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

If your Google Ads campaigns are spending budget on searches that have nothing to do with your product, negative keywords are the fix. They tell Google which search terms should not trigger your ads, so your budget goes toward the queries that actually matter.

Before diving into the steps, one distinction worth locking in early: a search term is what a user actually typed into Google. A keyword is what you bid on inside Google Ads. These are not the same thing, and the difference matters throughout this guide. Negative keywords work at the search term level — you're blocking specific queries from triggering your ads, not removing a keyword from your bidding strategy.

If you want a deeper grounding in the concept first, the what is negative keywords in Google Ads primer covers the fundamentals. But if you already know what they are and just need the steps, you're in the right place.

This guide is for advertisers who have active campaigns running and want to stop wasting spend on irrelevant traffic. By the end, you'll know how to add negative keywords directly to a campaign or ad group, build and apply a shared negative keyword list, choose the right match type for each term, and set up a review cadence so your lists stay useful over time.

There are two main paths for adding negatives: directly inside a campaign (fast, good for one-off terms) and via a shared negative keyword list (better for recurring themes you want applied across multiple campaigns). This guide covers both. If reducing wasted spend is the broader goal, the best way to reduce wasted spend in Google Ads article is worth reading alongside this one.

Let's get into it.

Step 1: Pull Up the Search Terms Report

The Search Terms Report is your starting point. This report shows the actual queries users typed before your ad appeared — not just the keywords you're bidding on. That distinction matters. You might be bidding on "project management software," but the Search Terms Report will show you the real queries that triggered that keyword, including ones you'd never want to pay for.

To get there, navigate to the Campaigns menu in Google Ads, select a campaign, then click the Search Terms tab. Alternatively, go to the Keywords menu and select Search Terms from there. Note that Google Ads interface paths can shift with updates, so if a path looks slightly different, check the current Google Ads Help documentation to confirm the latest navigation.

Once you're in the report, set your date range. A minimum of the last 30 days gives you enough data to surface patterns. For newer campaigns or those with lower traffic, extend to 60 or 90 days. Pulling too short a range is a common mistake — low-volume but expensive irrelevant queries won't show up in a 7-day window, but they can quietly drain budget over a month.

With your date range set, apply a filter to surface the most actionable candidates fast. Filter by Conversions = 0, then sort by Cost (descending). This puts the search terms that have spent the most without generating a single conversion at the top of your list. These are your highest-priority negative keyword candidates.

You're not looking to block every zero-conversion search term — some queries are simply in an early research phase and may convert later. But the combination of zero conversions and meaningful spend is a strong signal that the query is either off-intent or reaching the wrong audience.

Keep the report open as you work through Step 2. You'll be selecting terms directly from here.

Step 2: Identify Which Search Terms to Block

Not every irrelevant search term is obvious at first glance. This step is about developing a consistent eye for what belongs on your negative keyword list and what doesn't.

Start with the clearest cases: queries that are completely off-topic for your product or service. Wrong intent, wrong audience, or wrong geography. If you're running ads for a B2B SaaS tool and you're seeing searches for student discounts or free trials for an entirely different product category, those are straightforward blocks.

Next, look for informational queries showing up in transactional campaigns. "How to" queries are a classic example. If someone searches "how to manage a project for free" and your paid project management software ad appears, that person is in research mode, not buying mode. Blocking "how to" as a broad negative can clean this up quickly, though you'll want to verify it doesn't catch anything useful first.

Competitor brand terms are another category to review. If competitor brand names are triggering your ads and you're not running a deliberate competitor-targeting strategy, add them as negatives. Paying for clicks from people searching specifically for a competitor's product rarely converts well.

Then there's the high-spend, zero-conversion group you surfaced in Step 1. Review these carefully. Ask: does this query reflect someone who would realistically buy what I'm selling? If the answer is clearly no, it's a negative keyword candidate. If you're unsure, leave it for another review cycle rather than blocking prematurely.

As you work through the list, start grouping candidates by theme. For example, all "free" variations in one group, all job-seeking queries in another, all competitor names in a third. This grouping makes Step 4 much more efficient when you're building shared lists.

A note on match types at this stage: as you identify terms to block, start thinking about how broadly you want to exclude each one. A term like "jobs" is probably safe to block broadly. A term like "cheap" might need a more targeted approach depending on your product. You'll make the final match type decision in Step 5, but flagging it now saves time.

If you're also trying to diagnose broader campaign performance issues, the what is wrong with my Google Ads campaign guide covers other signals worth checking alongside your search term review.

