How to find negative keywords in Google Ads
Updated
Quick answer: negative keywords stop your ads from showing on searches you don't want to pay for. To find them, open Insights and reports → Search terms for the last 30 to 90 days, sort by cost, and read the searches that spent money without converting. Anything that is clearly not your product (jobs, free versions, a different service, a competitor you don't want to target) is a candidate. Add it at the campaign or ad group level with the narrowest match type that blocks the problem.
1. Start from the keywords that are leaking
The search terms report can run to thousands of rows. Start with the keywords that have spent the most without a conversion, because that is where irrelevant searches cost you the most. Our wasted spend guide shows how to find them, or you can upload your keywords export to the free ClearSpend audit, which lists zero-conversion keywords by cost.
2. Open the search terms report
In Google Ads, go to Insights and reports → Search terms, set your date range, and turn on the Keyword column so you can see which of your keywords matched each search (Google's search terms report guide). Sort by cost, highest first.
3. Sort searches into three groups
| What the search looks like | What to do |
|---|---|
| Clearly not your offer: jobs, "free", DIY, a different product or location | Add as a negative keyword |
| Relevant, with clicks but no conversions yet | Keep it; check the ad and landing page, or lower the bid |
| Relevant and converting | Consider adding it as its own keyword so you control its bid and ad |
4. Choose the right negative match type
- Negative broad match blocks a search that contains all of your negative terms, in any order.
- Negative phrase match blocks a search that contains the terms in that exact order.
- Negative exact match blocks only that exact search.
Negative keywords don't match close variants, so add plurals, misspellings and synonyms yourself (about negative keywords). Use a single word such as jobs as negative broad when it should never trigger an ad; use exact match when only one specific search is the problem.
5. Add them at the right level
You can tick searches in the search terms report and add them as negative keywords straight from there, choosing the ad group or campaign. Terms that should never trigger any campaign (for example "jobs" or "salary" for most businesses) belong in a negative keyword list that you apply to every campaign, so new campaigns get the same protection.
Common mistakes
- Adding a negative that also blocks your best converting searches. Check the converting rows first.
- Using broad negatives for short, common words that appear in good searches too.
- Reviewing once and never again. New searches appear every week, especially on broad match.
- Blocking a search because it had no conversions over a few days, before it has spent enough to judge.
ClearSpend's audit reads the keywords report rather than the search terms report, so it tells you which keywords to open first. Run the free audit, then use the steps above on the keywords at the top of the list.