How to Add Negative Keywords to Google Ads

When running an advertising campaign using Google Ads to promote your products and services, use relevant keywords that are likely to attract the appropriate audience. When people search these keywords on Google, your ads will show up in the search results. Negative keywords are search terms filtered out of your advertising campaigns or ad groups. These include keywords that detract from the goal of your advertising campaign.

For example, if you intend to get more sales for your business through your campaign, you want to refrain from using research-based keywords.

These types of keywords include terms such as “what is” or “how to”. People searching these terms typically have the intention of researching or learning more about a product or service, rather than directly purchasing it. If your goal is to gain sales through your advertising campaign, negative keywords such as research-based terms would attract leads that will likely not turn into direct sales. 

When you add negative keywords to a campaign, your ads will not show up in the search results of those keywords. Adding negative keywords can be significantly helpful because it prevents you from wasting your ad campaign’s budget and losing out on profits.

Next, navigate to “Keywords” on the left-hand panel. In the drop-down list, navigate to “Negative Keywords”. This will take you to your list of negative keywords. You can manually create a list, or you can save keywords to a list. Use the blue plus button in the top left corner to add your negative keywords. 

You can also pick negative keywords from keywords that are already active in your campaign. To do so, navigate to “Search Keywords” in the left-hand panel. Here, you can see the list of keywords that are currently active.

Once you’ve uploaded your list, Facebook will attempt to match all of the information accurately. If some information needs to be corrected, you will need to manually complete it. See the adjacent tab that reads “Actions needed”. To manually match the rest of your list information, simply click the tab and complete the necessary actions.

When you’re ready, select “Upload and Create.”

Go through your existing keywords and analyze which keywords are the most relevant to not only your products and services, but also the goal of your advertising, whether it be to gain more sales, phone calls, or leads.

Once you’ve identified which of your keywords are negative, check the box next to each one of them. Notice the option “Add as a negative keyword” at the top of the list. Select it to change the keywords to negatives. You can either add them to a campaign or add them as a negative keyword list. You can then apply the negative keyword list to a campaign.

Once you’ve uploaded your list, Facebook will attempt to match all of the information accurately. If some information needs to be corrected, you will need to manually complete it. See the adjacent tab that reads “Actions needed”. To manually match the rest of your list information, simply click the tab and complete the necessary actions.

When you’re ready, select “Upload and Create.”

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