7 Proven Ways to Find Negative Keywords in Google Ads (Without the Spreadsheet Headaches)

TL;DR: Finding negative keywords in Google Ads doesn't have to be a tedious, spreadsheet-heavy process. This guide walks you through seven practical strategies—from mining your Search Terms Report to leveraging competitor insights—that help you identify and eliminate wasted ad spend. Whether you're managing a single account or juggling dozens of clients, these methods will help you build smarter negative keyword lists faster. We'll cover exactly where to look, what patterns to spot, and how to implement each approach directly in your workflow.

Let's be honest: you've probably watched your ad budget drain away on searches that have nothing to do with what you're selling. Someone searching for "free Google Ads course" clicks your ad for premium PPC management services. Another person looking for "Google Ads jobs" burns through your daily budget before lunch. Sound familiar?

The good news? You don't need to be a spreadsheet wizard or spend hours manually filtering data to fix this. The strategies below will help you systematically identify and eliminate these budget-wasting searches, turning your campaigns into lean, high-performing machines.

1. Mine Your Search Terms Report

The Challenge It Solves

Your ads are showing up for searches you never intended to target. Every irrelevant click is money out the window, and you need visibility into exactly what's triggering your ads. The Search Terms Report is your direct window into what real people are actually typing before they click your ads.

This is where the rubber meets the road. While your keyword list shows what you think people are searching for, the Search Terms Report reveals the truth—and it's often surprising.

The Strategy Explained

The Search Terms Report in Google Ads shows the actual queries that triggered your ads to appear. This is universally recognized as the primary source for negative keyword discovery, and Google's own documentation recommends regular review of this report.

Think of it like this: your keywords are the net you cast, but the Search Terms Report shows you everything that got caught in it. Some of it is exactly what you want. Some of it is completely irrelevant. Your job is to sort through the catch and throw back what doesn't belong.

The key is looking for patterns, not just individual bad searches. If you see "free," "jobs," or "how to" appearing repeatedly, those are signals that you need category-level negative keywords, not just one-off additions.

Implementation Steps

1. Navigate to your Google Ads campaign, click on "Keywords" in the left sidebar, then select the "Search terms" tab at the top of the page.

2. Set your date range to at least 30 days to capture meaningful patterns (longer for low-traffic accounts), and sort by impressions or clicks to surface the highest-volume irrelevant terms first.

3. Scan for obvious mismatches like informational queries (how to, what is, tutorial), job-related terms (careers, hiring, salary), or price-focused searches (free, cheap, discount) if you're selling premium products.

4. Select the checkbox next to irrelevant terms and click "Add as negative keyword," choosing whether to add them at the ad group or campaign level based on how broadly they apply.

5. Schedule this review as a recurring weekly task—consistent, regular review beats occasional deep dives every time.

Pro Tips

Don't just look at the search terms themselves. Pay attention to the conversion rate and cost per conversion columns. Sometimes a search term looks relevant but performs terribly, which is your signal to add it as a negative. Also, export your data periodically to build a master list of patterns you're seeing across all campaigns.

2. Use Google Keyword Planner Proactively

The Challenge It Solves

Waiting until after you've wasted budget on irrelevant clicks is reactive. You need a way to anticipate problem searches before they drain your account. Google Keyword Planner lets you see the full landscape of related searches before you ever launch a campaign.

The Strategy Explained

Google Keyword Planner doesn't just help you find keywords to target. It also reveals the messy reality of what Google considers "related" to your core terms. When you enter a seed keyword, the tool returns hundreds of variations—many of which you definitely don't want triggering your ads.

This is especially valuable when you're launching new campaigns or expanding into new product categories. You can spot the landmines before stepping on them.

The approach works because Google's algorithm shows you the same associations it uses to match your broad and phrase match keywords to searches. If Keyword Planner suggests "Google Ads tutorial" when you search for "Google Ads services," that's exactly the kind of informational query you need to block.

