What is a negative keyword and why does it matter?
An in-depth look at what is a negative keyword and why does it matter and what it means for your business. Full answer and strategy on the Paid Search page.
A negative keyword is a search term you tell Google Ads not to show your ads for. It prevents your ads from appearing on irrelevant searches that waste budget.
If you run a high-end landscaping company in Margate and someone searches for cheap lawn mowing, you do not want your ad showing up. Adding cheap, budget, and DIY as negative keywords keeps your ads from triggering on searches that will never convert.
Negative keywords save money by filtering out low-intent traffic. Every click costs you. If 30% of your clicks come from people searching for things you do not offer, you are burning 30% of your budget on traffic that will never become a customer.
Most Google Ads accounts have terrible negative keyword lists. They either have none at all, or they added a handful of obvious terms years ago and never updated them. Your search term report shows you exactly what triggered your ads. Reviewing it weekly and adding negatives is how you stop the bleed.
Negative keywords work at the campaign level or the account level. Campaign-level negatives only apply to that campaign. Account-level negative lists apply across every campaign, which is faster for blocking universally irrelevant terms like free, cheap, or DIY.
For local service businesses, negative keywords are the most underused tool in Google Ads. Adding 50 to 100 well-chosen negatives can cut wasted spend by 20% to 40% without reducing qualified leads.