Guides · Keywords and searches
Negative Keywords: Block the Waste Without Blocking Your Leads
By Josh Croom · October 27, 2026 · 11 min read
Negative keywords tell Google which searches should never show your ad, like jobs for a plumber or wine glasses for an eye doctor. You find them in your search terms report, but protect every search that brought a lead before you block anything, because one careless block can cut off the calls you wanted.
A report full of searches you never chose
Monday, 8:10 AM. You open your search terms report for the first time. Near the top sit plumber jobs near me and how to fix a leaky faucet yourself, and each one cost you a click.
Your first instinct is to block everything that looks strange. Halfway down the list, though, sits water heater guy, an odd way to put it, and it brought two calls last month. Block it along with the rest, and those calls stop coming. A careful sweep blocks the job search and the faucet search and leaves water heater guy alone.
What a negative keyword does
A negative keyword is a word or phrase you add to your account to keep your ad off searches that contain it. Google's own example is an eye doctor who sells eyeglasses and adds wine glasses and drinking glasses as negatives, because people searching for those want something else entirely.
A search term is what a person actually typed, while a keyword is what you added to your account. With broad match, one keyword can show your ad on many search terms you never wrote. So check the search terms report often, and add negatives for the searches you don't want.
Negatives work at three levels. A campaign negative blocks a search in that campaign only. A shared negative keyword list attaches to several campaigns at once and holds up to 5,000 negatives, with up to 20 lists in an account. An account-level list covers search and shopping ads across the whole account and holds up to 1,000.
How the three negative match types work
Negative match types follow their own rules, which differ from the keywords you target. Google's example sets the negative keyword running shoes three different ways.
A negative broad keyword blocks any search that holds all of its words, in any order. A negative phrase blocks searches that hold the words in the same order, even with extra words around them. A negative exact blocks only that exact search, with nothing added.
Negatives don't stretch to close variants, so running shoes as a negative won't stop a search for running shoe. Add the singular and the plural yourself, along with any synonyms you want gone. Google does handle capital letters and misspellings on its own, so you don't need to add those.
| Someone searches | Negative broad | Negative phrase | Negative exact |
|---|---|---|---|
| blue tennis shoes | Ad can show | Ad can show | Ad can show |
| running shoe | Ad can show | Ad can show | Ad can show |
| blue running shoes | Blocked | Blocked | Ad can show |
| shoes running | Blocked | Ad can show | Ad can show |
| running shoes | Blocked | Blocked | Blocked |
Why one click proves almost nothing
We looked at the searches across the Grant and paid accounts we manage to see how much a single month of search terms really tells you.
- 84%of no-lead searches got exactly one clicksearches with a click and no conversion, 30 days to Oct 11, 2026
- 35%of lead searches went quiet latera lead in the 30 days to Aug 2, then clicks and no lead in the 30 days to Oct 11
- 15%of Google searches each day are brand newworded in a way Google had never seen, Google, 2019
Most waste shows up one click at a time, so you find it by looking for words that repeat across many searches. Good searches go quiet in some months, so a rule that judged only the latest month would block about a third of your past winners. New wording also keeps arriving every day, which means a sweep is a monthly habit rather than a one-time cleanup.
The search term sweep, step by step
Run this once a month on the last 30 days of searches. The order matters, because protecting your winners first keeps every later step from cutting them off.
Step 1
Pull the last 30 days
In Google Ads, open Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms. Add columns for clicks, cost and conversions, so you can see what each search cost and what it brought back.
Step 2
Mark what you never block
Before anything else, mark every search that brought a lead in the last 90 days, plus your core searches: your main services and your own business name. These stay open even when they look slow this month.
Step 3
Sort the searches with no leads
Sort the searches that got clicks and no leads by cost, highest first. These are your candidates, but they aren't waste yet, because one click on one search tells you very little.
Step 4
Look for words that repeat
Break each no-lead search into its one, two and three word pieces. A word like jobs or diy that keeps showing up with cost and no leads is a pattern worth blocking, while a single search with one click isn't.
Step 5
Wait for a cost floor
Don't block a search until it has cost a set amount with no leads. We wait for $5 before a block in one campaign and $20 before a block on the whole account, and anything under the floor waits for next month.
Step 6
Check the click rate first
If people click a search more often than the rest of its ad group, it might be a good search sent to a weak page. Have a person look at those before you block anything, because the fix may be the page rather than a negative.
Step 7
Block at the right level
If a search is wrong for one campaign only, block it in that campaign. If it's wrong for your whole business, put it on a shared list or the account-level list, so it applies across your campaigns.
Step 8
Turn winners into keywords
A search that brought a lead but isn't a keyword yet becomes one. We add it on broad match in the ad group that already shows for it, so it can keep finding the wording you haven't seen yet.