Implementation Steps

1. Open Google Keyword Planner (found under Tools & Settings in your Google Ads account) and select "Discover new keywords."

2. Enter your core target keyword or landing page URL, then review the full list of suggested keywords that Google returns.

3. Sort by search volume and scan for patterns that don't match your business model—look specifically for informational intent (guide, tutorial, tips), job-related terms, or competitor names.

4. Create a working document listing all the irrelevant keyword themes you discover, then turn these into negative keywords before launching your campaign.

5. Repeat this process for each major keyword theme in your account to build a comprehensive pre-launch negative list.

Pro Tips

Use the "Refine keywords" filter in Keyword Planner to specifically search for terms containing words like "free," "jobs," or "DIY." This speeds up the discovery process dramatically. Also, save your negative keyword research as a reusable list at the account level so new campaigns automatically inherit your learnings.

3. Analyze Competitor Keywords

The Challenge It Solves

Your ads might be showing up when people search for your competitors' brand names, or you might be accidentally targeting competitor-related searches that will never convert for you. Either way, you're spending money on audiences that are already committed to someone else.

The Strategy Explained

Competitor brand terms are a double-edged sword in PPC. Some advertisers intentionally bid on competitor names to steal traffic. But if you're not actively pursuing that strategy, these searches are pure waste. Someone typing "HubSpot pricing" isn't looking for your marketing automation tool—they're already deep in the HubSpot buying journey.

The same logic applies to industry-specific terms that attract researchers rather than buyers. If your competitors are known for free tools or educational content, searches related to those offerings will trigger your ads but rarely convert.

This strategy helps you build a defensive wall around your budget, ensuring you're not accidentally competing in auctions you have no chance of winning.

Implementation Steps

1. List out your top 5-10 direct competitors and any major industry players whose audiences overlap with yours but whose solutions differ significantly.

2. Add each competitor's brand name as a negative keyword, including common misspellings and variations (e.g., "hubspot," "hub spot," "hub-spot").

3. Research what free tools, resources, or content your competitors are known for, then add those as negative keyword combinations (e.g., "competitor name + free tool").

4. Check your Search Terms Report specifically for competitor mentions to see if you're already bleeding budget to these searches.

5. Create a dedicated negative keyword list called "Competitor Brands" at the account level so it applies automatically to all current and future campaigns.

Pro Tips

Don't go overboard here. If you're in a crowded market with dozens of competitors, focus on the top players whose brand searches represent significant volume. Also, consider whether competitor targeting might actually be strategic for you—if you have a clear differentiator and strong conversion path, competitor keywords can work. Just make sure it's intentional, not accidental.

4. Leverage Google Autocomplete

The Challenge It Solves

You need to understand the natural language patterns real people use when searching, not just the sanitized keyword data from tools. Google Autocomplete reveals the actual phrases people type, including the messy, irrelevant variations you need to block.

The Strategy Explained

Google Autocomplete is powered by billions of real searches. When you start typing in Google's search box, the suggestions that appear are based on what actual users commonly search for. This makes it an incredibly valuable (and free) source of negative keyword ideas.

The magic happens when you combine your core keywords with common modifiers. Type your main keyword followed by "how to," "free," "jobs," or "vs," and Google will show you exactly what people are searching for in those categories.

This approach is particularly useful for discovering long-tail irrelevant queries that might not show up in your Search Terms Report yet but could drain budget once your campaigns scale.

Implementation Steps

1. Open a private/incognito browser window (to avoid personalized results) and go to Google.com.

2. Type your main keyword followed by common irrelevant modifiers: "how to," "free," "jobs," "salary," "course," "tutorial," "DIY," "vs," "alternative."

3. Note all the autocomplete suggestions that appear—these represent high-volume search patterns that real users are typing.

4. Identify which suggestions are completely irrelevant to your offering and add the key modifying words as negative keywords (e.g., if "Google Ads tutorial" appears frequently, add "tutorial" as a negative).

