Negative Keywords
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing for specific search terms. They're essential for reducing wasted spend on irrelevant queries. Like regular keywords, negatives have match types (broad, phrase, exact) that control how strictly they block.
Example in Practice
"Adding 'free', 'jobs', and 'salary' as campaign-level negative keywords reduced our cost per lead by 23% without losing volume."
Related Terms
Match Types
Match Types control how closely a search query must match your keyword to trigger your ad. Broad match shows ads for related searches, Phrase match requires the meaning to be included, and Exact match requires the same meaning as the keyword. Google has loosened all match types significantly.
Search Terms Report
The Search Terms Report shows the actual queries people typed before clicking your ads. It's essential for finding new keyword opportunities and identifying irrelevant terms to add as negative keywords. Note: Google now hides many low-volume queries.
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