How to add negative keywords in Google Ads

What is a negative keyword?

A negative keyword is a word or phrase that prevents your ad from showing when it's part of someone's search, the same way a regular keyword lets your ad show.

Google Ads defines it as a keyword type that prevents your ad from being triggered by a certain word or phrase [1](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9199388). Negatives use the same match-type logic (broad, phrase, exact) as regular keywords, which controls how precisely the block applies.

How to add a negative keyword

You can add negatives directly from the search terms report, or manually at the ad group, campaign, or shared-list level.

1. From the search terms report: select the irrelevant term(s), choose 'Add as negative keyword', and pick the level (ad group or campaign).
2. Manually: open Keywords in the left menu, go to Negative keywords, click the plus button, choose the campaign or ad group, and type or paste the terms.
3. To reuse the same negatives across campaigns, create a negative keyword list under Shared Library, add your terms, then apply the list to each campaign.
4. Choose a match type for each negative — broad, phrase or exact — based on how widely you want it to apply.

Where should negatives live — ad group, campaign, or list?

Use the narrowest level that solves the problem: ad group negatives for terms specific to one theme, campaign negatives for terms that apply account-wide within that campaign, and shared lists for terms that apply across many campaigns (like competitor names or 'jobs').

• Ad group level: a term that's irrelevant only in this specific ad group.
• Campaign level: a term that's irrelevant everywhere in this campaign.
• Shared negative list: terms you want applied the same way across several campaigns.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Adding a broad negative that accidentally blocks a valuable search (for example, negating 'free' when a service genuinely includes a free consultation).
• Negating a keyword that's identical to one you're actively bidding on, which stops your own ad from showing.
• Setting a negative at the account level without checking every campaign it will affect.
• Never reviewing the negative list again, so it goes stale as your business changes.

How do I check a negative worked?

Return to the search terms report after a week or two and confirm that term no longer appears, or appears with far less spend.

Limitations of this guide

• Negatives stop future spend on a search; they don't refund past spend.
• Overly broad negatives can reduce traffic along with waste — review impact before and after.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides and tools

• How to read the Google Ads search terms report — How to open the Google Ads search terms report, what each column means, and how to use it to find wasted spend and new negative keywords.
• Which Google Ads search terms are wasting your money — How to find the search terms wasting your Google Ads budget, group them into patterns, and exclude them with negative keywords without blocking real customers..
• Negative keyword list generator — A ready-to-copy negative keyword list for your industry.
• How to find wasted spend in Google Ads — Where money leaks and how to check each place.