Negative keywords are the single fastest way to stop a Google Ads budget from leaking. While most advertisers spend their time building keyword lists, the accounts that consistently hit target CPA (cost per acquisition) numbers are the ones that are equally disciplined about exclusions.
Google defines negative keywords as keywords that prevent your ads from showing on searches that include those terms. They work at the campaign level, the ad group level, or through a shared list you push across multiple campaigns at once.
The problem: most accounts set them up once during launch and never revisit them. The Search Terms report fills up with irrelevant queries month after month, each one burning a fraction of the daily budget, and the cumulative effect kills ROAS (return on ad spend).
Here are the ten categories that show up in nearly every account audit, with specific terms to add and the reason each one matters.
Quick reference: what to add as negatives
- Job, career, and salary terms: "jobs," "salary," "careers," "hiring"
- Free and DIY qualifiers: "free," "cheap," "DIY," "how to do it yourself"
- Competitor brand names (unless running a conquest campaign deliberately)
- City and state names outside your service area
- Reputation research terms: "reviews," "complaints," "scam," "BBB"
- Informational modifiers on transactional campaigns: "how to," "what is," "guide," "tutorial"
- Asset and media terms: "images," "video," "template," "sample"
- Adjacent product and tool terms irrelevant to your offer
- Existing-customer terms: "login," "support," "my account," "help desk"
- Education and career-change terms: "internship," "course," "training," "certification"
1. Job, Career, and Salary Search Terms
Job and career search terms are one of the most common sources of wasted spend in Google Ads accounts, because broad and phrase match keywords can match queries like "plumber salary" or "HVAC technician jobs."
Any service business running on broad or phrase match is exposed to this. A campaign targeting "plumber" can surface ads on "plumber salary California," "plumber apprenticeship program," or "how much do plumbers make." These searches come from people exploring a career, not people with a broken pipe.
Terms to add as negatives: jobs, job, careers, career, salary, salaries, hiring, employment, work from home, remote, "how much do [your service] make."
Why it matters: These clicks carry near-zero conversion intent. Every dollar spent on a job seeker is a dollar that did not reach a buyer.
Practical takeaway: Add these as campaign-level negatives from day one, then scan the Search Terms report after the first two weeks to catch variations you missed.
2. Free, Cheap, and DIY Qualifiers
Adding free, cheap, and DIY qualifiers as negatives concentrates your budget on users who are actually willing to pay for a solution.
A user searching "free roof inspection" or "how to fix a leaky faucet yourself" has already indicated price sensitivity or a preference to skip the service entirely. Your ad can still show and get a click, but the landing page conversion rate on these queries is typically far lower than on unmodified commercial searches.
Terms to add as negatives: free, cheap, budget, affordable, low-cost, DIY, "do it yourself," no cost, gratis, "free trial" (if you don't offer one), "how to do."
A note on "affordable": this one is context-dependent. If you explicitly position on price, it may be a term to keep. If you sell premium services or products, it signals a mismatch worth blocking.
Practical takeaway: Run a search query for "free" and "cheap" in your Search Terms report right now. If you see clicks with zero conversions, you've found budget ready to recover.
3. Competitor Brand Terms You Don't Want to Bid on by Mistake
Broad match is aggressive. Google can match your keyword "accounting software" to "QuickBooks login help" if it thinks the intent is close enough. Unless you've deliberately built a competitor-conquest campaign with its own landing page, competitor names should live on your negative keyword list.
Terms to add: the exact brand names and common misspellings of competitors in your category. If you're a local HVAC company, that list includes the names of every other HVAC brand or franchise operating in your market.
The exception: competitor conquest is a legitimate strategy when done intentionally. The problem is accidental matching. Keeping competitor names in a negative list at the account level prevents that, while still letting you run a deliberate conquest campaign in a separate campaign where those negatives are removed.
Practical takeaway: Build a shared negative list called "Competitor Brands" and apply it to every campaign that isn't explicitly a conquest campaign.
4. Irrelevant Geographic Modifiers Outside Your Service Area
Even with location targeting enabled in Google Ads, phrase-match and broad-match keywords can still match queries that contain city or state names outside your service area, making geographic negatives a critical second layer of protection.
Google's location targeting controls which users see your ads based on where they are. But it does not filter queries that contain a place name. A user physically located in your market searching "roofing companies Chicago" (your competitor's city) can still trigger your ad if "roofing companies" is in your keyword list.
