A negative keyword is a Google Ads setting that stops your ad from showing on specific search queries altogether, and it typically saves 10-25 percent of a monthly ad budget that would otherwise go to wasted clicks. Without a properly built negative keyword list, even the best-designed campaign spends money on searches that carry no purchase intent. In this guide we explain what a negative keyword is, the routine for pulling negative keywords out of the search terms report, the waste words that come up again and again in the field, and how to set up an account-level negative list step by step.
What Is a Negative Keyword?
A negative keyword does the opposite of a regular keyword: instead of making your ad show, it stops your ad from showing on searches that contain a specific word. If a furniture store, for example, doesn't want to target searches for secondhand furniture, adding secondhand as a negative keyword means the ad won't appear on any search containing that word. Negative keywords can be added with the same broad, phrase, or exact match logic as regular keywords; we cover how those differences work in our article on Google Ads match types.
Why Do Negative Keywords Matter So Much?
Choosing the right keyword is only half the job in Google Ads; the other half is spotting, and blocking, the irrelevant variations that same keyword also triggers. Especially in accounts running broad and phrase match, dozens of queries show up that are topically related to your keyword but have a completely different commercial intent. When a dental clinic runs the keyword teeth whitening prices, the ad can also show on informational, non-purchase-intent searches like how does teeth whitening work or home teeth whitening methods. You pay for those clicks, and almost none of them turn into an appointment. A negative keyword list is the only mechanism that closes this leak.
The Routine for Pulling a Negative List from the Search Terms Report
The search terms report is the raw data in your Google Ads account that shows exactly which words actually triggered your ad, and it's the most reliable source for finding negative keywords. A routine that works well in practice follows these steps:
- Open the report weekly, or at least every two weeks. Go to the 'Search terms' report from the campaign menu and sort the last 7-14 days of data by number of clicks.
- Flag queries with high clicks and zero or low conversions. A query that got 20 clicks but never converted into an appointment is a strong negative candidate.
- Assess the intent behind the query. Is it a temporary dip in performance, or is it structurally irrelevant? In the first case, wait; in the second, add it as a negative right away.
- Add the negative keyword at the right level. Is the issue confined to a single ad group, or is it a recurring pattern across all campaigns? Choose ad-group-, campaign-, or account-level accordingly.
- Measure the impact next period. Check how the negative keywords you added affected cost per click and conversion rate at your next review.
An account that runs this routine consistently for three months can build a negative list of 100-300 keywords, and at that point the account largely starts cleaning itself up; the rate of new negative keywords added slows down over time.
What Are the Typical Waste Words?
Regardless of industry, nearly every Google Ads account has a recurring group of keywords that waste money. Knowing them in advance saves time when setting up your first campaign:
- 'Free' and its variations. Searches like free consultation, free sample, free trial usually come from users who have no intention of paying; if you don't offer a free service, it makes sense to add this as a negative from day one.
- 'Secondhand' and 'used'. For businesses selling new products or services, these words almost never convert.
- Job-seeker phrases. Words like job opening, hiring, internship, salary information; when searched alongside your company name or industry, these can target job seekers instead of customers.
- Informational questions. Phrases like how does it work, what is, how do I do it myself signal someone looking to learn rather than to buy, and are usually low-value for service businesses.
- Competitor brand names (unless it's deliberate). Unless targeting competitor names is a conscious strategy, getting impressions on those searches usually results in a low conversion rate.
- Location mismatches. For a business that only serves a specific city, searches that come in with the names of cities outside your service area are also negative candidates.
Most of these words can be anticipated and added from the start when a campaign is set up; the rest surface over time only by monitoring the search terms report. If you're just getting started with Google Ads, our Google Ads beginner's guide is a good place to build these preventive steps in from the beginning.
How Do You Set Up an Account-Level Negative List?
Google Ads lets you define negative keywords at three levels: ad group, campaign, and a shared list at the account level. In smaller accounts, adding negative keywords separately to every campaign becomes messy over time; instead, it's far more efficient to define words that recur and apply across all campaigns, free, job opening, secondhand, and the like, as a shared account-level negative keyword list.
Steps to Set Up a Shared List
- In Google Ads, go to Tools and Settings, then 'Shared library', then 'Negative keyword lists'.
- Create a new list and add universal waste words that apply to all campaigns, free, job opening, internship, secondhand, and similar, to it.
