Where Do I Add Negative Keywords in Google Ads? A Step-by-Step Guide

You've just launched a Google Ads campaign, and after a few days, you notice something frustrating: clicks are coming in, but they're not from the right people. Someone searching for "free Google Ads templates" clicked your ad for paid software. Another person looking for "Google Ads jobs" triggered your campaign. Your budget is draining on searches that will never convert, and you're wondering where the off switch is.

The answer is negative keywords—but only if you know where to add them.

Here's the TL;DR: You can add negative keywords in Google Ads at three levels—account, campaign, and ad group—each accessed through different paths in the interface. This guide walks you through exactly where to find each option and when to use them. Whether you're trying to stop irrelevant clicks from draining your budget or fine-tune which searches trigger your ads, knowing where these controls live is fundamental to running profitable campaigns.

Most advertisers waste a significant portion of their budget on irrelevant searches simply because they don't know where these controls live in the interface. The search terms triggering your ads right now might surprise you—and not in a good way. Let's fix that by walking through exactly where to add negative keywords, what each level does, and which approach makes sense for different scenarios.

Step 1: Access Your Google Ads Account and Navigate to Keywords

Before you can add any negative keywords, you need to get to the right place in the Google Ads interface. This sounds basic, but the navigation has changed enough over the years that even experienced advertisers sometimes hunt for options that moved.

Start by logging into ads.google.com. If you manage multiple accounts, make sure you've selected the correct one from the account selector in the top navigation. This matters more than you'd think—I've seen advertisers accidentally add negatives to the wrong client account because they forgot to switch.

Once you're in the right account, look at the left-side navigation menu. You'll see a section labeled "Keywords" with a small arrow next to it. Click on "Keywords" to expand the dropdown menu. This reveals several keyword-related options, including "Search keywords," "Negative keywords," and sometimes "Keyword themes" if you're running Performance Max campaigns.

Click on "Negative keywords" from this expanded menu. This takes you to a view showing all negative keywords currently active across your entire account. If you've never added any negatives before, this page will be empty—which is exactly what we're about to change.

This account-level view is useful for getting a bird's-eye perspective of what you're blocking, but it's not where you'll do most of your work. Think of it as the master list that aggregates everything. The real action happens when you drill down into specific campaigns and ad groups, which we'll cover next.

One thing to note: this navigation path gives you visibility into negatives, but adding negative keywords requires going one level deeper. The interface is designed this way because negative keywords need context—they need to be attached to something, whether that's a campaign, an ad group, or a shared list.

Step 2: Add Negative Keywords at the Campaign Level

Campaign-level negatives are where most advertisers should start. They're powerful because they apply to every ad group within that campaign, giving you broad control without affecting your other campaigns.

To add negatives at the campaign level, first select the specific campaign you want to work on from your campaign list. Click on the campaign name to open it. Once you're inside that campaign view, navigate to "Keywords" in the left menu, then click "Negative keywords" from the dropdown.

Now you'll see a blue plus button (usually labeled "+ Negative keywords" or just a blue "+" icon). Click it. A dialog box appears with two options: "Add negative keywords" or "Use negative keyword list." We'll focus on the first option for now—adding keywords directly to the campaign.

When you choose to add negative keywords directly, you can type or paste them into a text box. You can add multiple keywords at once by separating them with commas or putting each on a new line. The interface will show you a preview of how many keywords you're adding.

Here's where strategy comes in: campaign-level negatives work best for terms that are irrelevant to that campaign's specific offer but might be relevant elsewhere in your account. Let's say you're running two campaigns—one for "beginner guitar lessons" and another for "advanced guitar masterclass." In the advanced campaign, you'd add negatives like "beginner," "start," "first time," and "learn basics" at the campaign level. This prevents your expensive advanced course ads from showing to people who clearly want beginner content.

What usually happens here is advertisers add too few negatives at launch, then spend weeks discovering irrelevant searches one by one. A better approach is to brainstorm 20-30 obvious exclusions during campaign setup based on what you know won't convert. Think about searcher intent that's adjacent but wrong—people looking for jobs, free alternatives, DIY solutions, or competitor products.

