Google Ads Negative Keywords List: Result-Killing Terms to Exclude

The silent killer of Google Ads performance is not always your ad copy.

It is not always your landing page.

It is not always your bidding strategy.

Often, it is quieter than that.

It is the steady, invisible drip of budget wasted on search terms that will never convert.

We see it in account audits all the time.

Budget spent on searches like:

• free
• jobs
• career
• login
• support
• definition
• pdf
• salary
• tutorial
• customer service

Some of these searches are harmless in small amounts.

But across a full account, they add up.

A few pounds here.

A few pounds there.

Then, by the end of the month, a serious amount of money has gone to people who were never going to buy.

For a business spending £50,000 per month, even 20% wasted spend means £10,000 lost.

Over a year, that is £120,000.

That is not a small optimisation issue.

That is a commercial leak.

This guide goes beyond the basic advice of "add negatives."

We are going to build a Negative Keyword Defense Architecture.

We will cover:

1. The specific lists you should review.
2. The correct negative match types.
3. Shared negative keyword lists.
4. Performance Max negative keyword controls.
5. The advanced strategy of negative sculpting.
6. Weekly search term mining.
7. Common mistakes that quietly block good traffic.

If you are not actively managing your negative keywords with the same discipline as your positive keywords, you are not fully managing the account.

You are letting Google decide where your money should not go.

That is your job.

The Financial Reality of Wasted Spend

Before we dive into the lists, let's quantify the damage.

Most advertisers look at their CPA and think:

"I'm okay."

But that blended CPA hides the waste inside the account.

Consider this formula for Negative Efficiency Gap:

Negative Efficiency Gap = (Spend on 0-Conversion Irrelevant Search Terms / Total Spend) × 100

This is not the same as all zero-conversion spend.

Some keywords need time.

Some B2B terms have long sales cycles.

Some searches assist conversions.

Some clicks are part of the journey.

So be careful.

The real issue is spend on terms that are clearly irrelevant or commercially weak.

If your Negative Efficiency Gap is above 15%, your account is probably bleeding.

Let’s say you have a Target CPA of £100.

• Scenario A (Current): You spend £10,000. You get 100 conversions. CPA = £100.
• Scenario B (Optimised): You find that £2,000 was spent on terms containing jobs, salary, login and free. You exclude those terms. You still spend £10,000, but more of it now goes to high-intent searches.
• Result: If the replacement traffic converts better, you may get 120 or 130 conversions for the same spend.

You did not change your bid.

You did not write new ads.

You did not redesign the landing page.

You simply stopped paying for the wrong people.

That is the power of negative keywords.

They do not create demand.

They protect demand.

They make sure your budget reaches people with a real chance of becoming customers.

Theory: How Negative Keywords Actually Work

Many advertisers misunderstand negative keyword match types.

They assume negatives work the same way as positive keywords.

They do not.

The "Close Variant" Trap

Positive keywords can match close variants.

For example, a positive exact match keyword can match searches with the same meaning or intent.

Negative keywords are different.

Negative keywords do not match close variants in the same way.

That means Google does not automatically exclude every plural, misspelling, synonym or close meaning.

If you add a negative keyword for:

shoe

It may not automatically block:

shoes

If you add:

job

You may still need:

jobs
career
careers
salary
recruitment

Crucial Rule: Include plurals, common misspellings and related variants where needed.

Do not rely on Google to infer all negative intent.

This is especially important for high-spend accounts.

One missed variant can continue wasting money.

The Match Type Hierarchy for Negatives

Negative match types behave differently from positive match types.

Use them carefully.

1. Negative Broad Match

Negative Broad is the default.

It blocks a query if all of the negative keyword terms appear in the search, in any order.

Example:

Negative Broad:

running shoes

Blocks:

running shoes
shoes running
blue running shoes

May allow:

running shoe
shoes for runners

because the words are not the same.

