What is a Negative Keyword
A negative keyword is a keyword matching option that will not trigger your ads for any search queries containing that term.
If your goal is to find qualified leads, negative keywords will help filter out some of the traffic that you do not want. For example, if you are selling ‘shoes’, but you do not sell ‘kids shoes’, you can add ‘kids’ as a negative keyword. Therefore your ad will not be shown to a searcher looking for ‘kids shoes’.
Negative keywords can be added at two different levels, at a campaign level and at an Ad Group level.
Benefits of Negative Keywords
1. Your ad will not show for search queries that are not relevant to your target market.
2. There will be fewer clicks that do not convert into leads or sales.
3. Your account’s overall Click Through Rate (CTR) will be higher because your ad will not be triggered for irrelevant search queries, causing your total number of impressions to fall and thus causing your CTR to improve.
4. A higher CTR will cause your ad to get a higher Ad Rank through better Quality Score
5. Improved Quality Score helps decrease Cost Per Click (CPC).
6. With a lower CPC, your campaigns will receive more daily clicks which will increase targeted traffic to your site
7. An increase in quality traffic going to your website can potentially improve your conversion numbers
8. Improved conversion numbers can increase the ROI of your Google AdWords Campaign.
Types of Negative Keywords
There are three different types of negative keywords, namely broad, phrase or exact match type.
1. Broad Negative Keywords
You can add a broad negative keyword to your ad groups or campaigns by simply adding a minus sign (-) in front of the keyword. An example of a broad negative keyword is ‘-cheap software’. With this keyword in your negative keyword list, your ad will not show if a user searches with both the words 'cheap' and 'software'. But, your ad will show if the searcher’s query includes only one of the two words, for example 'cheap program' or 'free software'. A search query like 'cheap software online' will not trigger your ad.
2. Phrase Negative Keywords
Add a phrase negative keyword to your ad groups or campaigns by simply adding quotation marks to your keyword and adding a minus sign (-) in front. An example of a phrase negative keyword is -“cheap software”. With this keyword in your negative keyword list, your ad will not appear if the search query is either ‘online cheap software’ or ‘cheap software review’. But your ad will appear for search queries like ‘cheap simple software’, ‘cheap program’ and ‘software download’.
3. Exact Negative Keywords
You get an exact negative keyword by simply adding square brackets to your keyword and adding a minus sign (-) in front. An example of an exact negative keyword is ‘–[cheap software]’. With this keyword in your negative keyword list, your ad will not appear only if the search query is ‘cheap software’. But your ad will appear for search queries like ‘cheap simple software’, ‘cheap program’, ‘software download’ and 'cheap software online'.
Tools to identify Negative Keywords
Google AdWords has two main sources where you can identify and create a negative keyword list.
1. Google AdWords Search Query Report
You can use the search query report from your AdWords account to identifying negative keywords. The report will show you the actual query that resulted in your ads being triggered. Any unwanted search query should be added to your negative keyword list at a campaign or ad group level.
2. Google AdWords Keyword Tool
The Google AdWords Keyword Tool can be used to identify negative keywords. Click on this link and to create your negative keyword list by choosing the match type "Negative".
This article was posted by Manesh Ram. Manesh is Google AdWords certified and SEM Campaign Manager at Traffika. You can follow Manesh on Twitter @maneshram.