I recently decided to try my hand at gardening. Like most beginners, I was excited to see my plants grow and bloom. I made sure to water them regularly, give them enough sunlight, and even added a little fertilizer for good measure.
But after a few weeks, I noticed something: weeds.
They were everywhere, stealing nutrients and space from the plants I actually wanted to grow. No matter how much I watered or fertilized, my plants couldn’t thrive because the weeds were taking over.
This taught me an important lesson: it’s not enough to nurture the good stuff you also have to remove the bad.
Google Ads campaigns are the same.
Targeting the right keywords can drive traffic to your website, but without negative keywords to filter out irrelevant searches, you’re essentially watering weeds. You’ll pay for clicks that don’t convert and skew your campaign data, making it harder to optimize for success.
Let’s say you run an e-commerce store specializing in premium dog clothing. You’ve set up a Google Ads campaign targeting keywords like “dog jackets” and “luxury pet coats”, and you’re thrilled to see clicks rolling in. But then you dig into your search terms report and notice some troubling patterns. Your ads are showing up for searches like “dog harness” “cheap pet clothes” “DIY dog clothes” “pet food”, or “cat sweaters”. These are searches from people who are either looking for something entirely different or are unlikely to purchase your products.
Every one of these irrelevant clicks is costing you money and making your campaigns less effective. Worse, they dilute the performance data you need to make smarter decisions?like which keywords to double down on and which ones to pause.
This is where negative keywords come in. They act like the weeding tool for your campaigns, removing irrelevant search terms and ensuring your ads only appear to the right audience. By adding terms like “costumes”, “pet food”, or “cat” as negative keywords, you can keep your campaigns focused, reduce wasted spend, and drive higher-quality traffic.
But negative keywords do more than save money they improve your campaigns overall. By eliminating irrelevant searches, you increase your click-through rates, improve your Quality Score, and lower your cost per click (CPC). These optimizations not only stretch your budget further but also make your ads more competitive in search auctions.
In this blog, we’ll cover:
What negative keywords are and why they’re a game-changer for e-commerce brands.
How to identify and add negative keywords to your campaigns.
Advanced strategies to scale your campaigns using negative keywords.
What Are Negative Keywords and Why Do They Matter?
Negative keywords are the unsung heroes of any successful Google Ads campaign. While positive keywords tell Google what kind of traffic you want to attract, negative keywords do the opposite they tell Google what not to show your ads for.
Think of negative keywords as filters. They prevent your ads from appearing for searches that don’t align with your products or services. For instance, if you run an ecommerce store selling premium dog clothing, you probably don’t want your ads showing up for searches like “free dog clothes”, “pet harness”, or “cat outfits”. Adding these terms as negative keywords ensures your budget is spent only on relevant traffic shoppers who are actually interested in buying what you sell.
How Negative Keywords Work
Negative keywords function by excluding specific terms or phrases from triggering your ads. Just like with positive keywords, they can be added at different levels of your account:
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- Account Level: Exclude terms that are universally irrelevant, like “free” or “DIY”, across all campaigns.
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- Campaign Level: Filter out terms specific to a single campaign, such as excluding “cat clothes” from a campaign targeting dog sweaters.
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- Ad Group Level: Fine-tune exclusions within individual ad groups to ensure hyper-relevant targeting. For example, within a “Winter Dog Coats” ad group, you might exclude terms like “lightweight” or “summer”.
Applying negative keywords at the right level is crucial for keeping your campaigns efficient and avoiding internal competition between ads. Once you’ve added all your keywords at different levels you’ll end up with a negative keywords list that looks something like this:
Three Types of Negative Keywords Match Types
Just like positive keywords, negative keywords have match types that determine how strictly Google applies the exclusions:
1. Broad Match Negative Keywords: Cast a Wide Net
Broad match negatives exclude any search query that contains all the words in your negative keyword, regardless of their order. They are the most restrictive type because they cast a wide net, blocking entire categories of irrelevant traffic.
Image Source: Google Ads Support
When to Use: Broad match negatives are ideal for filtering out large, irrelevant traffic categories. For example, if your e-commerce store sells premium dog clothing, you could use broad match negatives like “cheap harness” or “free pet clothes” to avoid attracting low-intent traffic.
2. Phrase Match Negative Keywords: Strike a Balance
Phrase match negatives exclude search queries that contain the exact phrase you specify, in the same word order, even if additional words are present. They are less restrictive than broad match negatives but still offer targeted control.
Image Source: Google Ads Support
When to Use: Phrase match negatives are perfect for excluding specific phrases while maintaining flexibility for related queries. For instance, if you sell functional dog coats, adding ?dog Halloween costume as a phrase match negative ensures your ads won’t appear for holiday-themed searches.
3. Exact Match Negative Keywords: Target with Precision
Exact match negatives exclude only the specific search query you list, without variations or additional words. They are the least restrictive type of negative keyword and allow for the most flexibility in your targeting.
Image Source: Google Ads Support
When to Use: Exact match negatives are ideal for excluding highly specific queries that you know won’t convert, like “dog sweater knitting pattern” or “free pet clothes”. They allow you to maintain maximum reach while blocking low-value traffic.
How to Find Negative Keywords and Apply Them to Your Business?
1. Start with the Search Terms Report
The Search Terms Report is your go-to tool for finding negative keywords. It tells you exactly what people searched for before clicking on your ad. This is where you’ll uncover all the irrelevant queries you’re paying for queries that don’t convert and drain your budget.
