The Art of Building a Negative Keyword List

Alon TAlon T·

November 18, 2025

Building a negative keyword list isn't something you do once and forget. It's an ongoing process that starts before your first campaign goes live and continues as long as you're running ads. The best PPC managers treat their negative keyword lists like living documents—constantly refined based on new data and changing search behavior.

If you haven't read it yet, check out why negative keywords matter more than ever to understand the context for why this work is so critical.

Proactive vs. Reactive Strategies

There are two approaches to building negative keyword lists, and you need both.

Proactive negatives are the terms you add before launching a campaign. These are the obvious irrelevant searches you can predict based on your industry and offering. Every PPC manager should have a starter list ready to go.

Reactive negatives come from analyzing your search terms reports after your campaigns are running. These are the surprises—the searches you didn't anticipate that are eating your budget.

The best accounts balance both. Heavy on proactive to minimize wasted spend from the start, then disciplined about reviewing search terms to catch what slips through.

Building Your Proactive Foundation

Before any campaign goes live, add negatives for these categories:

Job Seekers

Unless you're hiring, job-related searches are pure waste:

  • jobs, careers, hiring, employment
  • salary, pay, wages, compensation
  • resume, CV, application
  • internship, apprentice
  • "[your industry] jobs"

Information Seekers (When You Want Buyers)

If you're selling a product or service, pure informational queries often don't convert:

  • how to, what is, definition
  • tutorial, guide, examples
  • DIY, homemade, make your own
  • template, sample, free

Price-Sensitive Searchers

Depending on your positioning, you might want to filter out bargain hunters:

  • free, cheap, discount, budget
  • coupon, promo code, deal
  • used, refurbished, secondhand

Competitors (Sometimes)

This is nuanced. Sometimes you want to show for competitor searches, sometimes you don't:

  • Add competitor names if you don't want to pay for those clicks
  • But "[competitor] vs [you]" or "[competitor] alternative" might be valuable

Geographic Mismatches

If you serve specific locations:

  • Add city/state names for areas you don't serve
  • Consider "near me" queries if your location targeting isn't precise

Organizing Your Negative Keywords

Structure matters. A messy negative keyword setup leads to conflicts and missed coverage.

Account-Level Negatives

Terms that should never trigger ads across your entire account:

  • Jobs/careers terms
  • Adult content terms
  • Obvious irrelevant terms for your business

Campaign-Level Negatives

Terms specific to that campaign's focus:

  • Product A campaigns should negative Product B terms
  • Geographic campaigns should negative other locations
  • Service campaigns should negative product terms

Shared Negative Keyword Lists

Google Ads lets you create reusable lists. Use them:

  • "Job Seekers" list applied to all campaigns
  • "Free/Cheap" list for premium product campaigns
  • Industry-specific lists for different verticals

Match Types for Negatives

This trips up many advertisers. Negative keyword match types work differently than regular match types.

Negative broad match (default): Blocks searches containing all the words in any order

  • Negative: free trial blocks "free trial download" and "trial free version"
  • But doesn't block "free" alone or "trial" alone

Negative phrase match: Blocks searches containing the exact phrase in order

  • Negative: "free trial" blocks "get free trial now"
  • Doesn't block "trial free" (different order)

Negative exact match: Blocks only that exact search

  • Negative: [free trial] only blocks "free trial"
  • Doesn't block "free trial download"

For most negatives, broad match is fine. Use phrase or exact when you need precision—like blocking "free CRM" without blocking "CRM free trial offer."

The Starter List Every Account Needs

Here's a baseline list to start with. Customize based on your business:

jobs
careers
hiring
salary
resume
employment
internship
free
cheap
DIY
how to
what is
tutorial
guide
examples
template
reddit
youtube
pdf
download
torrent

Maintaining Your Lists

Building the list is just the start. Maintenance is where the real work happens.

Set a recurring calendar reminder to:

  1. Review search terms reports weekly (or daily for high-spend accounts)
  2. Add new negatives from irrelevant searches
  3. Check for conflicts between keywords and negatives
  4. Update lists when you add new products or services

See our guide on mining search terms reports for detailed tactics on finding negative keyword opportunities in your data.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

A few mistakes I see repeatedly:

Over-negating: Adding too many broad negatives can block good traffic. If you add "free" as a negative, you might block "free shipping" searches that could convert.

Forgetting about plurals: "job" as a negative won't block "jobs" (unlike regular keywords, negatives don't include close variants).

Conflicting keywords and negatives: If you bid on "CRM software" but have "software" as a negative, you're blocking your own ads.

Set and forget: Search behavior changes. New slang emerges. Competitors rebrand. Your negative lists need regular updates.

For a deeper dive into what can go wrong, read about common negative keyword mistakes.

Conclusion

A well-built negative keyword list is one of the highest-ROI activities in PPC management. The time you invest upfront pays dividends in reduced wasted spend, better quality scores, and more budget for searches that actually convert.

Start with a solid proactive foundation, then build the discipline to review and update regularly. Your account (and your budget) will thank you.