Google Ads Negative Keywords: A Review Workflow
Classify the search terms
Review the available search-term report alongside lead outcomes. Separate irrelevant searches from relevant searches that simply have not converted yet. The report may not expose every search, so avoid treating it as a complete record of demand.
- Employment intent: jobs, salary or internships when recruiting is not the campaign goal.
- Learning intent: tutorials or courses when the business only sells execution.
- Wrong offering: products or services the business does not provide.
- Wrong location: areas outside coverage, after checking how the phrase is used.
Apply exclusions at the right scope
An illustrative agency may exclude “jobs” from a client-acquisition campaign while preserving it in a recruiting campaign. A store should not automatically exclude “free” if it advertises free delivery. Choose account, campaign or ad-group scope according to whether the exclusion is truly universal. Negative match behaviour differs from positive keyword matching; check the current platform rules before uploading a list.
Maintain an exclusion log
Record the term, reason, scope and date. Revisit exclusions after expanding products or service areas. Review possible conflicts when valuable traffic drops suddenly. A maintained list is useful account knowledge; a huge downloaded list with no context is not evidence of good optimisation. Measure changes using relevant enquiries or sales, not only the reduction in total clicks.