If you ran a Google Ads audit on 100 small business accounts tomorrow, you would find the same problem in roughly 90 of them. Money flowing out, on clicks that were never going to convert, because nobody is managing negative keywords.
This is the single highest leverage tactic in Google Ads. It costs nothing to add a negative keyword. It can save you thousands a month.
What Negative Keywords Actually Do
A negative keyword tells Google "do not show my ad if this word or phrase is in the search". It is the opposite of a regular keyword. You are not adding terms you want to appear for, you are blocking terms you do not.
The reason this matters so much: even with exact match keywords, Google now shows your ad on a much wider range of related searches than most advertisers realise. Without negatives, you end up paying for things like "free", "DIY", "cheap", "jobs", or competitor brand searches that you never intended to bid on.
The Three Levels of Negative Keywords
Negative keywords work at three different levels in Google Ads. Each one has a place.
- Account level negative lists: Applied to every campaign. Use these for words that should never trigger an ad anywhere in the account. "Free", "salary", "jobs", "courses", "complaints", "scam" are common examples.
- Campaign level negatives: Applied to one campaign. Use these to stop campaigns competing with each other. If you have a brand campaign and a generic campaign, you add your brand terms as negatives on the generic campaign so brand searches go to the right campaign.
- Ad group level negatives: Applied to one ad group. Use these to keep tightly themed ad groups from cannibalising each other. If you have separate ad groups for "boiler repair" and "boiler installation", you add "installation" as a negative on the repair group.
How to Build Your First Negative Keyword List
Start with the search terms report. Go to Insights and reports, then Search Terms, set the date range to the last 30 days, and sort by clicks descending. You will see exactly what searches triggered your ads.
Then work through them with these questions:
- Is this person a buyer? "How does Google Ads work" is research. "Google Ads agency Nottingham" is a buyer. Block the research terms.
- Do they have money? Searches containing "free", "cheap", "discount", "DIY" usually do not convert at a normal rate.
- Are they in your area? If you serve Nottingham only and your ad showed for "plumber London", add London as a negative or fix your geo targeting.
- Are they a competitor or job seeker? "Plumbing jobs" or "plumbing apprenticeship" are not customers. Add as negatives.
Process tip: Do this every Monday morning for 15 minutes. The first three weeks will save you a lot. After that, maintenance is light because the same patterns keep appearing.
Negative Keyword Match Types
Just like normal keywords, negatives have match types. They behave slightly differently from positive keywords though, which trips people up.
| Type | What It Blocks | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Broad negative | Any search containing all the words in any order | Single words like "free", "jobs", "DIY" |
| Phrase negative | Searches containing the exact phrase in order | Phrases like "how does it work" or "is it worth it" |
| Exact negative | Only the exact search, nothing else | Use sparingly. Mostly for blocking your own brand on generic campaigns |
Most negative keywords should be broad or phrase. Exact match negatives are too narrow to do much.
Common Negative Keyword Categories Worth Adding Day One
Across the thousands of accounts we have managed, these categories show up over and over. Add them on day one as account level negative lists:
- Information seekers: "what is", "how to", "definition", "meaning", "examples", "wiki", "wikipedia"
- Free seekers: "free", "freebie", "no cost", "no charge", "without paying"
- DIY seekers: "DIY", "do it yourself", "yourself", "myself", "how do I"
- Job hunters: "jobs", "career", "vacancy", "vacancies", "salary", "wage", "hiring", "recruitment", "apprenticeship"
- Cheap or discount seekers: "cheap", "cheapest", "discount", "coupon", "voucher", "deal", "offer"
- Competitors and reviews: Add each competitor name, plus "reviews", "complaints", "vs"
- Adult or unrelated: Depending on your industry, words that trigger irrelevant matches
Negative Keywords on Performance Max and Smart Campaigns
Performance Max used to be a black box for negatives. As of 2024, Google added the ability to add negative keywords directly inside Performance Max campaigns. Use this. Performance Max will happily spend on long tail search terms that look related to Google but have nothing to do with your business. Without negatives, you have no defence.
For Smart campaigns, negative keyword control is more limited. You can add a handful but not lists. This is one of several reasons we move clients off Smart campaigns to standard campaigns as soon as they have data.
How to Maintain Your List Over Time
Negative keyword management is not a one off job. Set a recurring 15 minute weekly review:
- Open the search terms report, last 7 days
- Sort by cost descending
- Work down the list, adding negatives for anything that is clearly not a buyer
- Save and check spend the following week
After 6 to 8 weeks of this, your account will be tight enough that maintenance becomes once a fortnight or even monthly.
The Bottom Line
Negative keywords are free, fast, and the single most effective optimisation in Google Ads. If you have not done a proper negatives review in the last 90 days, you are almost certainly wasting between 20 and 40 percent of your spend. Run the search terms report tomorrow morning. You will be surprised.
Brett Dixon
Founder & Managing Director of DPOM. Brett founded DPOM nearly 15 years ago after a career in marketing working with Harvey Nichols, BBC Top Gear, Formula One circuits, and UK Trade and Investment. His passion became helping smaller businesses grow, with honest advice, no jargon, and realistic expectations.
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