Last checked against Google’s documentation on 29 September 2026.
What negative keywords are in Google Ads
Negative keywords in Google Ads are words or phrases you tell Google not to show your ads for. Google’s negative keyword documentation describes them as a way to exclude search terms from your campaigns so you can focus on the keywords that matter to your customers. If a search contains a negative keyword (in the way its match type defines), the ad doesn’t enter that auction, and you don’t pay for the click.
The best source of negative keywords is your own account. Open the search terms report, sort by cost, and look for searches that spent money without converting and that no customer of yours would type. Then look for the single words that keep showing up in those searches (“free”, “jobs”, “how to”) and exclude the word, not each search one by one. Decide with numbers, not gut feel, choose the match type carefully, and check every new negative against your converting searches so you don’t block the traffic that pays.
How to add negative keywords in Google Ads
You can add negative keywords at four levels. Use the narrowest level that solves the problem. Google’s menu labels change from time to time, so if a name below differs slightly in your account, look for the nearest match.
To a campaign or an ad group
From Google’s add negative keywords to campaigns guide:
- Click the Campaigns icon, open Audiences, keywords, and content in the section menu, and click Search keywords.
- Open the Negative search keywords tab and click the plus button.
- Choose whether the negatives go on a campaign or on a specific ad group, and select it.
- Enter one keyword per line. For Search campaigns, set the match type with symbols: "quotes" for phrase and [brackets] for exact; no symbol means broad.
- Optionally tick Save to new or existing list, then save.
Google notes that for Display and Video campaigns, all negative keywords are added as broad match and the match type can’t be changed.
From the search terms report
Tick the searches in the search terms report, click Add as negative keyword, and choose Ad group, Campaign, or Negative keyword list. The next section covers this in detail, including the default match type.
To a shared negative keyword list
Google’s guide to negative keyword lists gives the steps to apply a list to several campaigns at once:
- Click the Tools icon and go to Exclusion lists (under Shared library).
- Open the Negative keyword lists tab and create a list, or tick an existing one.
- Click Apply to campaigns, pick the campaigns, and confirm.
At the account level
Click the Admin icon, then Account settings, expand Negative keywords, click the plus button, enter one keyword per line, and save. These apply across the account’s eligible Search and Shopping inventory; the shared lists section has the limits and campaign types.
Negative keywords from the search terms report
The search terms report shows the actual searches that triggered your ads, which are often different from your keywords, especially with broad match. Google notes that some low-volume searches are left out of the report for privacy reasons, so treat it as a large sample rather than a full list.
- In Google Ads, click Campaigns, then open Insights and reports and click Search terms.
- Set a date range of at least 30 days, or 90 in a small account.
- Add the columns you need: cost, clicks, conversions, cost per conversion, and the keyword that matched.
- Sort by cost, highest first. The expensive irrelevant terms are where the money is.
- Tick the searches you want to exclude and click Add as negative keyword. You can add them to the ad group, the campaign, or a negative keyword list.
One detail matters: Google says negatives added to a Search campaign from this report are added as negative exact match by default. That blocks the exact search only. If you meant to block a word everywhere it appears, change the match type before saving.
Irrelevant search terms with broad match
Broad match lets your ads show for searches related to your keyword, which is where most irrelevant search terms come from. That is not a reason to avoid broad match; it is a reason to read the report more often when you use it. A campaign on broad match with a new keyword or a new bid strategy can pick up a different set of searches within days. Look at the “keyword” column: if one broad keyword is responsible for most of the waste, narrowing that keyword may do more than a long list of negatives.
Group search terms by word, not by row
Going row by row misses the pattern. A report with five hundred searches might contain forty that include the word “free”, each with two clicks. None of them looks expensive on its own. Together they are.
This is often called n-gram analysis. Export the report, split each search into single words (1-grams) and pairs of words (2-grams), and add up cost, clicks and conversions for each word across every search it appears in. You can do this in a spreadsheet with a pivot table.
| Word or phrase | Searches containing it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| free | Many, low cost each | Intent that rarely buys. Candidate for a phrase or broad negative. |
| jobs, salary, hiring | A few | Job seekers, not customers. |
| how to, diy | Several | Research or do-it-yourself intent. Check before excluding; some accounts convert on these. |
Grouping also shows you what not to exclude. A word that appears in both wasteful and converting searches needs a more careful negative (a phrase, or an exact search) rather than a single-word broad negative.
When a term has spent enough to exclude
There are two kinds of negative. The first is obvious: the search is unrelated to what you sell. Exclude it at any spend. The second is a relevant-looking search that doesn’t convert, and that needs a rule so you aren’t reacting to noise.
A simple rule based on your own numbers:
- Cost with no conversions. If a term (or an n-gram) has spent about as much as your average cost per conversion with none, it is worth reviewing. At around twice your cost per conversion with none, it is usually safe to exclude, unless it is a core term.
