Understanding Negative Keywords in Google Ads: A Complete Guide for Small Businesses

Running a Google Ads campaign can be one of the most effective ways to attract new customers, but it can also drain your budget fast if your ads are showing to the wrong people. That’s where negative keywords come in.

For small businesses and startups, understanding negative keywords in Google Ads can make the difference between a campaign that wastes money and one that drives high-quality leads.

In this guide, we’ll break down exactly what negative keywords are, why they matter, and how to use them to boost your ad performance and ROI.

What Are Negative Keywords?

In simple terms, negative keywords are the words or phrases that you tell Google not to trigger your ads for. When you add a negative keyword, your ad won’t appear if someone’s search includes that word or phrase.

Negative keywords help refine your targeting so you’re only showing ads to people who are genuinely interested in what you offer.

Example

Let’s say you’re a local plumber running a Google Ads campaign for emergency plumbing services. Without negative keywords, your ads might show up for searches like:

• “plumbing courses”
• “plumber jobs near me”
• “DIY plumbing tips”

These searches are irrelevant to your business – they waste your budget and drive no conversions. Adding “courses”, “jobs”, and “DIY” as negative keywords will prevent your ad from showing to those users.

Why Negative Keywords Matter

Many small business owners focus on finding the right keywords, but forget that avoiding the wrong ones is just as important. Negative keywords play a huge role in improving your campaign’s performance.

1. They Save Budget:
   Every click costs money. If your ad shows up for irrelevant searches and people click it, you’re spending money on users who will never convert. By excluding those searches, you can focus your spend on the people who actually matter.
2. They Improve Conversions:
   Because your ads are being shown to a more relevant audience, your click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate naturally improve. More clicks come from users who are actually interested in your product or service.
3. They Improve Quality Score:
   Google rewards relevance. When users consistently find your ads useful and click them, your Quality Score improves. A higher Quality Score can reduce your cost per click (CPC), meaning you get more value from your ad spend.
4. They Make Your Reports More Accurate:
   When you cut out irrelevant clicks, your campaign data becomes clearer. You’ll have a better understanding of which keywords and ads are genuinely driving results.

Examples of Negative Keywords by Industry

To give you a clearer picture, here are some common examples of negative keywords that small businesses across different industries might use:

These are just examples – the exact list will depend on your industry, your target audience, and the products or services you offer.

How to Build Your Own Negative Keyword List

There’s no universal list that works for everyone. The best approach is to build a custom negative keyword list based on your actual campaign data and your understanding of your business.

Step-by-Step: How to Add Negative Keywords in Google Ads

Use these steps for Search campaigns. The flow is similar for other campaign types, but menu labels can vary slightly.

Method 1: Add negatives from the Search Terms report (quickest win)

Navigate to Search Terms

In the left menu, navigate to Insights and reports → Search terms.

Select irrelevant queries

Tick the checkboxes for searches you don’t want to trigger your ads (e.g., “plumber jobs,” “free logo templates”).

Add as negative keywords

Click Add as negative keyword (appears at the top of the table).

Choose the scope

Pick Campaign or Ad group level. Use Campaign for broad exclusions (e.g., “free”, “jobs”).

Choose Phrase (good default) or Exact for tight control.

• Phrase excludes the exact phrase in that order (“plumbing jobs”).
• Exact excludes only that exact search ([plumbing jobs]).

Save

Click Save. Your exclusions take effect immediately.

Pro tip: Do this review weekly at first, then monthly once performance stabilises.

Method 2: Add negatives directly to a campaign or ad group (manual entry)

Go to Keywords

From the left menu: Audiences, keywords, and content → Keywords → Negative keywords.

Click the “+” button

Press the + (plus) to add negative keywords.

Choose scope

At the top of the dialog, select Add to Campaign or Add to Ad group.

Enter your terms

Add one term per line. Use match types where helpful:

• Phrase: put the term in quotes – e.g., "free samples"
• Exact: put the term in square brackets – e.g., [jobs]

Save

Click Save. Your exclusions take effect immediately.

