Negative Keywords
Keywords that prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches, reducing wasted spend on unqualified clicks.
Definition
Negative keywords are terms you add to PPC campaigns to prevent your ads from appearing when those terms are included in a search. They filter out irrelevant traffic, ensuring your budget is spent on searches with genuine potential to convert.
Negative keywords can be applied at campaign or ad group level and use the same match types as regular keywords (broad, phrase, exact). Common negatives include "free," "jobs," "DIY," competitor names (depending on strategy), and terms indicating wrong intent for your offering.
Why It Matters
Without negative keywords, campaigns waste significant budget on irrelevant clicks. A software company bidding on "project management" might pay for clicks from people searching "project management jobs" or "free project management tools."
Regular search query analysis and negative keyword expansion is essential maintenance for healthy PPC accounts. The most efficient campaigns have extensive negative keyword lists built over time.
Examples in Practice
A premium furniture brand adds "cheap," "discount," and "used" as negatives, improving lead quality and conversion rates immediately.
A B2B software company eliminates "free" searches, reducing clicks by 30% while maintaining the same number of qualified leads.
A recruiter adds "salary" and "interview" as negatives to their job board ads, focusing spend on employers rather than job seekers.