Use Case: Useful for concepts where all words together signal poor intent.

Danger: It can over-block if you use broad negatives carelessly, especially with short or important words.

2. Negative Phrase Match

Negative Phrase uses quote marks.

Example:

"running shoes"

It blocks searches that contain that exact phrase in that order.

Blocks:

best running shoes
running shoes sale

Allows:

running blue shoes
shoes for running

Use Case: This is often the safest choice for multi-word negative concepts.

It gives control without being too loose.

3. Negative Exact Match

Negative Exact uses brackets.

Example:

[running shoes]

It blocks only that exact query.

Blocks:

running shoes

Allows:

best running shoes
blue running shoes
running shoes sale

Use Case: Best for negative sculpting, where you want a specific query to stop triggering one campaign or ad group, but still allow related searches elsewhere.

Negative Exact is rarely enough for universal exclusions.

It is too narrow.

But it is useful for routing.

Framework: The Negative Keyword Defense Matrix

To systematically protect your account, use the Negative Keyword Defense Matrix.

Every negative keyword should belong to a tier.

This structure matters.

Without it, accounts become messy.

You end up with hundreds of random negatives scattered across campaigns and ad groups.

Nobody knows why they were added.

Nobody knows whether they still apply.

Nobody knows whether they are now blocking growth.

A negative keyword system should be easy to audit.

You should know:

1. Why the negative exists.
2. Where it is applied.
3. Whether it is universal or tactical.
4. Whether it needs reviewing.
5. Whether it conflicts with any new strategy.

A clean structure saves time.

It also prevents accidental overblocking.

Execution: Building Your Universal Exclusion Lists

Do not manually add negatives one by one to every campaign.

Build Shared Negative Keyword Lists.

Shared lists make negative keyword management cleaner.

They help ensure every new campaign inherits the right exclusions.

Step 1: Create the "Universal - Global Exclusions" List

This list contains words that usually imply the user is not looking to buy from you.

1. Go to Tools and Settings → Shared Library → Exclusion Lists.
2. Click the + button.
3. Name it Universal - Global Exclusions.
4. Add carefully selected categories.

The "Free Seeker" Cluster

Use where free users are not commercially useful.

free
torrent
download
crack
hacked
serial key
keygen
generator
nulled
activation key

Be careful with free.

If you offer a free trial or free quote, do not blindly block the word across every campaign.

Instead, block combinations that show poor intent, such as:

free download
free crack
free template
free pdf

Or apply free only to campaigns where free intent is never useful.

The "Information Seeker" Cluster

Use where educational traffic is not the goal.

definition
meaning
what is
example of
diagram
map
wiki
book
pdf
tutorial
how to
course
guide
statistics

Be careful here.

Some informational searches can lead to revenue through SEO, YouTube or remarketing.

But they are often poor for direct demo or quote campaigns.

Use these negatives mainly in bottom-of-funnel campaigns.

Do not use them blindly in full-funnel campaigns.

The "Employment" Cluster

This is one of the highest-impact lists for B2B advertisers.

job
jobs
career
careers
salary
resume
cv
intern
internship
training
learn to
course
school
university
recruiter
recruitment
hiring
hire
indeed
glassdoor

Employment searches can burn a surprising amount of spend.

A B2B SaaS company selling CRM software does not want:

crm manager jobs
crm administrator salary
crm internship

Those users are not buyers.

They are job seekers.

Step 2: Apply to Campaigns

Once created, select the list and click Apply to campaigns.

Apply it to all suitable campaigns.

Not always literally all campaigns.

For example:

1. Apply employment negatives to almost all commercial campaigns.
2. Apply free-seeker negatives to enterprise campaigns.
3. Apply information negatives to bottom-of-funnel campaigns.
4. Avoid blocking educational terms in content-led campaigns.

Every time you launch a new campaign, check the correct negative lists.

That gives the campaign protection from day one.

