Search Terms and Negative Keywords: The Simplest Way To Stop Bad Leads
If your Google Ads results aren’t producing the results you want, there could be a variety of reasons for the problem. Whether you’re having trouble tracking down the source or you’re not sure where to start, search terms and negative keywords are a good place to begin.
However, you must consider how Google Ads has evolved over the past few years, particularly with the advent of AI.
Negative Keywords
A Negative Keyword is a search term you utilise to prevent your Google Ads from appearing in unrelated search results. It helps you narrow your target and save your ad budget from creating large swaths of volume without any conversions. By adding specific keywords and phrases to your Negative Keywords list, you’re taking control over what Google does with your ad. They have the opposite intent of regular keywords.
For example, if you’re selling auto repair services, adding “DIY” to your Negative Keyword list will filter out searches for advice on how to complete a repair for home mechanics.
No matter how great the keyword, you won’t attract high-intent users unless you utilise Negative Keywords more effectively. When every click costs you money, you don’t want your boutique wedding shop to land in search results for a cheap wedding dress.
Negative Keywords protect your ad budget and key metrics in several ways. First, they save you the stress and hassle of fighting for auction spots you don’t really want, guaranteeing the lowest cost-per-click. It produces higher click-through rates because only relevant users with high intent see your ads. Likewise, it can improve your Quality Score because Google rewards relevance, and you benefit from lower costs. All of which leads to a higher conversion rate because instead of gaining high traffic, you’re gaining the right traffic.
If you don’t utilise negative keywords, your ad budget is being used to advertise to the wrong audience. For example, an Adelaide business looking for Adelaide customers shouldn’t be paying for ads that land in front of Sydneysiders. You don’t want to advertise to bargain hunters when you’re selling a high-end product, nor do you want to advertise to luxury buyers when you sell a value product.
It isn’t enough to use Negative Keywords; you need to use them properly.
How to Apply Negative Keywords Properly
You can apply Negative Keywords on three different levels: account, campaign, and ad group. The level at which you apply your keywords will dictate how broadly they work.
Account Level
If you add Negative Keywords on an account level, it means it will influence every campaign your account creates, telling Google that these searchers are irrelevant to your whole business. Whether it’s location-related, job search, or brand-specific, account-wide negative words can save lots of time and money.
There is a risk in overdoing it. If you go too aggressively, you could make a mistake that excludes too broad a search category.
You can create as many as 20 Negative Keyword lists at an account level, limited to 5,000 Negative Keywords per list. The majority of advertisers never reach these heights, and if you have, you may have overdone it.
Campaign
Utilising campaign-level Negative Keywords will only affect the ads specific to the campaign. This is the most popular option for A/B testing or if you’re running different campaigns with the intention of targeting different audiences.
You can apply as many as 10,000 Negative Keywords if you’re targeting a specific campaign.
Ad Group
This approach will provide the most control, blocking terms in one ad group to help tighten themes and prevent overlap.
Match Types
Even within the negative keyword category, there are match types to consider. Negative Broad Match is the default setting and will block searches that include all of the Negative Keywords (regardless of order). Broad Match is efficient for casting a wider net, and Negative Keywords allow you to prevent irrelevant searches, even though some low-intent searches will slip through the net.
Negative Exact Match will block low-intent searches that contain the same keyword in the same order. Use brackets around the Negative Keyword to indicate a Negative Exact Match. These are not the right option for broad filtering, due to how narrow they are and the sheer number of variations you would need to add to block all the irrelevant searches. However, an Exact Match is a great choice if there are only a few specific search terms you want to block.
Negative Phrase Match will rule out the exact phrase in the order you input, but it will still appear if there are additional words before or after the phrase. Use quotation marks around the Negative Keyword to indicate phrase match. You will have much more control in filtering low-intent searches using Negative Phrase Match versus Negative Broad Match.
Advanced Tactics
Negative keywords aren’t a one-time task; your success will hinge on ongoing analytics analysis to take a proactive approach to managing your campaigns. N-gram analysis can help you break down the reality of your metrics by breaking searches into single words or two-word and three-word phrases, allowing you to review the performance metrics for each instead of full search queries. The purpose of this approach is to highlight patterns you may overlook when looking at the complete search term.
So, you can view all the searches that contain the word “affordable” rather than analysing “affordable auto repair near me” or “affordable mechanic” separately. It’s one of the most effective ways to audit your Negative Keywords lists.
Stop Bad Leads
Whatever level you choose to apply your Negative Keywords, you should make a habit of reviewing your search terms report daily for the first two weeks of your campaign and then every two (to four) weeks once your campaign stabilises. It’s also worth noting that Google does account for case differences and common typos or misspellings. To optimise your Google Ads and generate high-quality leads, CLIQ MC are here to help with your Google Ads Management needs.