Terms to add: city names, state names, and regional identifiers (e.g., "East Coast," "Midwest," "national") that fall outside the geography you actually serve.
Practical takeaway: Pull a list of every major metro and state you do not serve and add them as phrase-match negatives at the account level. It takes thirty minutes and can save weeks of mis-targeted spend.
5. Reviews, Complaints, and Scam-Related Searches
Queries containing words like "reviews," "complaints," or "scam" almost never convert on a direct-response landing page, because the user is doing reputation research, not shopping.
Someone searching "ABC Roofing scam" or "best CRM software reviews comparison" is in a research or vetting mindset. They are not at the bottom of the funnel. Your direct-response ad landing on a "Get a Free Quote" page is the wrong message for where they are. Even if they click, the conversion rate on these terms is structurally low.
Terms to add as negatives: reviews, review, complaints, complaint, scam, scams, fraud, lawsuit, BBB, Yelp, Trustpilot, Reddit, "is [your category] worth it," "is [your category] a scam."
When reviews might belong in a separate campaign: if you want to target review-stage researchers deliberately, build a dedicated campaign with a comparison-focused landing page. That is a different intent layer with a different page, not the same campaign blocked from the term.
Practical takeaway: Add these as exact- or phrase-match negatives. Do not block them as broad-match negatives or you may over-filter and lose legitimate queries.
6. Purely Informational 'How To' Queries on Transactional Campaigns
Informational intent and transactional intent require different pages and different bids. A campaign built around a "Get a Quote" landing page should not be spending budget on "how to choose a roofing contractor" or "what is conversion rate optimization."
Terms to add as negatives on transactional campaigns: how to, how do, what is, what are, why does, guide, tutorial, learn, definition, meaning, explained, "step by step," walkthrough.
The nuance: if you run a content or awareness campaign that deliberately targets research queries, do not add these negatives there. This exclusion applies specifically to campaigns where the goal is an immediate action, a form fill, a call, or a purchase.
Practical takeaway: Segment your campaigns by intent from the start. Transactional campaigns get informational negatives. Awareness campaigns do not. Mixing them inflates CPA and muddies performance data.
7. Image, Video, and Template Search Modifiers
Asset searches look like commercial searches but almost never produce buyers. "Roofing tile images," "invoice template free," or "logo design examples" all have enough surface-level overlap with legitimate commercial keywords to trigger broad match.
Terms to add as negatives: images, image, photos, photo, pictures, picture, video, videos, template, templates, sample, samples, example, examples, download, downloadable, printable, PDF, clip art, icon, icons, PNG, JPG.
Why this is an easy win: these are not edge cases. In any account running broad or phrase match at scale, asset modifiers appear in the Search Terms report regularly. They convert at near zero and can be safely excluded across most campaigns.
Practical takeaway: Add a shared "Asset Modifiers" negative list and apply it to all direct-response campaigns on launch day. Revisit quarterly to add newly surfaced variants.
8. Wrong-Category or Adjacent-Product Terms
This one is account-specific but universally present. Every business has a set of adjacent product or tool terms that overlap with its primary keywords but represent a completely different buyer.
A commercial cleaning company running "commercial cleaning" can match "commercial cleaning equipment for sale" (buyers of machines, not services). A marketing agency running "Google Ads management" can match "Google Ads management certification" (people wanting credentials, not a vendor).
How to find yours: sort your Search Terms report by impressions. Look for any query where the product or tool is the destination, not your service. List those product and tool terms and add them as negatives.
Practical takeaway: this is not a set-it-and-forget-it list. Every new keyword you add can open new adjacent-category exposure. Review the Search Terms report monthly and update accordingly.
9. Support, Login, and Existing-Customer Terms
Brand-name campaigns and broad-match service campaigns both attract existing customers. A user who already bought your software and types "[your brand] login" has no purchase intent. Neither does someone searching "[your category] customer support number."
Terms to add as negatives: login, log in, sign in, password, reset password, forgot password, support, help desk, customer service, "my account," "existing customer," cancel, cancellation, refund, unsubscribe.
Why this matters beyond budget: showing an acquisition ad to a customer trying to log in or cancel creates a confusing brand experience. It is not just a spend problem; it is a CX problem.
Practical takeaway: Add these at the campaign level for all acquisition-focused campaigns. If you run a retention-focused campaign deliberately targeting existing customers, create a separate campaign with its own messaging and remove those negatives there only.