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Part 5: The "Copy-Paste" Industry Negative Lists

Universal lists are useful, but every industry has its own toxic vocabulary.

Here are the specific lists we often review.

Do not paste blindly.

Adapt them to your business.

1. The B2B SaaS "Consumer" List

If you sell enterprise software, block poor-fit consumer intent.

home
personal
student
students
academic
hobby
consumer
desktop
windows
mac
ios
android
app
open source
free software

Be careful with app.

If your product has an app, do not block it.

If users searching app are looking for a cheap personal tool instead of an enterprise platform, block it.

2. The Ecommerce "DIY & Repair" List

If you sell new products, block repair or used-product intent.

repair
fix
parts
replacement
broken
second hand
secondhand
used
refurbished
ebay
craigslist
marketplace
diy
homemade
manual
instructions

Be careful if you sell spare parts, repair kits or refurbished products.

In that case, these terms may be profitable.

3. The Legal / Service "Education" List

If you are a lawyer or professional service provider, block students and free-help seekers where appropriate.

laws
act
section
pro bono
legal aid
salary
school
bar exam
clinic
template
sample
example
pdf

Be careful with legal aid or pro bono.

Some firms may intentionally serve those users.

Most commercial firms do not.

4. The Local Services "Support and Admin" List

For acquisition campaigns, block admin-style searches.

phone number
customer service
support
complaints
refund
cancel
login
portal
opening times
hours
near me jobs
reviews job

Again, use judgement.

For some local businesses, opening times may be useful.

For others, it is not.

5. The Finance and B2B "Learner" List

For high-value lead generation, block pure learning intent.

definition
explained
course
training
certificate
certification
pdf
ppt
presentation
wiki
template
sample

But if you use content to fill remarketing audiences, keep these in a separate top-of-funnel campaign.

The rule is simple:

Do not let educational traffic enter your demo campaign.

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Part 6: Automating Negatives With Google Ads Scripts

Manual mining is slow.

Smart advertisers use scripts to find patterns.

Scripts should not automatically add negatives without review unless you are extremely confident.

Use them to surface candidates.

Then approve manually.

1. The "Zero Conversion" N-Gram Script

This type of script looks at word stems or tokens rather than full queries.

If the word login appears in 50 different queries that spent £500 total with 0 conversions, the script flags login.

The Logic:

The script works by:

1. Getting the Search Query Report for the last 30 days.
2. Tokenising each query into individual words.
3. Aggregating cost and conversions by word.
4. Flagging any word that spent over a chosen threshold with zero conversions.
5. Emailing you a candidate list.

Example output:

login - £420 spend - 0 conversions
salary - £310 spend - 0 conversions
pdf - £180 spend - 0 conversions
student - £150 spend - 0 conversions

Action: Schedule this weekly and review the output.

Do not automatically block every token.

Some words are ambiguous.

For example:

support

could mean customer support login.

But it could also mean "IT support services", which may be your core product.

Always review context.

2. The "Negative Conflict" Checker

This checks whether your negatives are blocking positive keywords.

Why?

Sometimes you accidentally add a negative in the wrong place.

For example:

You add:

software

as a negative in a campaign that sells software.

Or you block:

free

and later launch a campaign for:

free trial crm

A conflict checker helps catch these mistakes.

Run it regularly, especially after:

1. Major negative list updates.
2. New campaign launches.
3. Account restructures.
4. Seasonal campaign builds.
5. Competitor campaign changes.
6. Performance Max exclusions.
7. Brand strategy changes.

This is where disciplined accounts separate from messy accounts.

Negative Sculpting: Forcing Traffic Into the Right Funnel

Negative Sculpting is not only about blocking bad traffic.

It is about forcing good traffic into the correct campaign or ad group.

The Problem:

You have two campaigns:

1. Generic Search: Bidding on CRM Software
2. Brand Search: Bidding on [HubSpot CRM]

Google may match the search HubSpot CRM to your Generic campaign if eligibility, budget, Ad Rank or structure creates overlap.

