Create exclusions for Dynamic Search Ads

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

  1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
  2. From the page menu on the left at the account level, click Dynamic ad targets.
  3. Choose the Negative Dynamic Ad Targets tab.
  4. Click the plus button .
  5. 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.
  6. Click Select a campaign or Select an ad group and choose the campaign or ad group for the negative dynamic ad targets.
  7. 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.
  8. Click Add to review the summary of rules.
  9. 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.

  1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
  2. Click Keywords from the page menu on the left.
  3. Click Negative keywords.
  4. Click the plus button .

From here, you can apply new keywords, a new negative keyword list, or an existing negative keyword list to your campaigns or ad groups.

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

  1. Select Add negative keywords or create new list.
  2. Choose whether to add negative keywords to a campaign or an ad group, then select the specific campaign or ad group. 
  3. 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 exact match, and you won't be able to change the match type.
  4. 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.
  5. Click Save.

Use an existing negative keyword list 

  1. Select Use negative keyword list
  2. Choose the campaign that you’d like to apply negative keyword lists to.
  3. Check the boxes of the negative keyword lists you’d like to use. 
  4. Click Save.

Add or remove negative keywords lists from multiple campaigns at once

  1. From the page menu on the left, click Campaigns.
  2. Check the box next to the campaigns you want to apply your negative keyword lists to. 
  3. Click Edit, and select Edit targeting.
  4. To add negative keyword lists, select Add negative keyword lists.
    1. Check the box next to the lists you want to add to these campaigns.
    2. Click Apply.
  5. To remove negative keyword lists, select Remove negative keyword lists.
    1. Check the box next to the lists you want to remove from these campaigns.
  6. Click Apply.

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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