5. Repeat this process with your top 10-15 keywords to build a comprehensive list of natural language patterns to exclude.

Pro Tips

Try adding letters of the alphabet after your keyword (e.g., "Google Ads a," "Google Ads b") to surface even more autocomplete variations. Also, check autocomplete on mobile—mobile search patterns can differ significantly from desktop, and you might discover different irrelevant modifiers.

5. Create Industry-Specific Templates

The Challenge It Solves

Every time you launch a new campaign, you're starting from scratch with negative keywords, repeating the same discoveries over and over. You need a reusable foundation that captures your industry's common irrelevant search patterns.

The Strategy Explained

Certain negative keyword patterns repeat across every campaign in specific industries. If you're in B2B SaaS, you'll always want to block job-related searches. If you're selling premium products, you'll always want to exclude "free" and "cheap." If you're offering services, DIY and tutorial searches will never convert.

Building industry-specific templates means you capture these learnings once and apply them systematically. This is especially powerful for agencies managing multiple clients in the same vertical, but even solo advertisers benefit from not reinventing the wheel with each campaign.

The key is organizing your templates by business model and customer intent, not just by industry. A B2B service business has different negative keyword needs than a B2B product company, even if they're in the same industry.

Implementation Steps

1. Create a master spreadsheet with columns for "Negative Keyword," "Category," and "Applies To" (which campaign types or industries it's relevant for).

2. Populate it with universal negatives that apply to almost any paid campaign: "free," "jobs," "career," "hiring," "salary," "resume," "course," "certification," "how to," "DIY," "tutorial," "PDF," "download," "torrent."

3. Add industry-specific categories based on your niche—for example, if you're in professional services, add "intern," "volunteer," "pro bono," or if you're in e-commerce, add "wholesale," "supplier," "manufacturer."

4. In Google Ads, create account-level negative keyword lists named by category (e.g., "Job Seekers," "DIY Researchers," "Free Hunters") and apply the relevant lists to appropriate campaigns.

5. Review and update your templates quarterly as you discover new patterns, turning every campaign into a learning opportunity that benefits all future campaigns.

Pro Tips

Don't make your templates too aggressive. Start with obvious exclusions and add more over time based on actual data. Also, consider creating separate templates for different match types—broad match campaigns might need more aggressive negative lists than exact match campaigns.

6. Monitor Quality Score and CTR Signals

The Challenge It Solves

By the time you notice irrelevant traffic in your Search Terms Report, you've already wasted budget. You need early warning signals that tell you when your targeting is off before the costs pile up.

The Strategy Explained

Quality Score and click-through rate (CTR) are canaries in the coal mine for negative keyword problems. When your ads show for irrelevant searches, people either don't click (lowering your CTR) or they click but immediately bounce (signaling poor relevance to Google).

Quality Score is influenced by expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Poor negative keyword management can negatively impact all three factors. If you see keywords with declining Quality Scores or consistently low CTR, it's often because they're matching to searches you should be excluding.

This approach is particularly valuable because it helps you prioritize which keywords need negative keyword attention first. Focus on your highest-spend keywords with the worst performance metrics.

Implementation Steps

1. In your Google Ads account, add the "Quality Score" and "CTR" columns to your keywords view (click the Columns icon and select these metrics).

2. Sort your keywords by spend (highest to lowest), then identify any keywords spending significant budget with Quality Scores below 5 or CTRs significantly below your account average.

3. For each underperforming keyword, click through to its Search Terms Report to see exactly what queries are triggering it.

4. Look for patterns in the low-performing search terms—are they informational? Job-related? Competitor-focused? Add appropriate negative keywords to block these patterns.

5. Monitor whether Quality Score and CTR improve over the following 2-4 weeks after adding negatives, confirming that you've successfully filtered out irrelevant traffic.

