In the world of Google Ads, relevance is king. One of the best tools advertisers have for keeping their campaigns sharp is the negative keyword — a way to prevent your ads from showing up for irrelevant search terms.
Used properly, negative keywords improve click-through rates, protect your budget, and help focus your campaigns on high-converting traffic. But like any good thing, it’s possible to go overboard.
What Are Keywords, Search Terms, and Negative Keywords?
- Keywords are the words or phrases you target in your Google Ads campaigns — what you want your ads to show up for. For example, a dentist might bid on the keyword “teeth whitening.”
- Search terms are the actual phrases users type into Google that trigger your ads. These may not always match your keywords exactly, especially if you’re using broad or phrase match types. For example, a user searching “best teeth whitening near me” might trigger your ad if you’re targeting the keyword “teeth whitening.”
- Negative keywords tell Google, “Do not show my ad if this word is in the user’s search query.” So if the dentist adds “DIY” as a negative keyword, their ad won’t show when someone searches “DIY teeth whitening.”
These tools help:
• Prevent irrelevant traffic
• Improve your Quality Score
• Make better use of your daily budget
In short: they keep your ads relevant to the right people.
The Hidden Risk: Overloading Your Account with Negatives
It may seem like adding hundreds or even thousands of negative keywords is a proactive way to protect your ad budget. However, adding too many — especially low-impact or unnecessary terms — can actually work against you.
Overuse of negative keywords can:
• Suppress valuable impressions
• Create conflicts with your core keywords
• Restrict reach and hurt campaign performance
Even worse, if negative keywords block terms that your broad or phrase match keywords would otherwise convert on, you’re losing potential leads without realizing it.
How to Properly Review Search Terms
Negative keywords should be a surgical tool, not a sledgehammer. When reviewing your search term report, focus on:
• Irrelevant queries that actually spent money
• Patterns (e.g., frequent “how to” or competitor names)
• Terms that consistently fail to convert
Use filters to isolate:
• High-cost, low-conversion terms
• Zero-conversion queries above a certain cost threshold
• Repeating keywords across multiple campaigns
Don’t waste time blocking one-off impressions that didn’t cost you anything — they aren’t hurting performance.
Best Practices for Managing Negative Keywords
Here’s how to keep things in check:
• Use lists: Group common negatives and apply them across campaigns
• Review weekly, not daily: Give your data time to develop
• Avoid overreaction: Always look at trends, not isolated data points
Final Thoughts: Stay Relevant Without Overcorrecting
Negative keywords are crucial for refining your Google Ads campaigns. But overloading your account can do more harm than good.
The goal is balance — you want your ads to reach the right audience without boxing yourself into a corner. Prioritize high-impact exclusions, and let low-risk search terms go.
Need help reviewing your keywords? We offer custom audits that show you what’s helping — and what’s holding your campaign back.
→ Contact us today for a free keyword review.