up $8,000/month in wasted spend — which we redirected to high-converting queries that doubled their ROAS. Your campaigns aren’t just about who you say yes to. They’re also about who you say no to — ruthlessly & strategically. #NegativeKeywords #AmazonAdvertising #PPCStrategy #EcommerceGrowth #AmazonAds #KeywordOptimization #MarketingStrategy #AdvertisingTips #CampaignOptimization #HawkNotch #EcommerceMarketing #PerformanceMarketing

If no one's looked at your search terms report, you're not advertising. You're donating. During an audit, I pulled a client's search terms report. Their ads were showing for competitor names. For companies with nothing to do with their business. For searches clearly indicating people looking for entirely different solutions. They were paying for every one of those clicks. Every one was being counted as activity. I asked when their negative keyword list was last updated. Silence. Negative keywords tell Google: "Never show my ads for searches containing these terms." They're the difference between paying for buyers and paying for your competitors' brand awareness. If your ads show for a competitor's name, that competitor should be negative matched. If irrelevant searches keep appearing, those terms should be added to your exclusion list immediately. This isn't a set-it-and-forget-it task. It requires someone reviewing search terms regularly—catching new irrelevant queries, tightening targeting week over week, actively protecting your budget from leakage. This is exactly the kind of proactive management that should be happening inside any account spending real money. It's not complex work. It just requires someone actually looking. When budget leaks to irrelevant clicks, it's not just wasted spend. It's qualified clicks you could have bought instead—clicks that might have become pipeline. If no one has pulled your search terms report in the last 30 days, the question isn't whether you're wasting money. It's how much.

If there’s one thing managing Google Ads for a decade (!) has taught me, it’s that people will search for absolutely wild things and then click on ads. This is why negative keywords are SO important. Here are some of my go-to negative keywords that I add to almost every new Google Ads account: Standard Negatives (Added via Shared Library > Exclusion Lists): 👉 “login” 👉 “phone number” 👉 “customer service” 👉 “address” 👉 “career” (unless it’s a recruitment campaign) 👉 “complaints” 👉 “portal” 👉 “glassdoor” 👉 “reviews” 👉 “cancel” 👉 “free” (If there’s a free trial, I highlight it in ad copy, but I avoid serving ads for “free” searches.) These terms often don’t signal strong buying intent or lead to conversions -  they are usually looking for information they can easily find organically. But then you've got unexpected negatives - those “interesting” phrases that make you do a double-take in the search query report. While you can’t predict them all, here’s how I approach more customized exclusions: 👉 State & city names: For location-specific campaigns, I exclude regions outside the target market to keep traffic aligned with the client’s service area. (Location targeting helps, but this adds an extra layer of control.) 👉 Campaign/ad group level negatives: I use these to funnel traffic to the right campaigns and tighten search relevance for nuanced keywords. These exclusions are highly customized, but they’re worth the effort for better targeting. Even with a strong keyword strategy, Google Ads sometimes makes some interesting leaps when matching search queries. A robust negative keyword list helps prevent wasted spend and keeps the account focused on the right audience. Bonus tip: I keep a Google Sheet template with all my standard negatives, so I can easily copy and paste them into new accounts. It’s a huge timesaver! PPC experts: What are your go-to negative keywords? Business owners: Do you know if your campaigns have a solid negative keyword list? If not, it’s time to ask your manager or agency! ______________________________ 👋 I'm Emily - a PPC & analytics expert helping B2B companies grow qualified pipeline with LinkedIn Ads & Google Ads. 💻 Interested in my marketing services or a coaching session? Reach out! I’d love to see if I can help. 🔔 Follow to stay up to date with my insights and findings.