10. Internship, Course, and Training-Related Searches
Terms like "internship," "training program," and "certification" attract students and career-changers, not buyers, and they are consistently missed in account audits even at accounts that otherwise run clean negative keyword lists.
These surface in every category. A legal services campaign can match "paralegal internship program." A home services campaign can match "HVAC technician training course." A B2B software campaign can match "Salesforce administrator certification."
Terms to add as negatives: internship, intern, course, courses, training, certification, certifications, certificate, apprenticeship, program, degree, associate's, bachelor's, master's, online class, e-learning, bootcamp, workshop, seminar.
Practical takeaway: stack these with the job and career terms from item one into a single "Non-Buyer Intent" shared negative list. Apply it across all acquisition campaigns and update it when new education-related queries surface in the Search Terms report.
How to deploy these as a shared negative keyword list
Google Ads lets you build shared negative keyword lists and apply them to multiple campaigns from one place. Here is where to find them in the interface.
Build three lists to start:
- Non-Buyer Intent: jobs, careers, salary, free, DIY, how to, what is, internship, course, training, certification.
- Asset Modifiers: images, video, template, sample, example, download, printable.
- Existing-Customer Terms: login, support, help desk, my account, reset password.
Apply all three to every acquisition campaign. Then build a fourth, account-specific list for your adjacent-product terms, geographic exclusions, and competitor names. Review each list quarterly and after any major keyword expansion.
Google recommends using the Search Terms report to find new irrelevant queries and add them as negatives on an ongoing basis rather than treating a negative keyword list as a one-time setup task.
That last point is the one most accounts miss. A negative keyword list is infrastructure, not a launch checkbox.
If you want a full audit of where your Google Ads budget is actually going, including the full Search Terms breakdown and a map of conversion paths from click to closed customer, book a strategy call.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are negative keywords in Google Ads?
Negative keywords are terms you add to a Google Ads campaign or ad group to prevent your ads from showing when a user's search includes those words. They work by telling Google when NOT to enter the auction, which keeps your budget focused on searches that match your actual offer. Google's official negative keyword documentation covers the three match types: broad match negative, phrase match negative, and exact match negative.
How do negative keywords lower wasted spend?
When a keyword in your campaign matches an irrelevant query, you pay for a click from a user who has no intent to buy. Negative keywords block those auction entries before they happen. The result is a smaller pool of impressions but a higher-intent audience, which typically improves click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost per acquisition simultaneously without changing your bids.
Should I use broad or exact match negatives?
It depends on how specific the term is. For single-word exclusions like "free" or "jobs," broad match negatives are usually appropriate because you want to block any query containing that word. For multi-word phrases where word order matters, phrase match gives you more control. Exact match negatives are best when the term is close to a keyword you want to keep, and you only want to block that precise query. A common mistake is adding everything as broad match, which can over-filter and block queries you actually want.
How often should negative keyword lists be updated?
At minimum, review your Search Terms report once a month. After any keyword expansion or match type change, review it within the first week. Google's own guidance recommends ongoing refinement rather than a one-time setup. In fast-moving categories or accounts with large keyword sets, weekly reviews during the first 90 days of a campaign are appropriate to catch new irrelevant patterns before they compound.
Can negative keywords hurt a campaign by blocking too much?
Yes, over-negating is a real problem. If you add a broad-match negative that is too close to a term you want to target, you can accidentally suppress legitimate searches. The fix is to audit your negative lists against your active keyword list before adding anything, especially for single-word negatives. Google Ads will warn you if a negative keyword conflicts with an active keyword, but only within the same ad group or campaign, not across the entire account.
Where do I add a shared negative keyword list in Google Ads?
In the Google Ads interface, go to Tools, then Shared Library, then Negative Keyword Lists. From there you can create a list, add terms, and apply it to any campaign. This is far more efficient than managing negatives campaign by campaign, especially when the same exclusions apply account-wide. Google's shared negative keyword list help page walks through the exact steps.
Do negative keywords work the same way in Performance Max campaigns?
Performance Max has a more limited negative keyword interface than standard Search campaigns. You can add account-level negative keywords that apply to all campaigns including Performance Max, and you can request campaign-level negatives through the Google Ads interface. However, the Search Terms visibility in Performance Max is more restricted than in standard Search, which makes the account-level shared lists even more important as a baseline layer of protection.