Quick answer: Negative keywords stop your Google ads showing for searches like jobs, free, DIY and courses, cutting wasted spend from day one.
If you only do one thing to improve a Google Ads account, add negative keywords. They tell Google which searches you don’t want to show for, and they’re often the quickest way to stop budget leaking on clicks that will never become customers.
How negative keywords work
A negative keyword blocks your ad from showing when a search contains that term. If you add “jobs” as a negative, your ad won’t show for “plumber jobs Wollongong” even though “plumber” is one of your keywords.
Negative keywords have match types too:
- Negative broad: blocks searches containing all the words, in any order.
- Negative phrase (“in quotes”): blocks searches containing the exact phrase in that order.
- Negative exact [in brackets]: blocks only that exact search.
Unlike normal keywords, negatives don’t automatically include close variants, so add plurals and common misspellings yourself.
A starter list for most service businesses
- Jobs and careers: jobs, job, careers, salary, wage, hiring, apprenticeship, internship, resume
- Learning: course, courses, training, TAFE, certificate, how to, tutorial, YouTube, DIY
- Free and cheap: free, cheap (if you don’t compete on price), second hand, used
- Information only: what is, meaning, definition, Wikipedia, reddit
- Things you don’t do: services, products and areas you don’t cover
Review this list for your business. “Cheap”, for example, may be a good search for some businesses.
Find new negatives every week
- Go to Search terms in your campaign.
- Sort by cost or clicks.
- Add irrelevant searches as negatives (tick them and choose “Add as negative keyword”).
- Look for patterns rather than single words, and add those patterns.
In a new account, do this every few days. Once things settle, weekly or fortnightly is usually enough.
Use shared negative keyword lists
Under Tools → Shared library → Exclusion lists, create a list (for example “Jobs and training”) and apply it to every relevant campaign. When you update the list, every campaign is updated.
Performance Max can use negatives too
Since 2025, Performance Max supports campaign-level negative keywords, which apply to Search and Shopping inventory. Use them alongside brand exclusions. Read Search vs Performance Max.
Don’t overdo it
Negatives can block good searches by accident. Before adding a broad negative, think about legitimate searches that contain the word. “Free” blocks “free quote”, which might be a great search for you. In that case add specific phrases like “free download” instead.
Sources and further reading
Written by Gregory
20 years building websites and running lead generation, mostly with my own money on the line. Based in Sydney, working with clients worldwide. How I work →