Our top campaign saw a 90% drop in conversions in less than 2 months. Panic? No. Concerned? Absolutely. What changed? Had we negative keyworded ourselves into oblivion? --- It started in May but really hit in June. Our top-performing campaigns had come to a screeching halt. It went from ~10 conversions per month... To a whopping 1. And at the same spend. Ouch. So we thought, it could be a few things: - Seasonality? Partially but YoY didn't line up. - Landing Pages? No changes.  - Ads? Same.  - Keywords? Now...we're getting somewhere. Well, not exactly keywords per se. Negative keywords. So the experimentation began. 1. The Hypothesis: Had we restricted things so much that our best prospects couldn’t even see our ads? 2. The Test : - Duplicated the same campaign - Stripped all negative keywords and lists - Only added back a short list of terms we knew were irrelevant or hadn’t converted We went from over 5,000 negatives to less than 50. 3. The Results (after 2 months of testing): - 50%+ reduction in cost/conversion (Marketing Qualified Leads) - 136% increase in CTR - 2% decrease in CPC - 45% increase in Conv. Rate For context, this was a Broad Match + tCPA campaign (same structure we’d used for 2 years). TL;DR: If your performance tanks and you’ve ruled out the usual suspects, check if your negative keywords are cutting too deep. Try running a duplicate campaign with only the most essential negatives. Let the algorithm breathe. ----- Has this happened to you? Would love to hear your experience/results. ---- P.S. I'm Adam, co-founder of First Spark Digital. We help B2B and B2C brands like Komuso, Oscilar, and Swooped drive growth through performance-driven advertising. I post about all things marketing, building in public, and random thoughts :)

You hate to see it: a brand not utilizing negative keywords. A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for a FREEZER organizer. One of the top sponsored ads is for a PANTRY drawer organizer. Frustrating for me, the consumer, and costly for the advertiser. This is what happens when brands overlook negative keywords. Negative keywords are the unsung heroes of PPC campaigns. Here's why they're crucial: 1. Preventing wasted ad spend Stop showing ads for irrelevant searches. Your budget will thank you. 2. Improving ad relevance and quality score Higher relevance = better ad placement = lower costs. It's a win-win-win. 3. Controlling which campaigns feature specific keywords Want your brand keywords in a separate campaign? Negative keywords make it happen. 4. Excluding irrelevant searches For example: -Competitor brands (e.g., "Apple" for non-Apple headphones) -Incompatible products (e.g., specific car models for auto parts) -Unrelated categories (e.g., "men's" or "kids'" for women's shoes) Using negative keywords doesn't have to be complicated. Review your search terms report regularly. Identify irrelevant terms or those with clicks but no conversions. It's as simple as that.

Negative keywords are the difference between a successful Google Ads campaign and a failed one. Every query has a home, and our job is to get it there. What I mean is that there is an ad group in every account which is the best possible ad group for the query to serve against. That ad group is not necessarily where Google wants it to go either. We use negatives at 3 levels to achieve this query-homing behavior. Negative keyword lists: This is the stuff we just don't want to serve against. Basic structure here is brand, competitor, and general. For nonbrand campaigns we apply all three. Campaign level negatives: Let's say you have two different product families. Adding negatives at the campaign level for the other families will ensure there's nothing slipping into the wrong campaign. Ad group negatives: This is the fine sculpting level. This is also the level that most advertisers don't do, and it's why we get better results than 99% of the people doing Google Ads out there. If I have 3 ad groups for "Sneakers" "Red Sneakers" and "Blue Sneakers" I want to make sure that the queries match the keywords. Ad group negatives would look like Sneakers ad group: red, scarlet, ruby, crimson, blue, navy, midnight, cobalt Red ad group: blue, navy, midnight, cobalt Blue ad group: red, scarlet, ruby, crimson You want to be routing your queries to the best match, and this structure will do that.