That can distort your data.

Your Generic campaign gets brand or competitor traffic.

Your Brand campaign loses clean reporting.

Your CPC may rise.

Your ad message may be wrong.

The Solution:

Add [hubspot crm] as a Negative Exact Match keyword in the Generic Campaign.

This forces Google to skip the generic campaign for that exact query and serve it from the intended campaign where eligible.

The Alpha/Beta Campaign Structure

Some accounts use an Alpha/Beta approach.

• Beta Campaign: Broad or Phrase keywords used to discover new queries.
• Alpha Campaign: Exact keywords for proven top performers.

The Sculpting Move:

Every time you move a winning keyword from Beta to Alpha, add it as an Exact Match Negative in the Beta campaign.

Why?

To stop the Beta campaign from stealing the traffic back.

You want the Alpha campaign, with tailored ad copy and better control, to win that auction.

Be careful.

Over-sculpting can make accounts fragile.

Modern Google Ads prioritisation is more complex than old match-type-only logic.

So use sculpting where it has a clear purpose.

Good sculpting examples:

1. Brand vs non-brand.
2. Competitor vs generic.
3. High-value exact vs discovery campaign.
4. Region-specific campaigns.
5. Product category routing.
6. Support terms vs acquisition terms.

Bad sculpting examples:

1. Hundreds of tiny SKAG-style exclusions.
2. Negative lists nobody understands.
3. Blocking useful close variants.
4. Splitting traffic so much Smart Bidding loses data.
5. Forcing traffic into weak landing pages.

Sculpting should create clarity.

Not complexity.

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Part 6.5: The Negative Keyword Lifecycle (Maintenance)

Negative keywords are not set and forget.

They age.

New slang appears.

New competitors launch.

New product lines change intent.

Old negatives can block new growth.

The Quarterly Audit Checklist:

1. Cleanse the "Conflicting Negatives"

Sometimes you add a negative that was correct in Q1, but blocks a new strategy in Q3.

• Example: You excluded enterprise because the business was targeting small companies. Now you are moving upmarket.
• Action: Review your Universal List line by line twice a year.

2. Review Search Partners Performance

If you see poor quality traffic, segment performance by network where available.

• Action: Segment your campaigns by Network. If Search Partners has CPA far above Google Search and no strategic value, consider turning it off for that campaign.

This acts like a network-level exclusion.

3. Merge your Ad Group Negatives

If you find yourself adding the same negative to 10 different ad groups, move it to a Shared List.

• Why? Efficiency. Scattered negatives slow down management and make audits harder.

Centralise where possible.

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Case Study: The "Login" Cluster That Burned Budget

We audited a B2B SaaS account spending around £60,000/month.

They were bidding on broad and phrase match terms around project management software.

The Find:

In the Search Terms Report for the last 90 days, top spending queries included:

• asana login
• monday.com login
• trello sign in
• client portal login
• project management software login
• task management app support

The client was paying for existing users of other software trying to log in.

They were also paying for some of their own users searching for the client brand plus login.

These users were not looking to buy.

They wanted access.

The Fix:

1. We created a Competitors - Login negative list.
2. We added login, signin, sign in, portal, status, support to suitable negative lists.
3. We added exact match negatives for their own brand terms in Non-Brand campaigns.
4. We kept commercial competitor terms such as alternative, pricing and vs in a separate conquest campaign.

The Results:

The account reduced wasted spend materially.

More budget flowed into high-intent searches.

CPA improved.

Lead quality improved.

Sales team complaints dropped.

The exact numbers vary by account, but the lesson is consistent:

Support and login queries are silent killers in B2B SaaS.

They look related.

They are not commercial.

You must block them.

Step-by-Step: Conducting a Reactive "Search Query Mining" Session

You cannot predict every negative keyword.

You must mine them.