When to use:

• Campaign level for universal exclusions: free, cheap, jobs, DIY, course, template, wholesale.
• Ad group level to prevent overlap (e.g., add “women” as a negative in the men’s shoes ad group).

Method 3: Create a shared Negative Keyword List (best for scale)

Open Shared Library

Click the Tools & Settings (spanner icon) in the side bar → Exlusion Lists.

Create a new list

Click + → give your list a clear name, e.g., Account-Wide Irrelevant / Admin Terms.

Add keywords

Paste your baseline set (price sensitivity, jobs, education, info-seekers). One per line.

Apply the list to campaigns

Click Apply to campaigns → tick all relevant campaigns → Apply.

Maintain centrally

Update this shared list over time. Changes propagate to all attached campaigns.

Why this rocks: One update cleans up every attached campaign—no duplicate work.

Where to Add Negative Keywords in Google Ads

There are three main levels where you can apply negative keywords in your Google Ads account:

1. Ad Group Level

Use this if you want to exclude specific terms only for one ad group. For example, if you have an ad group for “men’s shoes” and another for “women’s shoes”, you can add “women” as a negative keyword in the men’s ad group to prevent overlap.

2. Campaign Level

This applies to all ad groups within a campaign. It’s ideal for broader exclusions like “free”, “job”, or “cheap”.

3. Shared Negative Keyword Lists

If you manage multiple campaigns, you can create a shared list. This lets you apply the same negative keywords across different campaigns without having to manually duplicate them.

To create one:
Go to Tools & Settings → Shared Library → Negative keyword lists.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced advertisers can make errors when managing negative keywords. Here are a few to watch out for:

1. Adding too many negatives.
   Over-blocking can limit your reach and prevent your ads from showing for relevant searches. Always double-check before excluding a term.
2. Forgetting to use match types.
   Using only broad match can accidentally block useful traffic. Use phrase and exact match when needed.
3. Not updating regularly.
   Search trends change. Review your list regularly to ensure it’s still relevant.
4. Not using shared lists.
   If you run multiple campaigns, shared lists can save huge amounts of time and keep your account organised.

Free Tools and Scripts to Help You

If you’re new to Google Ads, you don’t have to start from scratch. There are several free tools and scripts that can help you find and manage negative keywords more efficiently.

1. Google Keyword Planner:
   While primarily designed for keyword research, it’s also great for spotting irrelevant searches. Type in your product or service and look through the suggested keywords for anything unrelated that you can add as negatives.
2. Keyword Tool (keywordtool.io):
   This free tool generates search term ideas from Google Autocomplete. You can use it to find phrases that people often search for alongside your main keywords – including irrelevant ones.
3. Ubersuggest:
   Ubersuggest helps identify variations of your keywords. You can use it to filter out terms that indicate research intent rather than buying intent.
4. Google Ads Scripts:
   If you’re comfortable with a bit of automation, you can use scripts to automatically identify and pause wasteful keywords. For example, there are community-built scripts available that:

• Flag search terms with zero conversions but high spend.
• Automatically add low-performing terms to a negative keyword list.

(You can find these by searching “Google Ads negative keyword script” – many are free to copy and use.)

How Negative Keywords Fit Into Your Overall Strategy

Negative keywords are just one piece of a well-optimised Google Ads strategy. Combined with strong ad copy, relevant landing pages, and proper conversion tracking, they help ensure that every click counts.

For small businesses and startups, this level of precision is key, especially when every pound in your ad budget matters.

When you take the time to identify and manage your negative keywords, you’ll spend less on wasted clicks, get more qualified traffic, and ultimately see better results from your campaigns.

final thoughts

Mastering negative keywords in Google Ads doesn’t require an expert – just a bit of attention and regular maintenance. By filtering out irrelevant searches, you protect your budget, improve your conversions, and gain clearer insights into what’s really driving results.

So next time you review your Google Ads performance, don’t just focus on adding more keywords – check which ones you should be removing, too.