One tweak to our client’s Google Ads strategy drove 27% more profit. Here's the exact process: 1. Dive into search terms Go beyond your keyword list. Regularly check the search terms report to see what's actually triggering your ads. 2. Spot the money-drainers Look for irrelevant clicks from unrelated job titles, industries, or services. These eat your budget without delivering leads. 3. Build your negative keyword list Add those irrelevant terms as negatives. This stops your ads from showing for those searches. 4. Rinse and repeat Make this a weekly habit. New irrelevant terms always pop up. How are you fine-tuning your campaigns to focus on the right audience? #GoogleAds #B2BMarketing #MarketingROI

How I use negative keywords to stop wasted spend (without killing off winners) When I first learned about negative keywords, I thought it was just about blocking irrelevant searches. Now I know it’s also about preserving what works. Here’s exactly how we manage them: → Step 1: Pull the search term report Use a 7–30 day window to catch irrelevant terms fast. → Step 2: Spot total mismatches Add them as negative exact or negative ASINs. These are your "dog food" terms when you're selling cat food. → Step 3: Be careful with edge-case winners If “cat food for kittens” converts, even if it’s not your exact product, you don’t negate it. → Instead: Move it to a new campaign, in exact match, and test if it can win on its own. → Result: You protect your existing sales and scale what’s already working. Clean account. No wasted spend. No accidental self-sabotage. What’s the weirdest search term that ever converted for you?

Your ad campaigns are only as strong as the keywords you choose, and the ones you block. If a keyword has 20 clicks and no sales, it’s not just bad; it’s wasting your money. 👉 Add negative exact match keywords to auto and broad campaigns to cut irrelevant traffic 👉 Sort your search term report by spend and performance weekly to identify waste 👉 Block underperforming terms while keeping your best performers untouched Effective negation isn’t about wiping out entire categories of keywords; it’s about precision. For instance, if “beer mug” appears in a campaign targeting “wine glass,” add “beer mug” as a negative exact match. That way, your ad spend stays focused on what actually converts. Analyze ACOS and clicks to decide when to negate and move keywords that don’t work. Pro tip: Always review the search term report weekly. High spend, low or no conversions? Negate it in exact match and watch your campaign efficiency improve. PS: Cutting dead weight isn’t just for your campaigns, it’s for your profits. Clean it up and watch your ads work smarter, not harder.

A while back I asked you if you're going to use negatives now that they're available for PMax - an overwhelming majority of you said yes. Some were surprised at the question.... Negatives are a useful tool, however if used incorrectly they block profitable traffic. Here's a checklist to go through when considering whether to add a keyword as a negative: 1. Is it eliminating waste? Wasteful traffic should always be blocked. However it's really important to keep a dynamic perspective on what we consider waste. Search trends shift all the time and assuming that the way people searched 10 years ago is the same way they're searching now is a mistake. For example, it used to be a golden rule to make all question words negatives. Now, you might lose out on really transactional traffic that leans into conversational search. Bonus tip: use single words on phrase match to exclude waste in bulk and have it be applicable to Microsoft Ads (they don't have broad match negative). 2. Is it directing traffic? I have always been team "ad group level negatives" because they allow me to protect the themes I'm going after as well as lean into broad match and DSA. However, asset groups don't support negatives, so the only direction you'll be able to provide is pushing budget towards your search campaigns. This has utility, but it's worth remembering that search themes will only "steal" traffic if they're the same as the keywords you're bidding on. 3. Is it keeping you compliant? Sometimes we absolutely can't have our ads serve on SERPs. It might be due to a reseller deal, competitor agreement, or some other factor. These negatives are always going to have a place, and it's worth remembering that Google added the brand exclusion feature to help with this. If you're not allowed to serve for someone else's brand name, include it in the brand exclusion as an extra layer of protection. If a negative keyword passes these checks, it gets to stay. If it doesn't, it's worth testing removing it. Optmyzr will have some fresh data on this, but I'd like to share our study from last year to drive the point home: performance was better for brands who didn't include exclusions (negative keywords, placement exclusions, audiences, or topics). I'm not saying to get rid of negatives all together, just to be as methodical about them as your active targets. Do you regularly audit your negatives? If not, why not?