Here is the workflow we use weekly.

1. Navigate to Search Terms: Go to Keywords → Search Terms.
2. Filter by Spend and Conversions: Set filter: Cost > £0 and Conversions < 1.
3. Sort by Cost: Find the biggest spend leaks first.
4. Sort by Impressions: Find high-volume irrelevant themes.
5. Use the Root Word Technique:
   • Do not only exclude the full query free project management software for students.
   • Identify the root cause.
   • Is it free?
   • Is it students?
   • Is it template?
   • Is it login?
6. Bulk Exclude Carefully: Select terms, add as Negative, and choose the right level:
   • Shared List if it applies broadly.
   • Campaign if it applies only to one campaign.
   • Ad group if it is tactical sculpting.

Pro Tip: Look for near me queries if you are a national or digital-only business.

Potential negatives:

near me
local
locations
hours
store
open now

But do not block these if you are a local business.

For local businesses, these may be your best queries.

Context matters.

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Part 7: Advanced Regex Patterns for Negative Discovery

You can use Regular Expressions in GA4, spreadsheets, scripts or search term analysis tools to find toxic patterns quickly.

1. The "Cheap" Pattern

Finds queries containing price-sensitive or poor-fit modifiers.

\b(free|cheap|discount|code|promo|crack|hack|torrent|nulled)\b

2. The "Question" Pattern

Finds users asking broad informational questions.

\b(what|how|why|definition|meaning|wiki|pdf|tutorial)\b

• Strategy: If you are running a Demo Request campaign, review these carefully and exclude where they are non-commercial.

3. The "Support" Pattern

Finds users trying to access or fix existing accounts.

\b(login|log in|signin|sign in|portal|support|customer service|refund|cancel|password)\b

4. The "Employment" Pattern

Finds job seekers.

\b(job|jobs|career|careers|salary|resume|cv|intern|internship|hiring|recruitment)\b

5. The "Alpha-Numeric" Garbage Pattern

Finds queries that may include product codes, serial numbers or support lookups.

\d{3,}

Review these before excluding.

Some ecommerce product codes are valuable.

Some support codes are not.

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Part 8: Negative Keywords in Performance Max (PMax)

Performance Max used to be harder to control with negative keywords.

That has improved.

Google has added more controls, including campaign-level negative keyword options and negative keyword lists in supported accounts.

You should still treat PMax differently from Search.

It is broader.

It runs across more inventory.

It uses assets, feeds, landing pages, search themes and audience signals.

But negative keyword discipline still matters.

The Account-Level Negative List:

Use account-level negatives for universal terms you never want.

Examples:

jobs
salary
torrent
crack
login
support

Campaign-Level Negatives:

Where available, use campaign-level PMax negatives to control specific campaigns.

Example:

A PMax campaign for new customer acquisition should not show on:

brand login
brand support
brand customer service

Brand Exclusions:

PMax can pick up brand demand because it converts easily.

If your goal is incremental acquisition, use brand exclusions where appropriate.

• Go to Campaign Settings → Brand Exclusions where available.
• Add your own brand.
• Review impact carefully.

Result: You force PMax to work harder for incremental demand instead of only harvesting brand demand.

But be careful.

Removing brand can reduce reported ROAS.

That does not mean performance got worse.

It may mean the campaign is no longer taking credit for demand you already had.

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Part 9: The "Competitor" Negative Strategy

Should you add competitors as negatives?

It depends.

Scenario A: You have a small budget.

• Yes, often. Add competitor names as negatives if competitor clicks are too expensive and low converting.

If funds are limited, spend on people looking for your solution category, not your rival.

Scenario B: You have a larger budget.

• No, not always. But separate them.

Create a dedicated "Competitor Campaign".

Exclude competitor names from your Generic campaign.

This keeps your generic campaign clean and lets you manage competitor CPCs separately.

Scenario C: You have a strong alternative offer.