- Clicks with no conversions. Divide 1 by your conversion rate. At a 5% conversion rate you would expect a conversion about every 20 clicks. A term with two or three times that many clicks and no conversions is under-performing, not unlucky.
- Conversions of the wrong kind. If you track lead quality outside Google Ads, a term that converts but never becomes a customer is also a candidate.
Adjust for conversion lag. If most of your customers convert a week or more after the click, don’t judge the last few days of data.
Negative keyword match types
Negative keywords do not work like positive ones. Google’s negative keyword documentation states that negatives don’t match close variants, so a plural, a singular or a synonym can still trigger your ad. It also says negatives already account for casing and misspellings. Using the phrase “running shoes” as Google’s example:
| Negative match type | How you write it | Blocks | Doesn’t block |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad | running shoes | Searches with both words, in any order | Searches with only one of the words |
| Phrase | "running shoes" | Searches with both words in that order, with other words around them | The words in a different order |
| Exact | [running shoes] | That exact search, with no extra words | The same words plus anything else |
In practice: single words you never want (“jobs”) work as broad negatives. Multi-word ideas you never want work as phrase negatives. Exact negatives are for one specific search that is wrong while close searches are fine. Because close variants aren’t covered, add the plural and singular forms yourself.
Shared lists and account-level negative keywords
Negative keyword lists
A negative keyword list lets you manage the same exclusions across many campaigns. When you add a term to the list, every campaign that uses it gets the change. Google documents a limit of 20 lists per account and 5,000 keywords per list. To create one, click the Tools icon, open Shared library, click Exclusion lists, and use the Negative keyword lists tab. Then select the list and click Apply to campaigns.
Account-level negative keywords
Account-level negative keywords apply to Search and Shopping inventory across Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns. Google’s limit is 1,000 keywords per account. To add them: click the Admin icon, click Account settings, expand Negative keywords and click the plus button. Use this level only for terms that are wrong for the entire business, such as brand-safety terms or job searches. For Performance Max specifics, see how to add negative keywords to Performance Max.
Negative keyword list: common categories
A negative keyword list built from categories is a good prompt, not a copy-paste job. Each word below is wrong for most advertisers and right for some. Check every one against your converting search terms first.
- Jobs and careers: jobs, careers, hiring, salary, vacancy, internship, resume.
- Free and cheap: free, freebie, torrent, crack. (Leave “cheap” and “discount” alone if you compete on price.)
- DIY and how to: diy, homemade, tutorial, template, “how to”, “how to make”.
- Used and second-hand: used, second hand, refurbished, pre-owned, secondhand, when you only sell new.
- Wrong product types: products or services that share a word with yours but that you don’t offer. These come from your own search terms report, not from a generic list.
- Research only: what is, meaning, definition, wiki, history, examples, pdf. (Leave “review” and “vs” alone: people comparing options may be close to buying.)
- Education: course, training, certification, degree, class, when you don’t offer them.
- Existing customer support: login, sign in, contact number, cancel, refund. These are often your own customers looking for help, not new buyers.
- Competitors: only if you have decided not to bid on them. Excluding a competitor name is a strategy choice, not hygiene.
How negatives block good traffic
An over-eager negative list is one of the quieter ways an account loses volume. The cost doesn’t show up in the search terms report, because a blocked search never appears there. Watch for:
- A single-word broad negative that is also in your product name. Excluding “free” also blocks “free delivery” and “gluten free”.
- Negatives that conflict with your keywords. A negative that contains one of your own keywords stops that keyword from showing for the searches it was built for. Search your negative lists for each core keyword.
- Account-level terms added for one campaign. They apply to every eligible campaign.
- Old lists nobody reviews. A term that was wrong two years ago may be right after a new product launch.
After adding a batch of negatives, compare impressions and conversions for the affected campaigns over the next two weeks. If impressions fall and conversions fall with them, review what you just added.
A weekly routine
- Open the search terms report for the last 30 days, sorted by cost.
- Exclude anything plainly unrelated to your business.
- Export, group by word and word pair, and apply your cost and click thresholds.
- Pick the match type and the level (ad group, campaign, list, account) for each negative.
- Check each new negative against converting searches before saving.
- Write down what you added, and compare volume two weeks later.
If this sits inside a wider review, the Google Ads audit checklist covers the rest of the account, and diagnosing a performance drop shows where search term waste fits among the other causes of rising cost.
Boxoo’s search terms and keywords agent does this review on your account every day: it reads new search terms, groups the waste, and files a case with the spend and clicks behind it. Where a negative keyword is the right fix, it prepares one you can apply with a click, and the change keeps an undo. Nothing changes until you press Apply. Start with a free Google Ads audit.