After you've added your negatives, click "Save." They take effect immediately, though it may take a few hours for Google's systems to fully process them across all ad auctions. You can come back to this same path anytime to add more negatives or remove ones that were too aggressive.

One mistake I see constantly: advertisers add campaign-level negatives that accidentally block their own target keywords. If you're targeting "best CRM software" and you add "software" as a negative, you've just killed your campaign. Always double-check that your negatives won't conflict with your positive keywords before saving.

Step 3: Add Negative Keywords at the Ad Group Level

Ad group-level negatives are your precision tool. They let you prevent specific ad groups from triggering on certain searches while allowing other ad groups in the same campaign to compete for those same queries.

To add negatives at the ad group level, drill down into a specific ad group within your campaign. Click on the campaign name, then click on the ad group you want to refine. Once you're viewing that ad group, go to "Keywords" in the left menu, then select "Negative keywords."

The interface looks similar to campaign-level negatives, but there's a crucial difference: these negatives only apply to this specific ad group. This is incredibly useful when you're running multiple ad groups targeting similar but distinct search intent.

Here's a real-world example from an account I managed: We had three ad groups in a software campaign—one for "project management software," one for "task management software," and one for "team collaboration software." The keywords overlapped significantly, and we were getting search terms like "project management task software" triggering ads from all three ad groups, creating internal competition.

The solution was ad group-level negatives. In the "task management software" ad group, we added "project" and "collaboration" as negatives. In the "project management software" ad group, we added "task" and "collaboration" as negatives. This forced each search query to match with only one ad group, eliminating internal auction competition and improving our Quality Scores.

When to use ad group-level negatives: when you need to prevent overlap between ad groups, when one ad group targets a premium offer and another targets a budget option (add "cheap" and "affordable" to the premium ad group), or when you're testing different messaging angles and need clean separation between test groups.

The process for adding them is identical to campaign-level: click the blue plus button, type or paste your keywords, choose the match type, and save. But the strategic thinking is different—you're sculpting traffic flow within a campaign rather than blocking irrelevant traffic from outside.

One warning: don't go overboard with ad group-level negatives. If you find yourself adding 50+ negatives to a single ad group, that's a signal your ad group structure might be too complex. Sometimes the better solution is to restructure your campaigns rather than trying to control traffic with an ever-growing negative list.

Step 4: Create and Apply Account-Level Negative Keyword Lists

Account-level negative keyword lists are the most efficient way to block terms that should never trigger ads anywhere in your account. Think of them as your universal blocklist—terms like competitor names, job-related searches, or words indicating zero purchase intent.

To create a negative keyword list, click on "Tools & Settings" in the top navigation (it's the wrench icon). Under the "Shared Library" section, click "Negative keyword lists." If you've never created one before, you'll see an empty state with a blue button to create your first list.

Click the blue plus button to create a new list. You'll be prompted to name it—and this matters more than you'd think. Use descriptive names like "Competitor Brands," "Job Seekers," "Free/Cheap Terms," or "Informational Queries." Six months from now, you'll thank yourself for clear naming when you're trying to remember what "List 3" was supposed to block.

After naming your list, you can add keywords immediately or save the empty list and add keywords later. I recommend adding at least a few keywords during creation so you remember the list's purpose. You can paste in bulk lists here—if you have 200 competitor brand names, paste them all at once rather than adding them one by one.

Here's where the power comes in: after creating the list, you need to apply it to campaigns. Click on the list name to open it, then look for an option like "Apply to campaigns" or "Campaigns" in the top navigation. This shows you which campaigns currently use this list and lets you add or remove campaigns.

Select all campaigns where these negatives should apply, then save. The beauty of this approach is that when you add a new keyword to the list later, it automatically applies to all campaigns using that list. No need to update 15 campaigns individually—update the list once, and you're done.

Common negative keywords lists for Google Ads I see in well-managed accounts: a competitor list with 50-100 brand names and misspellings, a job seeker list with terms like "jobs," "career," "hiring," "salary," "resume," a free seeker list with "free," "download," "template," "sample," and an informational query list with "how to," "what is," "guide," "tutorial," "tips."

