Paid Search
Negative Keywords: The Cheapest Hour in Your Ad Account
One weekly report, one list, and the single highest-return hour available in most small Google Ads accounts.
If you do one thing in your Google Ads account this month, do this. Open the search terms report, sort by cost, and read the top fifty.
You will find money spent on searches you would never have bid on. Job seekers. Students doing homework. People in a state you do not serve. Somebody looking for the free version of what you sell. Every one of those cost you a click, and most of them are still costing you one every week.
Keywords and search terms are not the same thing
This trips up almost everyone running their own account. Your keyword is what you told Google you want. The search term is what the person actually typed. With broad and phrase matching — and Google has steadily loosened what those mean — the gap can be enormous.
You bid on "commercial plumbing." You get charged for "plumbing apprenticeship," "how to fix a commercial toilet," and "plumbing supply store." Google considered all three related. Your bank account considers them noise.
The keyword list is what you asked for. The search terms report is what you got.
The categories worth blocking, in order
Free, DIY, and how-to
Anyone typing "how to," "DIY," "free," "template," or "tutorial" is doing it themselves. Block the modifiers globally and you will cut waste in almost any account.
Jobs and training
"Jobs," "salary," "hiring," "career," "apprenticeship," "certification," "course," "school," "training." Job seekers search a lot and buy nothing.
Competitors and brands you do not carry
Unless you are deliberately running competitor campaigns, competitor names are expensive and convert poorly. Same for brands you do not stock.
Geography you do not serve
Location targeting is not airtight, particularly near a state line — and much of Southeast Ohio is near a state line. Add the cities and states you do not want as negatives rather than relying on targeting alone.
Wrong intent entirely
Used, rental, wholesale, parts, repair — whichever of these is not your business. A company that sells new equipment burning budget on "used" searches is one of the most common patterns there is.
Where to put the list
Build a shared negative keyword list at account level for the universal ones — jobs, free, DIY, the states you do not serve. Apply it to every campaign. Then keep campaign-level negatives for terms that are wrong for one campaign and right for another.
The distinction matters as you grow. "Repair" might be a negative on your installation campaign and a core keyword on your service campaign. Put it at account level and you have just switched off a line of business.
Match types, briefly
| Type | Written as | Blocks |
|---|---|---|
| Broad negative | plumbing jobs | Any search containing both words, in any order |
| Phrase negative | "plumbing jobs" | Any search containing that exact phrase |
| Exact negative | [plumbing jobs] | Only that exact search, nothing else |
Broad negatives are the workhorse. Be slightly careful with single common words — adding "service" as a broad negative to block "customer service jobs" will also block "plumbing service," which is the thing you sell.
Make it a habit, not a project
Weekly for the first couple of months while the account is young and the waste is concentrated. Monthly after that, once the obvious patterns are blocked and you are picking off stragglers.
It compounds. An account with two years of disciplined negative keyword work has a cost per call that a new account simply cannot match on the same budget, which is also the argument for owning your ad account rather than letting an agency hold it — that list is the asset, and it does not transfer if the account does not.