Pro Tips

Create a custom column that calculates "spend per conversion" or "cost per conversion" and use this alongside Quality Score. Sometimes a keyword with decent Quality Score still attracts expensive, non-converting traffic that needs negative keyword refinement. Also, segment your analysis by device—mobile often attracts different (sometimes more irrelevant) search patterns than desktop.

7. Streamline Discovery with In-Interface Tools

The Challenge It Solves

The traditional workflow for negative keyword management is painfully slow: export Search Terms Report to spreadsheet, filter and analyze data, decide what to exclude, switch back to Google Ads, manually add negatives one by one. You need a faster way that doesn't interrupt your flow.

The Strategy Explained

The biggest barrier to consistent negative keyword management isn't knowing what to do—it's the friction of actually doing it. When the process requires multiple tools, context switching, and manual data manipulation, it gets pushed to "when I have time" (which means never).

In-interface tools eliminate this friction by letting you identify and exclude irrelevant searches directly where you're already working. You can review your Search Terms Report, spot junk queries, and add them as negatives with a single click—no spreadsheets, no tab switching, no copying and pasting.

This approach is particularly powerful for agencies managing dozens of accounts or advertisers running multiple campaigns. The time savings compound quickly when you can optimize in seconds instead of minutes per negative keyword.

Implementation Steps

1. Evaluate tools that integrate directly into the Google Ads interface rather than requiring separate dashboards or exports—browser extensions and native integrations offer the smoothest workflows.

2. Look for features that speed up the most time-consuming parts of negative keyword management: bulk selection of irrelevant terms, one-click negative keyword addition, and the ability to apply negatives at campaign or account level without leaving the Search Terms Report.

3. Test whether the tool supports your specific workflow needs, such as managing multiple accounts, creating negative keyword lists, or applying different match types to your exclusions.

4. Implement the tool across your highest-spend campaigns first to maximize immediate impact, then roll out to your full account once you've validated the time savings.

5. Track how much time you're saving per optimization session and how frequently you're now reviewing Search Terms Reports—the goal is to make the process so frictionless that weekly reviews become automatic.

Pro Tips

The best tools don't just save time—they also reduce errors. Look for features that help you avoid accidentally adding positive keywords as negatives or blocking too broadly. Also, consider whether the tool offers team collaboration features if you're working with others, ensuring everyone's negative keyword decisions are visible and coordinated.

Putting It All Together: Your Negative Keyword Action Plan

Here's the reality: you don't need to implement all seven strategies at once. Start with the Search Terms Report—it's your highest-impact, lowest-effort starting point. Set a recurring calendar reminder to review it every Monday morning, and you'll catch most budget waste before it gets out of hand.

Once that's a habit, layer in your industry-specific templates. Build your master negative keyword list over the course of a month, then apply it to all campaigns. This gives you a strong defensive foundation.

From there, add the proactive strategies: use Keyword Planner before launching new campaigns, check Autocomplete for natural language patterns, and monitor your Quality Score metrics as an early warning system. These prevent problems before they start.

Here's your quick implementation checklist:

1. Week 1: Review Search Terms Report and add obvious negatives

2. Week 2: Build your first industry-specific negative keyword template

3. Week 3: Research competitor terms and create a competitor exclusion list

4. Week 4: Use Keyword Planner and Autocomplete to proactively identify new negatives

5. Ongoing: Monitor Quality Score and CTR weekly as performance signals

The key insight? Consistent, weekly review beats occasional deep dives every time. Small, regular optimizations compound into massive budget savings and performance improvements over months.

And if you're looking to speed up this entire workflow, that's exactly what we built Keywordme to do. Instead of juggling spreadsheets and switching between tabs, you can remove junk search terms, build high-intent keyword groups, and apply match types instantly—right inside Google Ads. Whether you're managing one campaign or hundreds, you'll save hours while making smarter decisions.

Start your free 7-day trial (then just $12/month) and take your Google Ads game to the next level. No spreadsheets, no switching tabs, just quick, seamless optimization exactly where you're already working.