Definition
Negative keywords are terms specified in a paid-search account to prevent ads from showing on searches that include them — used to filter out irrelevant traffic and protect ad spend from queries that won't convert.
Negative keywords are the cleanup crew of paid search. Every account that's been running more than a month has wasted spend on queries that triggered ads but never converted — 'free [your product]', 'jobs at [your competitor]', '[your category] for kids'. Negatives are how you teach the platform to stop matching those.
Three match types matter. Negative broad: blocks any search containing all the words in any order. Negative phrase: blocks searches with the words in that order. Negative exact: blocks only the exact query. Most accounts under-use phrase and exact and over-use broad — and end up blocking traffic they meant to keep.
Origin
Negative keywords have existed in Google AdWords since the platform's early days (2002). The discipline of regular negative-keyword auditing emerged through the late 2000s as paid-search budgets grew large enough that wasted spend hurt visibly.
How it works
- Pull the search-terms report (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, etc.).
- Filter for queries with spend but no conversions.
- Bucket by intent: irrelevant, wrong-stage funnel, competitor, free-seekers.
- Add negatives at the right level — campaign or shared list.
- Pick the right match type (negative phrase usually beats negative broad).
- Audit weekly during account ramp; monthly thereafter.
When to use it
Use when
- On every paid-search account, weekly during ramp.
- After any new campaign launch — first 2 weeks of search-terms reports usually surface lots of negatives.
- When ROAS or CPA drops without obvious cause.
Skip when
- Aggressive blanket negatives without checking the search-terms report. Over-blocking starves the campaign.
- On display or social platforms — negative keywords are a search-platform concept.
Key metrics
- Search-terms report quality (% of spend on queries that converted).
- CPA before/after a negative-keyword pass.
- Click-through rate (CTR) — usually rises after pruning irrelevant traffic.
- Quality Score (rises as relevance improves).
Examples
- Adding 47 negatives cut wasted spend 22% in two weeks.
- We were paying for 'free' queries we'd never convert. One negative-keyword pass and CPA dropped 18%.
- Negative keywords are the most underrated paid-search lever.
In practice at Makreate
Makreate's paid-search engagements always include weekly negative-keyword audits during the first 8 weeks of an account, monthly after. A recent client's Google Ads account had 12 months of accumulated wasted spend on jobs queries, free-tier queries, and competitor-name queries. One thorough pass added 230 negative keywords (mostly phrase match), removed about 18% of impressions, and dropped CPA 31% within 3 weeks. The traffic that remained converted at a much higher rate.
Advertising →Common mistakes
- Not running search-terms reports. The waste is invisible until you look.
- Using negative broad when negative phrase is sharper.
- Adding negatives at campaign level when shared lists would work for the whole account.
- Over-pruning — blocking traffic that was actually converting.
Frequently asked
How often should I audit negatives?
Weekly during the first 8 weeks of any new campaign; monthly once mature. New campaigns surface negatives fastest.
Negative phrase or negative broad?
Phrase is usually the right default — blocks the meaningful intent without over-blocking. Broad blocks too much; exact blocks too little.
Can I share negatives across campaigns?
Yes — Google Ads lets you create shared negative-keyword lists. Most accounts should use them for site-wide negatives (jobs, free, competitor names).