Step 9
Keep a log
Write down each block, the date and the reason. If leads drop later, you can find the block and undo it in a minute instead of guessing.
A wrong search still costs a click
A sweep catches searches like this one. The person wanted a job, Google matched the search to a plumbing ad, and the click still cost money.
plumbing jobs hiring near me
What to block and what to protect
Block these, once they pass your floor
- Job searches, like jobs, hiring or salary, when you aren't hiring.
- How-to searches, like diy or tutorial, when you only sell the service.
- Towns and areas you don't serve.
- Services you don't offer, like repair when you only install.
Protect these, every month
- Any search that brought a lead in the last 90 days.
- Your main services and your own business name.
- Odd wording that brings calls, even when it looks wrong.
- For a church, local searches like a church in your town.
The settings we use
These are the floors and rules from our own monthly sweep. Treat the dollar floors as a starting point, and raise them if your clicks cost a lot more than a few dollars.
| Setting | What we use |
|---|---|
| Search window | Last 30 days |
| Never block | Any search that brought a lead in the last 90 days, plus core terms |
| Waste floor, one campaign | $5 spent, no leads |
| Waste floor, whole account | $20 spent, no leads |
| Word pieces we check | 1, 2 and 3 words long |
| Blocking one search in one campaign | Negative exact, the whole search |
| Blocking a search on the whole account | 1 word: negative broad. 2 or 3 words: negative phrase. 4 or more: negative exact |
| Click rate above its ad group | A person reviews it before any block |
| New keyword from a search | It brought a lead, or got 10 clicks at twice the account's click rate |
| New keyword match type | Broad, always |
Why new keywords go on broad match
Every search that earns a lead and isn't a keyword yet becomes a keyword, and we add it on broad match. In 2019, Google said 15% of the searches it got each day used wording it had never seen before, and broad match lets your ads show up for that new wording.
Broad match finds wording you didn't think of, and the monthly sweep blocks the wording that proves to be waste, so a junk search can't keep spending once it passes your floor.
Negative keywords on a Google Ad Grant
A Grant has its own reason to sweep. Google asks every Grant account to keep a click rate of at least 5% each month across the whole account. Searches that show your ad to the wrong people drag that rate down. Blocking proven waste moves your Grant credit toward the searches that fit your mission. Use the sweep to put the credit to better use, and never to spend less of it.
Words change meaning from one organization to the next, so check each block against your own work. Jobs is junk for a plumber and the whole point for a job-training nonprofit. For a church, the local searches that bring a visit, like a church in your town, stay open even in a slow month. Our Google Ad Grants management and church marketing pages show how we run both.
Is your negative list helping or hurting?
Answer four questions about your own account. Your answers stay on your device.
Have you looked at your search terms report in the last 30 days?
Before you block a search, do you check whether it brought a lead in the last 90 days?
Do you wait until a search has cost a set amount before you block it?
Do you keep a log of each block, with the date and the reason?
Your sweep is in good shape. Keep running it every month, because new wording shows up every day and last month's list won't catch all of it.
You're partway there. Fix the first question you answered No before your next sweep, because each one protects leads you already paid to find.
Open your search terms report this week and mark every search that brought a lead. Protect those first, and hold off on blocking anything until you have.
Your monthly sweep
Tick each step as you finish it. Your ticks stay on this device, so you can pick up where you left off.
0 of 8 done
How we run the sweep
We run this sweep on the accounts we manage as part of our Google Ads management, with the floors above and a log behind every block. Our search terms study shows what people type before they call or buy, and our PPC audit checklist covers the rest of a healthy account.
If you'd like a second set of eyes on your search terms, book a call with Miguel. He'll look at what your ads show up for today and talk through what to keep and what to block.
Questions people ask
What are negative keywords in Google Ads?
Negative keywords are words or phrases that keep your ad off any search containing them. A plumber might add jobs as a negative, so people looking for work don't click the ad and cost money.
How do I find negative keywords?
Open the search terms report, sort the searches that got clicks and no leads by cost, and look for words that repeat. Protect every search that brought a lead in the last 90 days before you block anything.
Can negative keywords hurt my ads?
Yes. Google warns that too many negatives can shrink your reach, and blocking a search that brings leads cuts off those leads. Block only proven waste, and log each block so you can undo it.
Do negative keywords block plurals and misspellings?
Google handles misspellings and capital letters for you, but not close variants. Add the singular and plural forms yourself, along with any synonyms you want gone.
What is a negative keyword list?
A negative keyword list is a shared list you attach to several campaigns at once, so one change reaches all of them. Google allows up to 5,000 negatives per list and up to 20 lists in an account.
See how we run Google Ads, search terms included
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