How to Find and Block Irrelevant Search Queries in Google Ads

Irrelevant search queries in Google Ads are the searches that trigger your ads but would never turn into a customer: job seekers, freebie hunters, people in the wrong city. This guide gives you a repeatable routine for finding them, blocking them with negative keywords, and keeping them out. You'll need access to a Google Ads account with a Search campaign that has at least a few weeks of click data. Without that, there isn't enough to judge.

Step 1: Open the Search Terms Report and Set Your Date Range

In Google Ads, the Search terms report lives under the Insights and reports section of the left-hand menu. Google moves menu items around fairly often, so if you don't see it there, check Google Ads Help for the current path. You can also open it from a campaign or ad group view and it will scope itself to that selection.

Before you look at a single row, set the date range. For most accounts, 30 days is a sensible minimum. Low-volume accounts need longer, because a handful of clicks tells you very little. If you made big changes during the window (new landing pages, a restructure, a budget jump), start the range after the change so you're judging the current setup, not the old one.

Search terms versus keywords

These two get mixed up constantly. A keyword is what you bid on. A search term is the exact phrase a person typed into Google. Your keyword and match type decide which search terms are allowed to trigger your ad, and match types are deliberately flexible. That flexibility is why irrelevant queries show up at all: a keyword like "project management software" can be matched to searches you never had in mind. For a deeper breakdown, see this guide on search terms vs keywords in Google Ads.

What the report won't show

The report doesn't list every query. Google only shows terms that meet its query volume and privacy thresholds, so some of your spend sits in a bucket labeled "Other search terms" (confirm the current wording in Google Ads Help). You can't act on that bucket directly. What you can do is keep the visible part of the report clean and avoid over-reading it as the full picture.

Step 2: Sort and Filter the Report to Surface Likely Waste

Start by sorting the report by cost, highest first. That puts the terms costing you the most at the top, which is where a bad query hurts most. Then filter to clicks greater than zero and conversions equal to zero. You're now looking at queries that took your money and produced nothing you track. If the list is huge, this walkthrough on how to filter search terms in Google Ads covers more filter combinations.

Next, make the table easier to judge. Add or confirm these columns:

• Match type, so you can see how the term got through.
• Added/Excluded, which shows whether you've already added the term as a keyword or excluded it.
• Campaign and ad group, so you know where the term landed.
• Conversions and cost per conversion, for context on what a good term looks like in this account.

Then filter Added/Excluded to "None." This hides terms you've already handled, so every time you run the routine you only review what's new. It's a small step that saves a lot of repeat work, especially on accounts you revisit monthly.

Mistake to avoid: calling a term junk because it had one click and no conversion, or because it had a bad day. A relevant query with two clicks proves nothing. Low-volume terms need a bigger window before you decide. If a term looks suspicious but the data is thin, leave it for the next pass and widen the date range instead of guessing.

Step 3: Decide Which Queries Are Actually Irrelevant

Run each candidate through one simple test: would this searcher ever buy what you sell, and does the query fit your offer, location, and audience? If the honest answer is no, it's irrelevant. If the answer is "maybe, but it hasn't converted," keep reading. You can also compare your findings against this guide to finding irrelevant search terms in Google Ads.

Here are the usual patterns, using made-up examples for a fictional B2B scheduling software company:

• Job seekers: "scheduling software company careers," "scheduling software jobs." These people want a paycheck, not a product.
• Free-seekers: "free scheduling template," "scheduling spreadsheet download." They want a no-cost solution and aren't shopping.
• DIY or informational: "how to make a rota," "what is shift scheduling." Some of these people may buy later, but the click rarely pays for itself.
• Competitor or wrong product: a rival's brand name, or "school timetable software" when you sell to restaurants.
• Wrong location: "scheduling software London" when you only serve the US.

Irrelevant is not the same as unprofitable

This distinction saves you from blocking traffic you actually want. If someone searches "restaurant shift scheduling software" and doesn't convert, the query is perfectly relevant. The problem is more likely your ad, landing page, offer, or bidding. Adding it as a negative treats a conversion problem as a targeting problem and removes a term you'd want to fix. If the underlying issue is a mismatch between what people want and what your ad promises, this piece on Google Ads search intent mismatch is worth a read.

For borderline terms, don't block yet. Note them, leave them live, and check them again next cycle. Terms like "free trial scheduling software" contain a trigger word but may come from a real buyer. Give them more data before you decide.

Step 4: Choose the Right Negative Keyword Match Type

A negative keyword tells Google not to show your ad for searches containing that term. Negatives come in three match types, but they don't behave like their positive counterparts. The biggest difference: negative keywords don't match close variants. A negative for "job" won't automatically block "jobs," and a misspelling won't be caught either. Confirm the current behavior in Google Ads Help, then add plurals, misspellings, and other variants yourself.

How each type works

• Broad match negative: blocks searches containing all of the negative's words, in any order. A broad negative of free template blocks "template free download" but not a search with only "free" in it.
• Phrase match negative: blocks searches containing the words in that order, with other words allowed around them. Phrase "free template" blocks "best free template online."
• Exact match negative: blocks only that exact query, with nothing added before or after.

A simple decision rule

• Use exact when one query is bad but a close sibling is good. "scheduling software jobs" is junk, but you don't want to block everything near it.
• Use phrase when a specific phrase is the problem and word order matters.
• Use broad when a single word is unwanted in any search, such as "careers" or "salary."

