The Power of Negative Keywords in Google Ads: Save Budget and Boost Relevance

In the world of Google Ads, targeting the right audience while avoiding irrelevant clicks is essential for maximizing ad spend and increasing return on investment (ROI). That’s where negative keywords come in. This tool helps prevent ads from appearing in unrelated searches, allowing advertisers to maintain control over who sees their ads and ensure that only the most relevant audiences are reached. Whether you’re an eCommerce business, a service provider, or a local business, negative keywords are important to make your ad campaigns more efficient and effective.

In this post, we’ll break down what negative keywords are, introduce the concept of negative keyword farming, and explain how to identify, add, and strategically use them for better results.

What Are Negative Keywords?

Negative keywords are search terms you add to your Google Ads campaign to exclude your ads from displaying in searches that aren’t aligned with your offerings. For example, if you’re a high-end furniture store, you may want to add “cheap” or “discount” as negative keywords to avoid attracting bargain hunters looking for lower-priced options. By doing so, your ads will not appear for searches including those terms, keeping your traffic more relevant.

Benefits of Using Negative Keywords

Avoid Irrelevant Traffic: By excluding keywords that aren’t relevant, you can prevent your ads from showing up for users who are unlikely to convert. If you run an online bookstore, for instance, you might add “free books” as a negative keyword to avoid clicks from users looking for free resources.

Reduce Wasted Ad Spend: Each click on your ad costs money, so it’s essential to minimise clicks from users who aren’t interested in what you offer. Negative keywords help ensure that ad spend is directed toward high-intent users, making every dollar count.

Improve Quality Score: By enhancing the relevance of your ads, negative keywords contribute to a higher Quality Score—Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of your ads and keywords. A high Quality Score can result in better ad placements and lower cost-per-click (CPC) over time. However, the most important factor in determining quality is the overall quality and speed of your website.

Boost Conversion Rates: With more relevant traffic, conversion rates tend to improve. By preventing irrelevant clicks, you ensure that your audience is made up of users more likely to engage with your ad and ultimately convert.

Negative Keyword Farming

Negative keyword farming is the continuous process of identifying irrelevant search terms and adding them to your list of negative keywords over time. This strategy is especially useful for campaigns with broad match keywords or those that attract a wide range of search terms, some of which may not be relevant.

When It’s Useful: If you’re running a campaign targeting a general audience or using broad match keywords, you may notice clicks from searches unrelated to your offering. Negative keyword farming is a way to refine your targeting, gradually building a list of terms you want to avoid based on real-time search data.
The search term report in Google Ads provides insights into actual search queries that triggered your ads. Regularly review this report to identify irrelevant terms and add them as negatives. Over time, this will refine your ad targeting, reduce unnecessary spend, and increase relevance.

Best Practices for Negative Keyword Farming

Regular Reviews: Check your search terms report weekly or biweekly to identify and add new negative keywords.
Stay Specific: Avoid adding overly broad negative keywords that could unintentionally exclude relevant audiences.
Create Thematic Lists: Organise your negative keywords by themes, such as “budget” or “DIY,” to keep track of categories that might attract irrelevant clicks.
Phrase Match Negative Keywords: Use phrase match for keywords where specific words appear together. For example, using “cheap furniture” as a phrase match negative keyword will exclude searches containing those exact terms in sequence, ensuring your ads aren’t shown for price-sensitive searches:
Exact Match Negative Keywords: If there are particular searches you want to avoid entirely, consider using exact match for precise control. This prevents your ad from showing for that exact search phrase and can be helpful when excluding highly specific, irrelevant terms.
Avoid Conflicting Keywords: Be mindful not to add negative keywords that overlap with your target keywords, as this can prevent your ads from appearing in relevant searches.

Tips for Building an Effective Negative Keyword Strategy

Start Small: Begin with a few broad terms you know won’t convert, then expand your list as you gather more data.
Leverage Google Analytics: Analyse traffic from your ads to identify common queries that didn’t convert well, then add those to your negative keyword list.
Regularly Update Your Negative Keywords: As market trends shift, new irrelevant terms may emerge. Keep your negative keyword list up to date to maintain ad performance.
Be Specific for High-Volume Campaigns: The larger your campaign, the more specific you should be with your negative keywords. This is especially true for industries with a wide range of related but irrelevant search terms.

By adding negative keywords strategically, conducting ongoing negative keyword farming, and monitoring your campaigns regularly, you can enhance the relevance and efficiency of your Google Ads. Negative keywords are a simple but powerful tool to help ensure your ads appear for the right audience, save your ad budget from being wasted on uninterested users, and drive more effective ad performance.