Negative Keywords in Google Ads: How to Stop Wasting Budget
The most reliable optimization in Google Ads doesn't require testing and doesn't take weeks. You add negative keywords — irrelevant traffic stops immediately. And yet most accounts I audit have fewer than 50 negatives. Many have none at all.
01 — Problem
Why Negative Keywords Get Ignored
Negative keywords are the most reliable, lowest-risk optimization you can make in a Google Ads account. They don't require testing and don't take weeks: add them, and irrelevant traffic stops. And yet here are three reasons this tool stays unused.
They're not in the default view
Google's interface doesn't shout at you about wasted spend. You have to open the Search Terms report yourself — nobody surfaces it by default.
Adding feels like progress, removing feels passive
A psychological quirk: a new keyword feels like an action, a negative feels like 'just cleanup' — even though removing often has the bigger impact.
Google's Recommendations never suggest them
Open the Recommendations tab and you won't find a single suggestion to add negatives — only suggestions to spend more.
02 — Search
How to Find Irrelevant Search Terms
Start in Reports → Search Terms. Filter for the last 30–90 days, sort by cost descending — and look for six types of queries that will never bring you a customer.
"Free", "DIY", "how to do it myself"
People looking for a free fix or a do-it-yourself guide were never going to become paying customers.
Competitor names
Unless you're deliberately bidding on competitor brand terms, this is a direct budget leak.
Geographies you don't serve
Queries from cities or countries outside your service area — hundreds of irrelevant clicks a month.
Products you don't sell
Adjacent but different products or services that happen to overlap on keywords.
Informational queries
"What is X", "history of X" — people researching, not ready to buy (unless you're running Display for reach).
"Jobs", "salary", "review"
Job seekers and reputation-checkers — not your buying audience.
03 — Structure
Negative Keywords on Three Levels
I use three layers of exclusions — each level solves its own part of the problem, and together they stop the same mistake from leaking through in several places at once.
Account-level
Terms that are never relevant to any campaign — blocked competitors, products you don't sell at all.
Campaign-level
Terms irrelevant to this specific campaign's goal — for example, "cheap" on a premium-segment campaign.
Ad group-level
Cross-filtering between ad groups so they stop cannibalising each other's impressions.
04 — Precision
Match Types for Negative Keywords
Broad match negatives behave differently than you'd expect. A broad-match negative for "shoes" will also block "comfortable shoes for running" — a query you probably want. Use phrase or exact match for precision: broad does more harm here than it saves.
05 — Result
One Evening, Real Numbers
On one e-commerce account, 3 hours of search-term mining and adding 240 negative keywords cut wasted spend by 22% in the first 30 days — with no change to bids or budget. That's 22% of budget now buying real conversions instead of stray clicks.
This is the work. Not glamorous, but it compounds. This is just Step 2 of the full 7-step account audit →
06 — Checklist
The Checklist — Save This
07 — FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
How many negative keywords does an account need?
Can adding too many negative keywords hurt an account?
How often should the negative keyword list be updated?
Do negative keywords help Performance Max?
Is this the same as audience exclusions?
Where do I start if an account has zero negative keywords?
Free Audit
How Many of Your Own 240 Negatives Are Still Missing?
A free account audit shows exactly how much budget is leaking to irrelevant queries in your account — no obligation.