The mistake most agencies make is creating lists but forgetting to apply them to new campaigns. When you launch a new campaign, go back to your shared library and apply your standard negative lists immediately. Better yet, create a campaign launch checklist that includes this step.

You can also share negative keyword lists across multiple Google Ads accounts if you're using a manager account (MCC). This is incredibly useful for agencies managing similar clients—build your master negative lists once, then apply them across all relevant accounts.

Step 5: Add Negative Keywords Directly from the Search Terms Report

This is where the rubber meets the road. Everything we've covered so far is proactive—blocking terms you think will be irrelevant. The search terms report shows you what's actually happening, revealing the searches that triggered your ads and which ones are wasting money.

To access the search terms report, navigate to "Insights & Reports" in the left menu, then click "Search terms." Alternatively, you can go to "Keywords" > "Search keywords," then click the "Search terms" tab at the top. Google has moved this around in recent interface updates, but it's always accessible from the keywords section.

The search terms report shows you actual queries people typed before clicking your ads. This is gold. You'll see searches you never imagined would trigger your keywords, and you'll quickly identify patterns of irrelevant traffic. Understanding the difference between search terms vs keywords in Google Ads is essential for effective optimization.

To add negatives from this report, use the checkboxes on the left to select the search terms you want to block. You can select multiple at once. After selecting them, look for a button labeled "Add as negative keyword" (sometimes it's in a dropdown menu labeled "Actions" or under a three-dot menu icon).

When you click "Add as negative keyword," a dialog appears asking where you want to add them: to a specific ad group, to a specific campaign, or to a negative keyword list. This is a critical decision point. If the search term is irrelevant to just one ad group, add it there. If it's irrelevant to the entire campaign, add it at the campaign level. If it should never trigger ads anywhere in your account, add it to an account-level negative list.

Here's what I do in most accounts I audit: I sort the search terms report by cost (highest to lowest) and look at the top 50 most expensive queries. Then I identify which ones converted and which didn't. Any expensive non-converting query gets added as a negative immediately. Then I look for patterns—if I see five variations of "free trial" that all failed to convert, I add "free trial" as a negative phrase match rather than adding each variation individually.

Why this method catches real wasted spend you'd otherwise miss: your keywords might be triggering on searches you never anticipated. Broad match and phrase match keywords can match to surprisingly distant variations. I once saw "luxury watches" triggering on "watch repair near me"—completely different intent, but Google's matching algorithm saw "watch" and decided it was close enough.

Make reviewing the search terms report part of your weekly routine. Set a calendar reminder. Spend 15 minutes every Monday morning adding negatives from the previous week's data. Mastering Google Ads search term report optimization will improve your campaign performance more than most advanced optimization tactics.

One pro tip: when adding negatives from the search terms report, pay attention to match type. If you see "best free CRM software" and want to block it, adding "free" as a negative broad match will block any query containing "free." Adding "free CRM" as negative phrase match will only block queries containing that exact phrase. Choose based on how aggressive you want to be.

Step 6: Choose the Right Match Type for Your Negative Keywords

Negative keyword match types work differently than positive keyword match types, and understanding this difference prevents both wasted spend and accidentally blocking good traffic.

There are three negative match types: negative broad match (the default), negative phrase match, and negative exact match. Here's what each one actually does.

Negative broad match blocks any query that contains all your negative keyword terms, in any order, with other words before, after, or in between. If you add "free software" as a negative broad match, you'll block "free CRM software," "software for free," and "is there free software available," but you won't block "software" or "free" by themselves. Both words need to appear in the search query for the block to trigger.

This is the opposite of how positive broad match works, which makes it confusing. Positive broad match is extremely loose and matches to related concepts. Negative keywords broad match is relatively restrictive—it only blocks queries containing your specific terms. In most cases, negative broad match is what you want for general exclusions.

