What are Negative Keywords?
Negatives are terms that you’ve designated that you do not want your ads to show up for, if they appear in the search queries. They are an important part of any campaign, because they help control costs and keep your ad targeting as relevant as possible.
The main reason to include negative keywords is to prevent your ads – and, by extension, your brand – from showing up alongside search queries that are irrelevant. For example, a seller of high-end furniture would want to target affluent customers, and would add terms like "cheap" and "free" to the negatives list to prevent their ads for appearing alongside those terms. You’ll also want to rule out impressions on terms that are similar to but not really related to your business – such as “hair dryer” if you sell home appliances including washers and dryers.
What are Negative Match Types?
Negative keywords have their own set of match types. It is important to familiarize yourself with these, to ensure you are using the appropriate settings for all negative keywords that you add.
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- Broad Match Negative: This is the broadest and most commonly used negative match type. By setting a word as a negative broad, you are telling Google that you do not want your ad to show anytime that negative appears in a search query. For example, if you set drum as a broad negative, your ad would not appear for queries like drum sets for sale or cheap drum sets.
Typically, we recommend setting singular words as broad match negatives. Setting multi-word negatives on broad match can get a bit tricky. For example, if you set drum kits as a negative broad, both drum and kits must appear in the search query in order for the negative to be effective. So, your ad would show if the query was drum sets, but would not show if the query was drum kits and sets.
- Phrase Match Negative: Negative phrase match types work similarly to regular phrase match. Negative phrase should be used for two or more words that you would like to set as a negative. These words will only function as negatives if both words are present, in that particular order, in the search query. For example, if you set guitar cases as a phrase negative, you would not show for queries like cheap guitar cases or guitar cases for sale, but you would show up for cases for a guitar or guitars in black cases.
- Exact Match Negative: This is the least restrictive and most infrequently used negative match type. It eliminates very little traffic, as it only excludes searches for exact terms. For example, if you set saxophone lessons as an exact negative, the only case in which your ad would not show is if someone searches saxophone lessons. Your ad would still show for queries like saxophone lessons in Boston. This is a good option for terms that do not make sense on their own but might be a good fit when coupled with other terms.
If you need any help understanding negative match types, please do not hesitate to reach out to your dedicated Customer Success Representative, or utilize our Chat Now feature.