- Apply this list to all your existing and future campaigns, so every new campaign starts with this baseline protection automatically.
- Add campaign-specific waste words, queries that only show up for a particular service line for example, separately to that campaign's own negative list.
This layered structure removes the burden of thinking through negative keywords from scratch every time you launch a new campaign and provides consistent protection across the account.
A Concrete Example of Budget Waste
Here's a real-world example: a beauty clinic running a $500 monthly budget reviewed its search terms report for the first time and found that of roughly 620 total clicks over the past 30 days, about 140 came from 'free', 'job opening', 'how to do it', and out-of-area searches. At an average cost per click of $0.35, that one line item alone amounted to roughly $49 in direct waste, and none of those clicks had converted into an appointment. After building the negative keyword list, the following month's click count dropped to 480 on the same budget, but the number of conversions didn't change, meaning every dollar spent started going toward a higher-quality click. This example shows that negative keywords don't shrink your budget; they raise its hit rate.
Finding Recurring Patterns with N-Gram Analysis
In high-volume accounts, reading through search terms one by one isn't practical; that's where n-gram analysis comes in. N-gram analysis breaks every query in the search terms report down into individual words or word pairs and shows how often each one repeats and how queries containing it perform on average. If the word 'job', for example, appears in 40 different queries and none of them convert, adding 'job' as a single negative keyword is far more efficient than adding all 40 queries one by one. A simple word-splitting formula in Google Ads Editor or Excel can replace hours of manual review with this kind of analysis, especially in accounts getting more than 500 clicks a month.
What Should You Watch Out for When Adding Negative Keywords?
The most common mistake when adding negative keywords is adding an overly broad word without thinking it through. Adding the word appointment as a blanket negative, for example, can also block valuable searches like book an appointment that actually carry purchase intent. That's why, before adding any negative keyword, you should check whether it truly only covers unwanted queries or whether it would accidentally block valuable ones too. It's also worth choosing the negative match type deliberately; a phrase- or exact-match negative creates a much more targeted, lower-side-effect block than a broad-match negative.
Can Overusing Negative Keywords Also Cause Harm?
Yes; the second common mistake with negative keywords is being overly cautious and blocking far more than necessary. When a business owner adds broad, generic words like 'appointment cost', 'price', or 'how' as blanket negatives, they can end up accidentally excluding many users who genuinely intend to buy. A search like 'how much does laser hair removal cost', for instance, can come just as easily from someone comparing prices and ready to book as from someone just researching. That's why, before adding any negative keyword, you should look at the actual conversion data for queries containing it, not just block something because it sounds irrelevant. A sound approach is to remove a suspect keyword from a single campaign first rather than the whole account, and watch the results before going further.
How Does a Negative Keyword List Affect Your Ad Budget?
A well-maintained negative keyword list lets you get more qualified clicks for the same budget, because a meaningful share of what used to be wasted spend now goes toward the right queries. Even if a campaign's cost per click stays flat, blocking irrelevant clicks raises the conversion rate and, as a result, lowers your cost per acquisition. If you'd like to measure this effect without growing your budget, our article on what is ROAS explains the right measurement framework; if you want to build your budget planning around negative keyword discipline from the start, our article on how to set an advertising budget can help. For the measurement to be solid, your conversion tracking also needs to be set up correctly; our article on setting up conversion tracking covers the basic steps.
Conclusion: A Negative Keyword List Needs Ongoing Maintenance
Using negative keywords isn't a setting you configure once and forget; it's a living discipline that needs regular upkeep for as long as the campaign runs. Monitoring the search terms report regularly, blocking typical waste words at the account level from the start, and making sure every new negative keyword doesn't accidentally block valuable searches are some of the most concrete ways to make sure your ad budget goes where it should. If you'd like help building and continuously optimizing the negative keyword discipline in your Google Ads account, our digital advertising management service is here to help; get in touch with us and let's get clear together on where your budget is actually going.
One last point worth remembering: no matter how large your negative keyword list grows, once your account adds a new product, service, or region, some words that used to be worthless can become relevant again. That's why treating the list as a living document that gets revisited as your business grows, rather than something you set up once and leave static, is the healthiest long-term approach. Whenever you add a new service or expand to a different city, make sure to revisit your account-level shared list; otherwise you might unknowingly block a new and valuable customer segment with your own negative keywords.