How to Access It:
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- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
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- Click Campaigns Icon, Insights and reports, and then Search terms.
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- Review the list of search terms that triggered your ads and click on the checker box to add the term to a negative keyword list.
Check your Search Terms Report several times a week for high-traffic campaigns. For lower-volume campaigns, a weekly/bi-weekly review should suffice. This ensures you’re catching irrelevant queries before they eat into your budget.
2. Build a Centralized Negative Keyword List
Rather than manually adding negative keywords to each campaign, create a negative keyword list in Google Ads. This allows you to apply the same exclusions across multiple campaigns, saving time and keeping everything consistent.
How to Create a List:
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- Go toTools > Shared library > Exclusion lists
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- Create a new list and name it (e.g., “Universal Negatives”).
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- Add your negative keywords, like “cheap”, “free”, “DIY”, or any other terms you’ve identified. Apply the list to all relevant campaigns.
3. Go Beyond the Search Terms Report
While the Search Terms Report is invaluable, don’t stop there. Broaden your list by proactively researching terms that don’t align with your business.
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- Competitor Research: Review competitor ads and product pages to see what terms they target. If their approach doesn’t align with your brand (e.g., they focus on ?discount dog jackets?), consider excluding those terms.
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- Keyword Tools:Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find related queries that don’t match your offerings. For example, if you sell dog coats, terms like “dog accessories” might show up in your research.
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- Customer Feedback: Look at customer inquiries or reviews to identify terms that shoppers associate with your brand but don’t fit your product line. For example, if customers often ask about “dog leashes” and you don’t sell them, add that as a negative keyword.
Advanced Strategies for Scaling Your Campaigns with Negative Keywords
Now that we?ve covered the basics of negative keywords what they are, how they work, and how to find them it’s time to dig deeper. For 7-8 figure e-commerce brands, scaling Google Ads campaigns efficiently requires a more strategic approach to negative keyword management. Here are advanced techniques to optimize your campaigns.
1. Avoid Keyword Cannibalization Across Campaigns
When running multiple campaigns or ad groups, keyword overlap can lead to your own ads competing against each other. This “keyword cannibalization” inflates costs and muddles performance data, making it harder to identify what’s working.
If you have separate campaigns for “dog sweaters” and “dog raincoats,” without proper negative keywords, both campaigns might compete for terms like “dog winter clothes”. Adding “sweater” as a negative keyword to the raincoat campaign (and vice versa) ensures each campaign targets its intended audience.
Use shared negative keyword lists for overlapping campaigns to streamline management and avoid duplication.
2. Refine Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) Campaigns with Negatives
Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are great for scaling campaigns, particularly for large catalogs. However, they rely on Google’s algorithm to match your ads to search queries, which can sometimes pull in irrelevant traffic.
How to Optimize DSAs:
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- Use negative keyword lists to exclude irrelevant terms.
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- Leverage page exclusions to prevent Google from using non-conversion-focused pages (e.g., blogs or FAQs) as landing pages.
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- Regularly review the search terms report to identify irrelevant matches.
3. Segment Negative Keywords by Match Type
The effectiveness of your negative keyword strategy depends on how you layer broad, phrase, and exact match negatives:
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- Broad Match Negatives: Exclude large categories of irrelevant searches, like “cheap” or “free”. These work well for filtering out low-intent traffic but require regular review to avoid over-restriction.
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- Phrase Match Negatives: Focus on excluding specific phrases, like “dog Halloween costume”. This ensures more precise targeting while maintaining some flexibility.
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- Exact Match Negatives: Block highly specific queries, like “DIY dog sweater”, without affecting broader variations.
By using these match types strategically, you can refine targeting while maximizing reach for high-intent searches.
4. Enhance Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns with Negative Keywords
Performance Max (PMax) campaigns are a powerful tool for reaching audiences across Google’s entire network. However, failing to exclude branded traffic can skew your campaign data and inflate results.
Use brand exclusions to exclude brand queries you want to avoid. For PMax campaigns brand exclusions apply to search and shopping inventory. Check out the image below to see how the Brand Exclusions list appears on Google’s dashboard.
Check out this article for steps on how to add brand exclusions to your PMax campaigns.
5. Monitor and Optimize Regularly
Scaling campaigns requires consistent attention to search behavior and performance trends.
Recommended Schedule:
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- Weekly: Review the Search Terms Report several times a week for high-traffic campaigns to identify new negative keyword opportunities.
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- Monthly: Audit your negative keyword lists to ensure they align with your evolving campaign objectives.
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- Quarterly: Analyze overall campaign performance to spot patterns in irrelevant traffic and refine your strategy.
Wrapping Up?
Negative keywords are an essential piece of the Google Ads puzzle. They help you cut out irrelevant traffic, protect your budget, and make sure your campaigns stay focused on the right audience. But they’re just one part of a much bigger picture.
A successful Google Ads strategy goes beyond adding negatives it’s about having the right structure, targeting the right audience, and constantly refining your approach to drive real results. If you’re a 7-8 figure e-commerce brand and feel like your campaigns aren’t performing as they should, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
If your store is generating more than $100K in monthly revenue, and you’re looking for someone to help you scale this further, book a free strategy call with me. We’ll review your current Google Ads, Meta Ads, and retention marketing setup, and identify areas for improvement to help you build a plan to scale smarter.