Step 3: Add Negative Keywords Directly to a Campaign or Ad Group

Once you've identified terms to block, the fastest way to add them is directly from the Search Terms Report. This method works well for one-off terms or when you're working within a single campaign.

In the Search Terms Report, check the box next to each search term you want to block. You can select multiple terms at once. Once at least one is selected, a toolbar appears above the report. Click Add as negative keyword.

A dialog box opens. Here you'll make two decisions: the level and the match type.

Level: Campaign or Ad Group. Campaign-level negatives block the term across every ad group within that campaign. Ad group-level negatives block it only within a specific ad group. Use campaign-level when the term is irrelevant to your entire campaign. Use ad group-level when a term might be irrelevant for one ad group but acceptable in another — for example, if you have separate ad groups for different product tiers and a term only misaligns with one of them.

This is an important distinction to get right. A common mistake is adding a negative at the campaign level when it should be ad group-level, which can accidentally suppress good traffic across the whole campaign. If you're unsure, ad group-level is the more conservative and reversible choice.

Match type. The dialog also lets you set the match type for each negative keyword. You'll choose from broad, phrase, or exact. The syntax matters: exact match uses brackets [like this], phrase match uses quotes "like this," and broad match has no special formatting. Step 5 covers match type logic in detail, but you'll need to make this selection here before saving.

Once you've confirmed the level and match type, click Save. The negative keyword is now active.

To verify it was added correctly, go to the Keywords menu and select Negative Keywords. Your newly added terms should appear there with the level (campaign or ad group) and match type displayed. If something looks off — wrong level, wrong syntax — you can edit or remove it from this view.

Step 4: Build and Apply a Shared Negative Keyword List

Direct addition works for one-off terms, but if you're managing multiple campaigns or maintaining recurring exclusions across an account, shared negative keyword lists are the more scalable approach. One update to a shared list pushes to every campaign it's attached to simultaneously.

To create a shared list, go to the Tools icon (the wrench) in the top navigation, then select Shared Library, then Negative Keyword Lists. Click the blue + button to create a new list.

Give the list a descriptive name that reflects its purpose. "Brand Exclusions," "Competitor Terms," "Irrelevant Job Titles," and "Free/DIY Queries" are the kinds of names that make maintenance straightforward. Vague names like "List 1" or "Negatives July" create confusion later, especially if you're onboarding a new team member or doing an account audit.

Add your negative keywords to the list, one per line. Use the correct match type syntax as you enter them: brackets for exact, quotes for phrase, no formatting for broad. Save the list once you're done.

Now attach it to campaigns. Click Apply to Campaigns (or the equivalent option in the current interface), select the campaigns you want to attach the list to, and confirm. The list is now active across all selected campaigns.

The key advantage here is maintenance efficiency. When you identify a new irrelevant theme — say, a new competitor brand or a product category you've stopped selling — you add it to the relevant shared list once, and it's blocked everywhere that list is applied. For agencies managing multiple client campaigns, this is a significant time saver.

A practical framework: use shared lists for recurring, theme-based exclusions you'll maintain long-term. Use direct addition for one-off terms that are specific to a single campaign and unlikely to recur. Many advertisers maintain a "Master Exclusions" list for universal negatives like "free," "jobs," and "DIY" that apply across every campaign in the account.

Avoid creating too many overlapping lists. If multiple lists contain the same terms or serve unclear purposes, maintenance becomes a burden and auditing gets messy. Keep list purposes distinct and document what each list is for.

For a deeper look at how shared lists compare to campaign-specific negatives, the difference between shared and campaign-specific negative keyword lists article covers the tradeoffs in more detail.

Step 5: Choose the Right Match Type for Each Negative Keyword

Match types for negative keywords work differently from match types for positive keywords, and the distinction is worth understanding clearly before you start blocking terms at scale.

There are three options: broad, phrase, and exact.

Negative broad match (no special syntax) blocks any query that contains all the words in your negative keyword, in any order. If your negative keyword is "project management free," broad match will block queries like "free project management tool" or "project management software free download." It's the widest exclusion. Use it for clearly irrelevant themes where you're confident the words appearing together in any order signals the wrong intent.

Negative phrase match (wrap in quotes: "project management free") blocks queries that contain the exact phrase in that specific order. It's more targeted than broad. Use it when word order matters to the intent signal — for example, "free software" in that order reliably signals a non-buying query, but you don't want to accidentally block "software free trial" if that's a phrase you want to appear for.