Negative phrase match blocks queries containing your exact phrase, with other words potentially before or after it. To use phrase match, wrap your negative keyword in quotation marks: "free trial". This will block "free trial software" and "sign up for free trial" but won't block "trial free software" (different word order) or "free 30 day trial" (words in between).

Use negative phrase match when word order matters. For example, "New York" as a negative phrase match will block "New York apartments" but won't block "York New" (which isn't a real search anyway, but you get the idea). It's more precise than broad match but less restrictive than exact match.

Negative exact match blocks only the exact query, nothing else. To use exact match, wrap your negative in brackets: [free trial]. This will only block someone searching exactly "free trial" and nothing else—not "free trial software," not "free trials," just those two words in that exact order with no additions.

Negative exact match is rarely useful. The only time I use it is when I want to block a very specific query but allow close variations. For example, if "CRM" as a negative broad match would block too much, but you specifically want to block people searching just "CRM" (who are probably doing research, not buying), you'd use [CRM] as a negative exact match.

The common mistake here is using exact match when broad would be more effective. Advertisers think they're being precise, but they end up blocking almost nothing because exact match is so restrictive. If you want to block "free" searches, don't add [free]—that only blocks people searching the single word "free." Add "free" as broad match or "free software" as phrase match instead. For a deeper dive into this topic, check out our guide on how match types work for negative keywords.

Quick reference for which match type to use: For single words you want to block everywhere (like "jobs" or "free"), use broad match. For phrases where word order matters (like "how to" or "New York"), use phrase match. For blocking a very specific query without affecting variations, use exact match (rarely needed). When in doubt, start with broad match—you can always make it more restrictive later if you're blocking too much.

Putting It All Together: Your Negative Keyword Action Plan

Now that you know where to add negative keywords and how each level works, let's make sure you're set up for success. Here's your quick implementation checklist.

First, verify you've identified the right level for each negative keyword. Universal exclusions like competitor names and job-related terms belong in account-level negative keyword lists. Campaign-specific exclusions that don't apply to your other campaigns belong at the campaign level. Ad group-specific exclusions that prevent overlap within a campaign belong at the ad group level. Most advertisers should focus 80% of their effort on account-level lists and campaign-level negatives.

Second, create your core negative keyword lists if you haven't already. At minimum, build a competitor list, a job seeker list, and a free/cheap terms list. Apply these to all active campaigns. This single action can reduce wasted spend significantly in most accounts. If you need help identifying common negative keywords every campaign should have, we've compiled a comprehensive list to get you started.

Third, schedule time to review your search terms report weekly. This isn't optional—it's the only way to discover what's actually triggering your ads. Set a recurring calendar reminder for Monday mornings or Friday afternoons, whichever fits your workflow. Spend 15-30 minutes identifying irrelevant queries and adding them as negatives.

Fourth, select appropriate match types for your negatives. When adding from the search terms report, default to broad match for most exclusions. Use phrase match when word order matters or when you're blocking a specific phrase. Save exact match for rare cases where you need surgical precision.

Adding negative keywords isn't a one-time task—it's an ongoing optimization process. Your campaigns will continuously attract new search queries as Google's matching algorithms evolve and as searcher behavior changes. The advertisers who consistently review and refine their negative keyword lists are the ones running profitable campaigns while their competitors wonder why their costs keep climbing. Understanding how negative keywords improve campaign performance is fundamental to long-term success.

Tools like Keywordme can speed up this process significantly by letting you add negatives directly from the search terms report with one click, eliminating the back-and-forth between reports and campaign settings. But whether you're using the native interface or a helper tool, the fundamentals covered here remain the same: know where each negative keyword level lives, understand when to use each one, and make search terms review a regular habit.

The difference between profitable and unprofitable Google Ads campaigns often comes down to negative keywords. You can have perfect ad copy, a great landing page, and competitive bids, but if you're showing ads to the wrong searches, none of that matters. Now you know exactly where to add negatives and how to use each level strategically. Time to put that knowledge to work.

Start your free 7-day trial of Keywordme and optimize your Google Ads campaigns 10X faster—without leaving your account. 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 for only $12/month after your trial.