What Are Negative Keywords?

Making the most of your Google Ads and Bing Ads budget is essential for running a profitable ad campaign. One of the easiest ways to improve your Google Adwords or Bing Ads account is by utilizing negative keywords. Here, you can find out exactly what negative keywords are and how you can use them in your campaign.

What Are Negative Keywords?

What are Negative Keywords?

Negative keywords are used to exclude specific search terms from your advertising campaigns. When you add a negative keyword your ads will no longer be presented to Google or Bing users who have performed a search using these terms. You can use individual keywords or you can use phrases and when you add them as negative keywords, they will no longer show up in your Search Terms reports.

Google Ads Negative Keywords

You can view our Negative Keywords Google Ads tutorial video below or visit the page on our website. We cover some best practices and where to navigate to find negative keyword ideas.
 

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Bing Ads Negative Keywords

You can view our Negative Keywords Bing Ads tutorial video below or visit the page on our website. When you are running a Microsoft Advertising search campaign, using negative keywords will help you optimize your campaign and drive more conversions.
 

Examples of Negative Keywords

First, imagine that you are running a Google Ads or Bing Ads advertising campaign for your Ecommerce website selling designer chairs. However, your store doesn’t not sell wheelchairs. You want to make sure that the search term “wheelchair” is excluded from your advertising campaign. To do this you would make “wheelchair” a negative keyword.

Now, imagine that you are selling drinking glasses. You want to make sure that your ads don’t appear when people are searching for eyeglasses. To do this you could add “eyeglasses” as a negative keyword.

Negative Keyword Examples

What Are Negative Keywords in SEO?

You do not use negative keywords for SEO, you only use them for your PPC Advertising campaigns. When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, you focus on targeting keywords rather than excluding them. However, for Google and Bing search campaigns, you need to optimize your campaigns by avoiding specific search terms that will drag down your conversion rate.

How to Use Negative Keywords

When looking for which negative keywords to use, look for keywords which are similar to your actual keywords but with a different meaning.

You should also look for keywords which are related to your main search terms but cover products you don’t sell. For example, you might have a store selling tea but you don’t sell teapots or tea decanter. So you might want to add “teapots” and “tea decanters” as negative keywords.

In Summary

Adding negative keywords is one of the easiest ways to improve the performance of your advertising campaign. When you add negative keywords to your account, it will keep your ads from appearing for unrelated searches. While the process does take time, but it is invariably a worthwhile investment.