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.
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, Shopping, Smart Shopping, Smart, and Local campaigns.
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.
- Sign in to your Google Ads account, and click the Account Settings tab.
- Click to expand the "Negative keywords" section.
- Click the plus button
and enter your negative keywords with one word or phrase per line.
- Click Save to apply.
- To change the match type for the negative keyword, hover and click over the keyword row in the "Match type" column and select the specified match type between broad, phrase, or exact match types.
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.
- Sign in to your Google Ads account, and click the Account Settings tab.
- Click to expand the "Negative keywords for search and shopping" section.
- Check the box next to the negative keywords you wish to remove.
- Click Remove.
Editing account-level negative keywords
You have 2 options when you want to edit your list of negative keywords:
- You can add a filter to make it easier to search for specific terms in the list. You can create this by typing in your chosen keyword and choosing a match type.
- You can make inline edits by hovering over your chosen keyword. Edit the keyword, its match type, or both before saving it.