The Plain-English Guide to Negative Keywords

When I woke up this morning, I shuffled dazedly into my kitchen, where I made a disturbing discovery: I ran out of coffee grounds.

Suddenly full of energy and to fix the situation as quickly as possible, I desperately ran to my desk, opened my laptop and typed “ground coffee beans” into Google.

I got numerous results: coffee alternatives, filter coffee beans, coffee bean blends, lists of coffee grounds, and even a list of nearby coffee shops. But even though I had received all of this information, I still hadn’t found what I needed.

So I continued.

After browsing through recipes using ground coffee beans and a section called “Research Ground Coffee Beans”, I finally found a section where I could buy ground coffee beans!

When I secured my refill, I thought about all the options I had for “ground coffee beans” and how many ads I clicked or ignored because they didn’t match my search intent. “Imagine you advertise coffee and waste advertising on requests like mine.” I thought.

“Certainly,” I thought, “There has to be a marketing method that you can use to avoid this scenario.”

The answer? Negative keywords.

Negative keywords are also known as negative matches and ensure that certain words or phrases do not trigger an ad that appears on a SERP or website. This improves targeting: if you prevent keywords from being linked to an ad, you can be sure that they will appear to the right audiences.

For example, suppose you run an ad for a webinar series about becoming an entrepreneur. Your target group is the professional who wants to start his own company.

However, you will find your “Business Success: A 6 Week Course” webinar series viewed by potential university students who are looking for preparatory courses before applying for a major in business.

To make sure your ad is seen by the right people, add “university” and “business class” as negative keywords. This way, prospective students who are majoring in business are less likely to use your ad to ensure that your ad spend is targeting the right person: aspiring entrepreneurs.

Improved targeting of your ad keeps the focus on the most important keywords.

For the business course these are most likely “entrepreneurship courses”, “business webinars” and “how to open a business”.

An ad with exceptional targeting, seen by the right people, improves ROI.

How do negative keywords differ from other keywords?

Using negative keywords ensures that you don’t waste advertising. Improving keyword performance by adding conflicting keywords gives you more control over who will see your ads and more focus on the most valuable keywords.

Negative keywords ensure that the unintended audience doesn’t see your ads. Both are attempts to increase ROI (return on investment) and targeting ads.

For clarification, let’s consider an example: Suppose you advertise social media analytics software for agencies. It is a PPC ad and you are bidding on the terms “Social Media Analytics” and “Social Media Software”. without negative keywords.

While your campaign is running, users may be looking for “social media software” to find social media planning tools. You’ll see your ad, but won’t look at it because they’re not interested in agency social media analytics.

This leads to a loss of ROI and CTR. However, if you add negative keywords like “Social Media Scheduler”, “Beginner Social Media Software” and “Social Media Software for Influencers”, you can avoid these losses.

Negative keywords are essentially different from other keywords because your ad can be more focused using another method. You improve the focus of your campaign and who interacts with each ad. Choosing the words you want to avoid will increase your ROI.

How to find negative keywords

So we explained why negative keywords are important. How can you find out which keywords should be excluded?

When doing keyword research for an upcoming campaign, first create a list of negative keywords. If you come across searches that may conflict with your intent, add them to your list.

Think of words that fit under the umbrella of keywords and fill in the blanks. Negative keywords can be specific if the keywords are wide.

For example, suppose your work for a breakfast syrup dealer and your keywords are “syrup brands”. It’s a pretty broad category – there is breakfast syrup, simple syrup, cough syrup, and infused syrups. In order to close the gaps, negative keywords can find out what is not relevant for your product, such as B. the many syrup variants.

If your target group is large, you can still achieve a greater reach if you cut out the part of a target group that finds no value for your product or service.

For example, if you are promoting the launch of online products, you want a negative keyword list to contain things that indicate a physical purchase, such as: B. “personal” or “stationary”.

Identifying keywords sounds like a mind-reading process, but keyword software can help you remove some of these burdens. If you have a Google Ads account, you can also open the account Search term reportThis shows which search terms triggered your ad.

If you come across a phrase that has had many impressions but limited conversions, you should remove the search term by adding the phrase as a negative keyword.

Use negative keywords

When creating a negative keyword list, don’t go overboard. You don’t want to drastically reduce the reach of your ads due to a large list of restricted words. Search terms should be similar to your keywords, but do not differentiate your keywords.

For example, if you sell sunglasses and your keyword is “glasses”, think about the attached subcategories such as water glasses and glasses. These are negative keywords that you can add to your list, but “bifocals” and “cute glasses” may not need to be excluded – they can still fit into the “sunglasses” category.

There are three types of negative keywords: broad match, phrase match, and exact match.

Let’s talk about when each should be used.

• Negative broad match – Negative broad match keywords prevent your ad from showing if the query contains all negative keywords. However, if only a few of these words are included in the query, your ad may still appear. If your negative keywords don’t fit in any other category, they’re considered broad match keywords.

Example – If the broad match negative keyword is “wax melter,” the ad may still appear for the searches “wax melt” and “Pink Max melters” and “wax melter” because the queries still contain a some of the keywords. Negative broad match keywords are a good idea if you want to maximize your reach with negative keywords.

Enter keywords without formatting, e.g. B. Plus signs or quotes to add broad match keywords in Google Ads.

• Negative phrase match – If you want the query to use your negative keywords in the order you listed them, use negative phrase matching. While your ad won’t show if the terms are in the same order, the search doesn’t exclude additional words. If characters such as an exclamation mark or question mark are added to the search, your ad will not be excluded.

Example – If your keyword was negative wax match, your ad could still appear for “Pink Wax Melt” and “Melt Wax”, but not for “Pink Wax Melt” and “Where can I find it?” Wax melter? “

This is because the first few searches contain the negative keywords in another phrase, while the latter use the phrase in that order. Use a negative phrase match if you want to appear to a large audience but want to recognize tiny words that can change the meaning of a query.

Enter keywords with a quote, e.g. B. “Wax melter” to add keywords with negative phrases in Google Ads.

• Negative exact match – Your ads will not appear for the exact keyword queries in the exact order if you categorize them as a negative match only. The only condition here is that your ad has a chance of being seen if the query adds additional words.

Example – Your negative exact match phrase is “wax melter”. This means that anyone looking for the exact phrase “wax melter” cannot see your ad. However, queries such as “melter for wax” and “melting pink wax” can. And while it is unlikely that “where can I find wax melters that are pink?” will be shown to your users, the phrase may still be surrounded by multiple words.

If your negative keyword phrase is very broad and can be interpreted in different ways, use the exact exact match. This is also a good keyword category if you are focusing on a very targeted, specific audience.

To add negative exact match keywords in Google Ads, put a bracket around your keywords as follows: [wax melters].

Keep in mind that the idea of ​​negative keywords is to avoid wasted advertising spend and to maximize ROI through targeting. You want to use it as an additional tool to get ads in the right places.

As a consumer, I want to find valuable answers to my search queries, as well as Google. Negative keywords only support this process, especially for advertisers. They are used to maximize your reach and ensure that your ads are seen by the website correct People.

Ultimately, negative keywords are an additional step that can lead to a high positive return. Even if you’re not part of a company that sells ground coffee beans, you should think about how negative keywords can help your next ad’s goals.