Negative Keyword

Negative keywords stop your ads from showing on searches that will never turn into customers. For a local service business, the biggest waste usually comes from four groups of searchers: job seekers, do-it-yourselfers, people who want something free, and people researching instead of hiring.

A starter list for a business like aircon cleaning or repair: Job seekers: job, jobs, hiring, salary, vacancy, apply DIY: how to, diy, tutorial, manual, yourself Free and learning: free, course, training, pdf Wrong intent: for sale, second hand, parts

Negatives use their own match types, and they behave differently from regular keywords. A negative broad match blocks a search containing all its words in any order. A negative phrase match blocks the words in that exact order. A negative exact match blocks only that exact search. Unlike regular keywords, negatives don’t expand to close variants, so “job” won’t block “jobs”. You have to add both.

Check the list before you add it. If you also sell aircon units, “for sale” would block buyers. Then review the search terms report every week and add new negatives as wasted clicks show up. Save the list as a negative keyword list so you can apply it across campaigns.