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How to build negative keyword lists for Google Ads

Negative keywords are how you tell Google Ads which searches to skip. They don't behave the same as positive keywords, and most accounts build theirs reactively instead of proactively. This guide covers where candidates come from, how to organise them into reusable lists, and how to apply them at the right level so the spend you save actually shows up on your bottom line.

What negative keywords do

Negative keywords exclude search terms from your campaigns. Add free as a negative and your ad stops showing on searches containing the word "free". Add jobs as a negative and your ad stops showing when someone searches for jobs in your category.

The most important thing to know up front: negative keywords don't match close variants. Per Google's docs, if you exclude the negative broad match keyword "flowers", ads won't be eligible to serve when a user searches "red flowers", but can serve if a user searches for "red flower". You need to add singular and plural forms separately if you want to exclude both.

Negative keywords also handle casing and misspellings automatically, so you don't need to add SHOES and shoes and shuz. One entry covers them all.

There are three negative match types:

Match type Blocks when search contains Example
Negative broad All the negative keyword terms, in any order running shoes blocks "running shoes" and "shoes running" but not "running shoe" (singular)
Negative phrase The exact terms, in the same order, with possible extra words running shoes blocks "blue running shoes" and "running shoes" but not "shoes running"
Negative exact Exactly the keyword, no extra words running shoes blocks only "running shoes" and nothing else

Negative broad is the default and is usually what you want. Use negative phrase or exact when broad would block searches you actually want to keep.

You can apply negative keywords at three levels. Account-level lists apply to every eligible Search and Shopping campaign. Campaign-level lists apply to one campaign. Ad-group-level lists apply to one ad group only. Most accounts start with a single shared account-level list and add campaign-level lists for vertical-specific terms.

Sourcing candidates

The best source of negative keyword candidates is your own search terms report. Open Google Ads, go to Keywords > Search terms, and look for queries that triggered your ads but didn't convert. Anything that looks unrelated to your offer goes on the list.

When you're using AI Max for Search or Performance Max, also check the search terms insights that AI Max surfaces. These show which queries broad match expansion or asset-based targeting drove. If a query clearly doesn't fit your offer, add it as a negative so AI Max stops reaching for it.

Other sources worth pulling from:

  • Customer support tickets. If your support team keeps fielding the same questions, those queries are probably spending your ad budget too.
  • Sales call notes. The "no, that's not what we do" moment in a sales call is a candidate negative.
  • Competitor brands. If you're a small fish and don't want to bid on competitor names, add them as negatives at the account level.
  • Your own product pages. Read your product descriptions. The terms that aren't relevant to what you sell are candidates.
  • Industry forums and Reddit. The way people actually describe problems in forums is often very different from how your keyword list describes them. That mismatch is gold for negative discovery.

Aim to review your search terms report regularly, at least monthly. Most accounts surface 20-50 new candidates a month once they're at scale. For the full review workflow, see our search terms report guide.

Common categories

Most negative keywords fall into a handful of recurring buckets. Pre-build a starter list for each, then layer account-specific terms on top.

  • Jobs and hiring. jobs, career, careers, hiring, salary, indeed, linkedin, glassdoor, resume. People searching these aren't buying, they're applying.
  • Free, cheap, DIY. free, cheap, diy, tutorial, how to, course. Depending on your offer, you may want some of these (a tutorial site wants them) or none (a premium service doesn't).
  • Customer support. login, sign in, support, customer service, phone number, help desk. Existing customers shouldn't be in your acquisition funnel.
  • Competitor brands. Add the brand names of competitors you don't want to bid against. Don't add the ones you do want to bid against as a tactic.
  • Irrelevant intent. images, pictures, video, download, game. These signals often indicate research or entertainment intent rather than purchase intent.
  • Wrong geography. If you're a US-only business, add country names you don't serve. Negative uk, canada, australia, etc., at the campaign level.
  • Wrong product line. If you sell enterprise software, add consumer terms like home, personal, small business. If you sell consumer software, add enterprise terms like enterprise, api, sso.

Organising and applying at scale

Once you have more than a few dozen negatives, organise them into named lists. Google's "negative keyword lists" feature lets you create one list and apply it to multiple campaigns, then update it in one place when you want to add or remove a term.

Three lists is a sensible starting point for most accounts:

  1. Universal negatives (account-level). The job, free, support, and competitor brand terms that apply to every campaign.
  2. Vertical negatives (campaign-level). Terms specific to a product line or audience, like "wrong geography" or "wrong product line" categories.
  3. Campaign-specific negatives (campaign-level or ad-group-level). One-off terms discovered in a single campaign's search terms report.

Apply the universal list to every new Search campaign by default. Layer vertical lists on top where they apply. Reserve ad-group-level negatives for narrow surgical exclusions.

Watch the limit: Google Ads caps account-level negative keywords for Display and Video at 1,000. Search and Shopping limits are much higher. If you're approaching the Display cap, that's a sign to consolidate by combining similar terms into phrase match negatives.

Step by step with our tool

Before you upload negatives to Google Ads Editor, format them with our Negative Keyword Wrapper. Paste a list of bare keywords, pick a match type, and the tool prefixes each one with the right symbol:

  • Broad negative: running shoes
  • Phrase negative: -"running shoes"
  • Exact negative: -[running shoes]

It also handles dedupe, removes blank lines, and trims whitespace. Useful when you've just pulled 200 candidates from a search terms report and need to clean them up before pasting.

FAQ

Do negative keywords match close variants?

No. Negative keywords don't match close variants, plurals, or other expansions the way positive keywords do. If you want to block "running shoe" and "running shoes", add both as separate negatives.

What's the difference between an account-level and a campaign-level negative?

Account-level applies to every eligible Search and Shopping campaign automatically. Campaign-level applies to a single campaign. Use account-level for universal terms (jobs, free, support) and campaign-level for vertical-specific exclusions.

Can I use the same negative keyword across multiple campaigns?

Yes. Use a negative keyword list. Create the list once, apply it to as many campaigns as you want, and update the list in one place when you want to add or remove terms.

Do negative keywords work in Performance Max campaigns?

Yes, but they work differently. Per Google's docs, Performance Max uses account-level negative keyword lists for Search inventory only. Negative keywords don't exclude PMax placements on Display, Video, or other inventory. We cover this in more detail in a separate guide.