Negative exact match (wrap in brackets: [free project management software]) blocks only queries that are identical to the bracketed term. This is the most surgical option. Use it when you want to block one precise query without any risk of collateral exclusions. It's also useful when a term has both relevant and irrelevant uses and you only want to block the specific irrelevant version.

One important behavior to understand: negative keywords do not use close variants the way positive keywords do. The matching is more literal. If you add "software" as a negative exact match, it will only block the exact query "software" — not "softwares" or "software tool." This makes negative keyword matching stricter than positive keyword matching, which is worth keeping in mind when you're deciding how much coverage you need.

A practical approach: start with broad negatives for high-confidence irrelevant themes, use phrase negatives for specific intent patterns where order matters, and reserve exact negatives for surgical blocks where you want to avoid any unintended exclusions. When in doubt about a broad negative's reach, check a few example queries first to confirm you're not blocking anything useful.

For a more detailed breakdown of match type logic, the broad match versus exact match keywords guide is a useful companion read.

Step 6: Set a Review Cadence and Keep Your Lists Clean

Adding negative keywords once and moving on is a common mistake. Google's matching evolves, your campaigns accumulate new traffic patterns, and new irrelevant queries surface regularly. A negative keyword strategy only stays effective if you maintain it.

A practical review schedule: check the Search Terms Report weekly for new or high-spend campaigns, and bi-weekly or monthly for stable, lower-volume campaigns. Each review follows the same process from Step 1 — filter by zero conversions, sort by cost descending, and look for new irrelevant queries to block.

Maintenance also means auditing your existing negative keyword lists periodically. It's possible to over-block. If a negative keyword you added months ago is now suppressing search terms that convert, you want to catch that. One way to check: look at your Search Terms Report for converting queries, then cross-reference against your negative keyword lists to confirm nothing valuable is being blocked. Google Ads will not show you a converting search term if it's being excluded, so the absence of certain queries can itself be a signal worth investigating.

For agencies managing multiple clients, shared lists make this review process much more manageable. When you identify a new irrelevant theme during a client review, one update to the shared list pushes the exclusion across every attached campaign. You're not editing each campaign individually.

If the manual review process feels slow, Keywordme's Chrome extension is built specifically for this workflow. It surfaces irrelevant search terms directly inside the Google Ads Search Terms Report and lets you add negatives with a single click, without leaving the interface or opening a spreadsheet. For advertisers doing weekly reviews across multiple campaigns, that kind of friction reduction adds up quickly.

One practical habit worth building: keep a running log of major negative keyword additions, including the date and the reason for the addition. This is useful during account audits, when troubleshooting unexpected drops in impression volume, and when onboarding a new team member who needs to understand the account's exclusion history.

Your Negative Keyword Checklist

Here's a quick-reference summary of the full workflow:

1. Open the Search Terms Report with sufficient date range. Use at least 30 days of data, more for low-traffic campaigns. Navigate via Campaigns > [Campaign] > Search Terms, or Keywords > Search Terms.

2. Filter by zero conversions and sort by cost descending. This surfaces the highest-priority wasted-spend candidates at the top of your list.

3. Select irrelevant terms and add as negatives. Use the checkbox + "Add as negative keyword" workflow directly in the report. Choose campaign-level for broad exclusions, ad group-level for surgical blocks within a specific ad group.

4. Build shared lists for recurring themes and apply to campaigns. Go to Tools > Shared Library > Negative Keyword Lists. Name lists clearly, apply to relevant campaigns, and maintain a Master Exclusions list for universal negatives.

5. Choose the right match type for each term. Broad for clearly irrelevant themes, phrase for specific intent patterns, exact for surgical single-query blocks. Remember: negative keywords match more literally than positive keywords.

6. Schedule recurring reviews. Weekly for active high-spend campaigns, monthly for stable ones. Audit existing lists periodically to catch over-blocking.

What does success look like over time? Fewer irrelevant impressions, a higher proportion of your budget going to queries that align with your offer, and a gradual improvement in conversion rate as wasted traffic is filtered out. You won't see it happen overnight, but a consistent negative keyword practice compounds over months.

For further reading, the best way to add negative keywords in Google Ads article covers strategic considerations beyond the mechanics covered here.

If the manual review process is taking too long, Start your free 7-day trial of Keywordme and see how one-click negative keyword adding directly inside Google Ads changes your weekly optimization workflow. After the trial, it's $12/month per user — no spreadsheets, no switching tabs, just faster campaign management right where you're already working.