Definition
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on searches that contain them. They are added at the campaign or ad group level, or in shared lists applied across campaigns.
In practice
Negative keywords use broad, phrase and exact match, but they do not expand to close variants or synonyms the way positive keywords do, so plurals and misspellings may need their own entries.
Overly broad negatives can block converting traffic, so it is worth checking proposed negatives against queries that have converted.
Accounts running on both Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising should keep negative lists aligned, since waste excluded in one engine often still spends in the other.
Learn more: Microsoft Ads negative keywords.
Related terms
- Search terms reportThe search terms report shows the actual searches people typed that triggered your ads, as opposed to the keywords you bid on.
- Smart BiddingSmart Bidding is a group of Google Ads bid strategies that use machine learning to set bids in each auction, aiming for conversions or conversion value.
- Target CPA (tCPA)Target CPA (tCPA) is a Smart Bidding setting that tries to get as many conversions as possible while keeping the average cost per acquisition near the target you set.
How Markitech helps
Markitech connects your AI to Google Ads, GA4, Google Tag Manager, Meta and 12 more platforms, so it can check how Negative keywords is set up in your own accounts and tags and propose fixes. Every change is held until you approve it.