How to Create a Google Ads Negative Keyword List

What Negative Keywords Do

When you add a negative keyword to your Google Ads campaign, Google stops showing your ad when someone includes that term in their search. If you sell premium accounting software and add “free” as a negative keyword, your ads will not appear when someone searches “free accounting software.”

This matters because Google’s broad match algorithm casts a wide net. A campaign targeting “accounting software” might trigger ads for “accounting degree programs,” “free accounting templates” or “accounting job listings.” Each of those clicks costs money but delivers zero conversion potential.

Negative keywords work across Search, Shopping and Display campaigns. Each campaign type uses them slightly differently, but the core principle stays the same: stop spending on traffic that cannot convert. For comprehensive campaign management, see our PPC management services.

Negative Keyword Match Types

Like regular keywords, negatives have match types that control how broadly they block searches.

Negative Broad Match

Blocks searches that contain all the words in your negative keyword in any order. “Free trial” as a negative broad match blocks “free software trial” and “trial version free” but does not block “free” alone or “trial” alone.

Negative Phrase Match

Blocks searches that contain the exact phrase in order. “Free trial” as a negative phrase match blocks “best free trial software” but does not block “free version trial.”

Negative Exact Match

Blocks only the exact search query. [free trial] as negative exact match blocks only the search “free trial” and nothing else.

Choosing the Right Match Type

Use broad match negatives for categories of irrelevant traffic (job titles, educational queries). Use phrase and exact match negatives when a term has both relevant and irrelevant uses. “Free” as a broad negative makes sense for a premium-only product. It would damage a freemium product that legitimately targets “free” searches.

Building Your Initial Negative Keyword List

Start with Universal Negatives

Certain search terms are irrelevant for almost every business. Add these to a shared list and apply it to all campaigns:

• Job-related: jobs, careers, hiring, salary, resume, interview, internship, employment
• Education-related: course, degree, certification, university, college, class, training, tutorial
• DIY/Free: free, cheap, DIY, template, download, torrent, pirated
• Informational: what is, definition, meaning, wiki, history, examples
• Competitor brands: Add specific competitor names if you do not want to bid on branded terms

Review this list carefully against your business model. A SaaS company with a free tier should not block “free.” A training company should not block “course” or “certification.”

Industry-Specific Negatives

Every industry has irrelevant modifiers. A B2B software company should block consumer-oriented terms like “personal,” “home use” and “family plan.” A luxury brand should block “cheap,” “discount” and “budget.” A local service company should block city names outside their service area.

Mining Search Term Reports

The richest source of negative keywords is your own search term report. Navigate to Keywords > Search terms in Google Ads. Filter by terms that received clicks but zero conversions. These are real queries that triggered your ads and cost money without producing results.

Review search term reports weekly for the first month of any new campaign and biweekly after that. Export the data to a spreadsheet, sort by cost descending and work through the list from highest waste to lowest.

Organizing Negative Keywords with Shared Lists

Google Ads lets you create shared negative keyword lists that apply across multiple campaigns. This centralized approach prevents duplication and ensures consistent coverage.

Recommended List Structure

• Universal Exclusions: Terms irrelevant to your entire business (jobs, free, DIY). Apply to all campaigns.
• Competitor Brands: Competitor names you do not want to bid against. Apply selectively.
• Geographic Exclusions: City and region names outside your service area. Apply to local campaigns.
• Product-Specific: Terms that are relevant to one product line but irrelevant to another. Apply to specific campaigns.

To create a shared list, go to Tools > Shared Library > Negative Keyword Lists. Name each list clearly so any team member understands its purpose.

Want to reduce your ad costs further? Read our guide on how to reduce Google Ads CPC with practical optimization techniques.

Negative Keywords for Shopping Campaigns

Shopping campaigns do not use traditional keywords, so negative keywords play an even more critical role. They are your only tool for controlling which searches trigger your product listings.

Common Shopping Negatives

• Product names you do not carry
• Competitor brand names (if you only sell your own brand)
• Size, color or specification modifiers you do not offer
• “Used,” “refurbished” or “secondhand” (if you sell new only)
• “Review,” “comparison” or “vs” (informational intent, not purchase intent)

Priority Page Queries

Sort your Shopping search terms by impressions and identify high-volume queries that do not match your inventory. A search for “Nike running shoes” triggering your Adidas listings wastes impressions and damages your click-through rate, which affects your ad rank for relevant queries.

Maintaining Your Negative Keyword Lists

Negative keyword management is not a one-time task. Search behavior evolves, new competitors emerge and your product line changes.

Weekly Review Process

1. Pull the search term report for the past 7 days
2. Filter for terms with clicks > 0 and conversions = 0
3. Sort by cost descending
4. Review each term and add irrelevant ones as negatives
5. Check for terms that are borderline relevant but have poor CTR (may need ad copy changes rather than negatives)

Quarterly Audit

Every quarter, review your full negative keyword list for terms that may have become relevant. Business pivots, new product launches or expanded service areas can make previously blocked terms valuable. Remove outdated negatives that now restrict legitimate traffic.

Cross-Campaign Conflict Check

Verify that negative keywords in one campaign are not blocking terms that another campaign intentionally targets. This “negative keyword conflict” happens when shared lists are applied too broadly. Use Google Ads Editor to run a conflict check across all campaigns.

Common Negative Keyword Mistakes

Being Too Aggressive

Blocking broad terms like “how” or “what” eliminates all informational searches, including high-intent queries like “how to migrate to [your software]” or “what does [your service] cost.” Use phrase or exact match for ambiguous terms.

Ignoring Close Variants

Google does not apply close variants to negative keywords the way it does to regular keywords. Adding “running shoe” as a negative does not block “running shoes.” You must add both the singular and plural forms manually. Add common misspellings as well.

Never Reviewing the List

A negative keyword added two years ago based on old campaigns might block profitable traffic today. Review and prune your lists quarterly. Dead negatives accumulate and silently reduce your campaign reach.

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Frequently Asked Questions