Common mistake: adding a broad negative like "free" or "cheap" without checking. If a converting query contains that word, for example "free trial scheduling software," you've just blocked a buyer. Before saving any broad negative, search your report for converting terms containing that word.

If you're doing this inside the Search Terms Report, Keywordme can apply the match type in one click from the same screen. That's a workflow shortcut, not a different method: you still make the judgment call on every term.

Step 5: Add the Negatives at the Right Level

Negatives can sit at the ad group level, the campaign level, or in a shared negative keyword list that you apply to several campaigns. Google limits how many negatives and lists an account can hold, and those limits can change, so check Google Ads Help if you manage a very large account.

The rule of thumb: block a term at the lowest level that makes sense. A negative applied to the whole campaign can cut off an ad group that should have captured the query. Say "enterprise" is irrelevant for your small-business ad group but it's exactly what your enterprise ad group targets. A campaign-level negative would break the second one. Put it at the ad group level instead.

Check for self-blocking before you save

A negative that matches one of your own positive keywords stops that keyword from serving. Before saving, compare your new negatives against your active keywords in the affected campaign and ad group. If there's overlap, rethink the match type or the level.

Adding negatives from the report

1. In the Search terms report, tick the checkboxes next to the terms you've judged irrelevant.
2. Open the edit or action menu and choose to add them as negative keywords.
3. Pick the level: ad group, campaign, or a shared list.
4. Set the match type for each term. Google's default may not be what you want, so check it.
5. Review the list one more time and save.

Keywordme works in the same place. It's a Chrome extension that adds one-click actions to the Search Terms Report, so you can click terms, set the match type, and add them as negatives without exporting to a spreadsheet. You still review every selection before it's applied. If you want a broader look at this approach, see removing junk search terms in Google Ads.

Agency tip: keep a reusable shared list of universal negatives, such as "jobs," "careers," "salary," and "free" (where free is truly off-limits for that client), and apply it to every new account. Tailor it per client, since a word that's junk for one business can be a buyer signal for another.

Step 6: Add the Good Queries You Found as Keywords

While you're in the report, you'll spot the opposite of junk: search terms that clearly show buying intent and convert, but aren't keywords yet. This is the same pass, so handle them now. Add each one as a positive keyword with a match type you chose on purpose, not whatever the default happens to be. This practice is often called search term mining.

Why bother? Once a term is its own keyword, you control its bid and can write ad copy and a landing page around it. Before that, it lives at the mercy of whichever keyword happened to trigger it.

Where it goes

Put the new keyword in the ad group whose ad and landing page match the searcher's intent. A keyword in the wrong ad group gets a mismatched ad, which can hurt performance even though the query is good.

Steer traffic with negatives, and know the tradeoff

If the same query could still match a broader keyword elsewhere, you can add it as an exact negative in that broader ad group. That routes the traffic to the ad group you built for it. The tradeoff is upkeep: every routing negative is one more thing to track, and if you later pause the new keyword, that query will have nowhere to go.

Mistake to avoid: adding a term as a keyword and leaving it to keep matching as a search term in other ad groups with no routing. You end up with overlap, two ad groups competing for the same query, and muddy data about which one is actually performing.

Step 7: Set a Review Cadence and Check That the Blocks Worked

How often you run this routine depends on spend and stability. As a practical guideline (not a Google rule), review weekly for high-spend or newly launched campaigns, and every two to four weeks for stable ones. New campaigns attract the most junk early, and broad-matched ones keep surfacing new variations. If the review itself feels slow, these tips on reviewing the Google Ads search terms report faster can help.

Confirm the blocks are holding

About two weeks after adding negatives, re-run the Search terms report. The terms you blocked should stop collecting impressions. Then look at the account-level picture: conversion rate and cost per conversion for the affected campaigns. They may improve, but there's no promise of a specific saving, since other changes in the account also move those numbers.

If irrelevant queries keep coming

• Missing variants: since negatives don't match close variants, look for plurals, misspellings, or reworded versions of what you blocked.
• Loose positive keywords: tighten match types on the keywords triggering the junk. A broad match keyword will keep finding new angles.
• Broad match with Smart Bidding: that combination can widen the range of queries you enter. Review the search terms it's bringing in and confirm your negatives cover the unwanted themes. This explains why Google matches ads to irrelevant searches in more detail.
• Wrong level: check that the negative sits where the query is actually landing.

Finally, keep a simple change log: the date, the negatives you added, the level, and a one-line reason. When performance shifts later, you'll know what changed, and anyone else on the account can see why a term was blocked before they undo it.

The Routine in Five Moves, and Where to Run It Faster

Once you've done this a couple of times, the whole thing shrinks into a loop: review the report, judge each query, block the junk, promote the winners, and recheck after a couple of weeks. The first pass is the slowest. After that you're only reviewing what's new.

If you'd rather do the clicking inside the Search Terms Report instead of juggling exports and tabs, Keywordme is built for that. Optimize Google Ads Campaigns 10X Faster. Without Leaving Your Account. Keywordme lets you remove junk search terms, build high-intent keyword lists, and apply match types instantly, right inside Google Ads. No spreadsheets, no switching tabs, just quick, seamless optimization. Start your free 7-day trial (then just $12/month) and take your Google Ads game to the next level.