About account-level negative keywords

As an advertiser, you want your ads appearing for searches that are related to your brand and have a high likelihood of helping users find what they’re looking for and taking an action. Account-level negative keywords enable you to exclude search terms from campaigns serving on search and shopping inventory so you can focus only on what matters most to your customers.

Negative keywords in your account settings enable you to create a single account-level list that applies negative keywords across relevant search and shopping inventory in all campaigns in your account.

This article explains account-level negative keywords and how they work with your campaigns.

Benefits

Negative keywords allow you to opt out of showing your ads alongside content that may not be appropriate for your brand or serve your advertising goals. While Google has policies that define what types of content can be monetized for ads across its networks, negative keywords allow additional control and help you exclude content that, while in compliance with our policies, may not fit your business. Negative keywords for search and shopping in your account settings enable you to create a single account-level list that applies negative keywords across all relevant campaigns in your account.

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Campaign types that account-level negative keywords apply to

When you create your account-level list of negative keywords, it will automatically apply to all search and shopping inventory in relevant campaign types. These include all search and shopping inventory in Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart Shopping, Smart, and Local campaigns.

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How it works

When you create a list of account-level negative keywords, you will exclude certain terms that you don’t want your ads to be served for on search and shopping inventory. This list makes it easier for your ads to reach your target audience, resulting in better conversions.

Example

You own a sporting goods store and you sell workout clothes. In this case, you can create a list of negative keywords for query intent that includes terms such as “dress pants” or “blouses”.

When selecting negative keywords for search and shopping inventory, look for search terms that are similar to your keywords, but might cater to customers searching for a different product.

Negative keywords won’t match to close variants or other expansions.

Example

If you exclude the negative broad match keyword flowers, ads won’t be eligible to serve when a user searches red flowers, but can serve if a user searches for red flower.

Adding account-level negative keywords

You can create a single, account-level list of negative keywords for search and shopping inventory on your Google Ads account. In the “Account Settings,” you’ll find the “Negative keywords” section. When you click on this section, you can begin creating your negative keywords list.

Note: The instructions below are part of the new design for the Google Ads user experience. To use the previous design, click the "Appearance" icon, and select Use previous design. If you're using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the Search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Admin icon .
2. Click Account settings.
3. Click to expand the "Negative keywords" section.
4. Click the plus button and enter your negative keywords with one word or phrase per line.
5. Click Save.
6. To change the match type for the negative keyword, click the drop down in the "Match type" column and select the specified match type between broad, phrase, or exact match types.

Note: A limit of 1,000 negative keywords can be excluded for each account.

Removing account-level negative keywords

If you’d like to remove negative keywords for search and shopping from your account-level settings, you can do so on your Google Ads account.

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Admin icon .
2. Click Account settings.
3. Click to expand the "Negative keywords" section.
4. Check the box next to the negative keywords that you wish to remove.
5. Click Remove on the top of the table.

Editing account-level negative keywords

You can edit your negative keywords using the instructions below:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Admin icon .
2. Click Account settings.
3. Click to expand the "Negative keywords" section.
4. Hover over the keyword you want to edit, then click the pencil icon.
5. Edit keywords, match types, or both.
6. Click Save.

Filter account-level negative keywords

You can add a filter to make it easier to search for terms in the list using the instructions below:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Admin icon .
2. Click Account settings.
3. Click to expand the "Negative keywords" section.
4. Click Add filter.
5. Enter the keywords you want to search.
   • You can also filter the keywords with “Keyword text” and “Match type” from the dropdown

Note: The filter can only be used to search specific terms.

Removing account-level negative keywords

You can remove negative keywords from your list using these instructions:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Admin icon .
2. Click Account settings.
3. Click to expand the "Negative keywords" section.
4. Select the check box on the left of the keyword you want to remove.
5. Click Remove.

Create excluded content keywords

Excluded content keywords are terms that you can use to prevent ads from appearing alongside non-relevant content, including videos, channels, websites, and apps that contain specific words in title and descriptions. You can exclude up to 1,000 content keywords. Excluded content keywords apply to all campaigns running on YouTube or Display Networks.

Use these instructions to create your set of excluded keywords:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Admin icon .
2. Click Account settings.
3. Scroll to the bottom and click View suitability settings.
4. Under the “Advanced settings” drop down, click to expand “Exclude content keywords”.
5. Click the plus button . Enter the content keywords you want to exclude with one word or phrase per line.
6. Click Save.

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Related links

• About negative keywords
• About negative keyword lists
• Add negative keywords to campaigns
• Edit, remove, or download negative keywords