Competitor campaigns can work if you have:

1. A strong comparison page.
2. A clear switching reason.
3. A migration offer.
4. Honest copy.
5. Budget for testing.
6. Sales follow-up that understands competitor objections.

Support Terms Are Different

Do not confuse competitor evaluation terms with competitor support terms.

DO bid on where appropriate:

[Competitor] alternative
[Competitor] vs
[Competitor] pricing
switch from [Competitor]

DO NOT usually bid on:

[Competitor] support
[Competitor] login
[Competitor] sign in
[Competitor] customer service
[Competitor] phone number
[Competitor] outage
[Competitor] down
[Competitor] password reset

These are existing customers with support problems.

They are not usually ready to switch today.

Add support/login/help variants as negative phrase terms across competitor campaigns.

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Glossary of Key Terms

Negative Efficiency Gap: The percentage of budget spent on irrelevant or commercially weak search terms that are unlikely to convert.

Negative Broad Match: Blocks queries containing all negative terms in any order. free crm blocks "free crm software" and "crm software free".

Negative Phrase Match: Blocks queries containing your negative terms in exact order. "free crm" blocks "best free crm" but may allow "free online crm".

Negative Exact Match: Blocks only the exact query. [free crm] blocks "free crm" but allows "best free crm".

Negative Sculpting: The practice of adding a keyword as a Negative Exact Match in a broad or generic campaign to force the query into a more specific campaign.

Token (N-Gram): A single word or phrase component within a search query. Analysing performance by token can reveal hidden waste across many low-volume queries.

Universal Negative List: A shared list applied broadly across campaigns, containing terms that are almost always poor fit for the business.

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FAQ: Negative Keywords

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Pitfalls to Avoid

1. The "Broad Match Negative" Overkill

Be careful with broad negative keywords.

A single-word negative can block a lot.

If you add:

shoes

you may block every query containing shoes.

That is fine if you never sell shoes.

It is a disaster if you do.

Multi-word broad negatives behave differently from phrase negatives.

• Negative Broad: red shoes -> Blocks "red running shoes" because both red and shoes are present.
• Negative Phrase: "red shoes" -> Blocks "red shoes", but does not block "red running shoes" because the phrase is broken.

Use Phrase Match for many multi-word concepts when you want more control.

Use Broad Match negatives for universal junk concepts where you are confident.

2. Conflicting Negatives

Google Ads may warn you if a negative keyword blocks a positive keyword.

But conflicts can still be missed or misunderstood.

A negative may block a close variant that was valuable.

A negative may be fine in one campaign and harmful in another.

A negative that was correct last year may block a new strategy this year.

Check regularly.

Use scripts, Editor and manual reviews.

3. Forgetting the Search Partner Network

Search Partners can behave differently from Google Search.

Sometimes they perform well.

Sometimes they bring poor quality.

If you see high impressions, weak CTR and no conversions from Search Partners, consider excluding the network rather than fighting every query one by one.

Segment by network where possible.

Check:

1. Cost.
2. CTR.
3. Conversion rate.
4. CPA.
5. Lead quality.
6. Search term visibility.
7. Business outcome.

Do not assume Search Partners are bad.

Do not assume they are good.

Measure.

Summary

Negative keywords are the firewall of your Google Ads account.

They protect your budget from irrelevant human curiosity.

They keep campaigns focused.

They prevent brand contamination.

They improve traffic quality.

They support better bidding signals.

They reduce wasted spend.

Your implementation checklist:

1. Calculate your Negative Efficiency Gap.
2. Create your Universal Exclusion Lists.
3. Implement the Employment and Free Seeker clusters where appropriate.
4. Schedule a weekly Search Term Mining session.
5. Use Negative Sculpting where traffic needs routing.
6. Review conflicts and overblocking quarterly.
7. Add PMax campaign or account-level negatives where supported.
8. Keep competitor support terms separate from competitor evaluation terms.

