Create exclusions for Dynamic Search Ads

Existing Dynamic Search Ad campaigns may be eligible to upgrade to Performance Max, bringing you additional inventory and formats to reach new customers. Advertisers who upgrade DSA campaigns to Performance Max see an average increase of over 15% in conversions or conversion value at a similar cost per action (CPA) or return on ad spend (ROAS). Learn how to Upgrade Dynamic Search Ads to Performance Max (Beta).

Your Dynamic search ads dynamically match your webpages to people's specific searches on Google. Set up exclusions to block pages on your site from generating ads—for instance, pages with sold out products. This article explains how to exclude specific webpages and search terms (negative keywords) you don't want used for generating or triggering your ads.

To learn more about targeting, start with About targets for Dynamic Search Ads.

When to use

Exclude specific webpages. Creating exclusions for pages that contain words like "sold out" or "unavailable” is strongly recommended. This will prevent customers from viewing pages on your website that contain products they won't be able to buy.

Exclude specific searches on Google. You'd like to prevent your ad about electronic devices from showing to someone searching for used camera or used television. You'd want to add used as a negative keyword since that person isn't likely to buy your new cameras and televisions.

Instructions to exclude specific webpages

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu.
Click Dynamic ad targets.
Click the Negative dynamic ad targets tab at the top of the page.
Click the plus button .
Use the “Add to” dropdown menu to choose whether you want to add the negative dynamic ad targets to a campaign or an ad group.
Click Select a campaign or Select an ad group and choose the campaign or ad group for the negative dynamic ad targets.
Create one or more rules to exclude specific webpages. You can choose to exclude pages by category, page content, page title, or URL.
- Use exact URLs: Enter or paste the exact URLs you want to exclude. Enter one URL per line.
  
  Note: A URL with a capital letter (www.Example.com) is considered a different URL from one with a lowercase letter (www.example.com). So be sure to specify the exact URL.
- Create rules to target webpage: Use the dropdown menu to select Page content, Page title, or URL, and then enter the conditions for the rule.
Click Add to review the summary of rules.
Click Save.

Instructions to add negative keywords

You can add negative keywords to your Dynamic Search Ad campaign just as you'd add them to any other campaign. Even though Dynamic Search Ads don't use keywords, negative keywords factor in when Dynamic Search Ads appear to potential customers. Learn how to Add negative keywords to campaigns.

Add negative keywords to ad groups, campaigns, and negative keyword lists

Choose whether to add negative keywords to all campaigns or a specific campaign, then select the specific campaign or ad group.
- To edit negative keywords for all campaigns, click Edit exclusions.
- To edit negative keywords for a specific campaign, click the arrow next to “Show table”, select the campaign you want to edit, then click Edit exclusions.
Add your keywords, one per line. Make sure that your negative keywords don't overlap with your regular keywords, because this will cause your ad not to show.
- Note: If you’re adding negative keywords to a search campaign, you can choose a match type by using the appropriate symbols. For Display and Video campaigns, all negative keywords will be added as broad match, and you won't be able to change the match type.
If you’re adding your negative keywords to a campaign, you have the option to save the keywords to a new or existing negative keyword list and apply that list to the campaign. Check Save to new or existing list, then enter a name for your new list, or select an existing list.
Click Done.

Note: For Performance Max, you can add account-level negative keywords.

Use an existing negative keyword list

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Audiences, keywords, and content dropdown in the section menu.
Click Search keywords.
Go to the “Negative search keywords” tab and click the plus button .
Choose the Use negative keyword list option and select the campaign that you’d like to apply negative keyword lists to.
On the table below, check the boxes of the negative keyword lists you’d like to use.
Click Save.

Note: You can create a maximum of 20 negative keyword lists per account, with up to 5,000 negative keywords in each list. This is subject to change, and in some instances, more than 5,000 keywords may be added to a list. This is a known issue.

Add or remove negative keywords lists from multiple campaigns

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Shared library dropdown in the section menu.
Click Exclusion lists and go to the “Negative keyword lists” tab.
To add a negative keyword list to multiple campaigns:
1. Select the negative keyword list you’d like to add.
2. Click Apply to campaigns.
3. Check the boxes of the campaigns that you’d like to apply the list to.
4. Click Done.
To remove a negative keyword list from multiple campaigns:
1. Select the negative keyword list you’d like to remove.
2. Check the boxes of the campaigns that you’d like the list to be removed from.
3. Click Remove list from selected campaigns.

Note: You can apply a list to up to 1,000 campaigns at one time in Google Ads, which is increased from 200.

Category exclusions

When the Dynamic Search Ad system finds a new page on a website, it may find relevant queries and start serving before the system has had time to categorize the new page. Once the page is categorized, it will stop serving in campaigns where that category is excluded. Later, once it's categorized, the search terms report will still reflect the current category, even if that page wasn't classified as such at the time of serving.

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