Understand negative keywords

If you’re running search results campaigns, you have the option to use negative keywords to prevent your ad from showing on specific terms you know aren’t relevant for your business. Negative keywords should be related to your ad group keywords, but they should also indicate that the searcher is looking for something that your business doesn’t offer. A negative keyword may be appropriate when:

  • You want to prevent your ad from showing for search queries that don’t apply to you. So if your business sells road biking gear, adding “motorcycle” as a negative keyword means your ad wouldn’t show for any searches related to motorcycles.
  • Your campaign or ad group performance data shows a particular keyword doesn’t lead to taps or impressions. Adding it as a negative keyword means your ad will no longer show for searches using that term.

You can add negative keywords during campaign and ad group creation, upload them using a spreadsheet in the Keywords dashboard, or add existing keywords as negative keywords to one or more ad groups or campaigns. Once your campaigns start running, you might find you need to add to your negative keyword list, or cut back. Note that negative keywords will reduce the number of search queries your ad is eligible for, which may reduce impressions and reach.

How to add negative keywords to an existing campaign or ad group

  1. Go to the Keywords dashboard and click the Negative Keywords tab.
  2. Click the Add button. From the dropdown menu, choose whether you want to add the negative keywords to an existing ad group or campaign.
  3. Choose the brand, campaign, and ad group (if applicable) that you want to add the negative keywords to.
  4. Enter negative keywords to be added.
  5. Click Save.

How to add keywords as
negative keywords

  1. Go to the Keywords dashboard and click the Search Terms tab.
  2. Select the keywords you’d like to add as negative keywords (up to 50 per page).
  3. Click Add as Negative Keyword from the toolbar.
  4. Choose the brand, campaign, and ad group (if applicable) that you want to add the negative keywords to.
  5. Click Save.