Every pound you save from a negative keyword can be reinvested into a keyword that actually converts.

Stop renting placement for people looking for free PDFs.

Start owning the auction for buyers.

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The Agency Standard Match Type Rule

Not all negatives are created equal.

Applying the wrong match type either makes the negative too weak or too aggressive.

Agency Standard:

• Negative Broad Match for single words with universal junk intent: torrent, salary, jobs, login.
• Negative Phrase Match for multi-word concepts: "customer service", "how to", "login page", "download free".

Why the distinction?

A single-word negative broad term like jobs blocks queries containing that word.

That is usually what you want.

A multi-word negative broad term like free crm blocks queries where both words appear in any order.

That may be too aggressive or just right depending on the campaign.

Phrase gives more control.

Use it when word order matters.

The Employment List — Apply Carefully at Account Level

The single highest-impact negative keyword list for many B2B advertisers is the Employment List.

Review and apply where appropriate:

job
jobs
career
careers
hiring
hire
intern
internship
resume
cv
salary
pay
recruiter
recruitment
glassdoor
indeed
workday
ziprecruiter

B2B SaaS companies routinely waste budget on job seekers searching for things like:

crm manager jobs
ppc specialist salary
salesforce administrator career

This list can eliminate that waste quickly.

But check your own business.

If you sell recruitment software, HR tools, payroll software or hiring services, some of these terms may be core to your business.

Never apply a negative list without context.

The Competitor Support List — A Critical Distinction

There are two types of competitor keyword targeting.

One can be profitable.

One is usually an expensive mistake.

DO bid on where appropriate:

[Competitor] alternative
[Competitor] vs
[Competitor] pricing
switch from [Competitor]

These users are evaluating options.

They may be your ideal prospect.

DO NOT usually bid on:

[Competitor] support
[Competitor] login
[Competitor] sign in
[Competitor] customer service
[Competitor] phone number
[Competitor] outage
[Competitor] down
[Competitor] password reset

These are existing customers with a support problem.

You probably cannot help them.

You are paying to talk to someone who is not looking to switch.

Add the support, login and help variants as Negative Phrase across competitor conquest campaigns.

Industry-Specific Lists

B2B SaaS — Review as Negatives:

app
consumer
personal
student
hobby
academic
education
crack
keygen
torrent

Ecommerce — Review as Negatives:

ebay
craigslist
used
second hand
secondhand
refurbished
rental
hire
repair
parts
manual
instructions

Local Services — Review as Negatives if not relevant:

diy
how to
course
training
salary
jobs
free
template
pdf

Finance / Professional Services — Review as Negatives if not relevant:

definition
meaning
course
exam
salary
jobs
free advice
template
sample
pdf

Industry lists are starting points.

Your search term data decides what stays.

The Negative Conflict Script

The most dangerous negative keyword scenario is blocking your own valuable traffic.

Example:

You add free as a negative because you do not want freebie seekers.

Six months later, your team launches a "Free Trial" campaign.

Your own negative may block your own strategy.

Run a Negative Conflict Report regularly.

It should check for overlaps between:

1. Negative keywords.
2. Active positive keywords.
3. Valuable search terms.
4. New campaign themes.
5. Brand terms.
6. Free trial or offer language.
7. PMax search themes where relevant.

Run it weekly or after major changes.

At minimum, run it monthly.

The Three-Tier Library Structure

Organise your negatives into shared lists.

This structure prevents duplication.

It makes audits easier.

It ensures new campaigns inherit the right protection.

It also stops the account from becoming a mess.

Final Rule

Negative keywords are not an afterthought.

They are part of the account architecture.

They protect spend.

They shape traffic.

They improve signal quality.

They reduce waste.

They make Smart Bidding smarter by removing bad inputs.

Review them weekly.

Audit them quarterly.

Treat them like a living system.

That is how you stop budget leaks before they become expensive.