Negative keywords for mortgage brokerages
Mortgage ads compete with loan officer job postings, a huge volume of DIY rate-calculator searches, and real estate and legal services that sit nearby in the funnel but aren't lending. This list filters all three.
Why negative keywords matter for mortgage brokerages
Mortgage lending hires constantly, and 'loan officer jobs' and 'mortgage broker jobs' searches use nearly identical wording to borrower searches in the same city, which makes job-seeker traffic an easy miss without negatives.
Many borrowers specifically want to self-calculate before ever speaking to a broker, and adjacent categories — real estate agents, title companies, credit repair — frequently surface in the same keyword space without being a lending service at all.
The full list
39 terms. Review each one before adding — remove anything you actually sell.
Jobs and careers
- mortgage broker jobs
- loan officer jobs
- mortgage underwriter jobs
- mortgage broker salary
- loan processor jobs
- mortgage company hiring
- mortgage broker careers
- loan officer salary
- mortgage recruiter
- bank loan jobs
DIY and free
- diy mortgage calculator
- how to refinance yourself
- free mortgage rate calculator
- diy home loan application
- compare mortgage rates free tool
- how to get preapproved yourself
- free amortization calculator
- diy fha loan application
- no broker mortgage
- free mortgage comparison site
Education and training
- how to become a mortgage broker
- mortgage broker license course
- nmls exam prep
- mortgage underwriting certification
- real estate finance degree
- mortgage loan originator training
Wrong service
- real estate agent
- title company
- home insurance agent
- appraiser
- construction loan contractor
- debt consolidation company
- credit repair services
- student loan refinance
- personal loan lender
- bankruptcy attorney
- financial planner
- tax preparer
- hard money lender scam
Competitors (add your own)
Add the names of local competitors you don't want to pay for. Review these case by case.
If you also broker construction or renovation loans, remove 'construction loan contractor' and keep construction-loan keywords active.
How to add these in Google Ads
- Sign in to Google Ads and open the campaign you want to protect.
- Go to Keywords, then Negative keywords, and click the blue plus button.
- Choose whether to add them to this campaign, an ad group, or a negative keyword list you can share across campaigns.
- Paste the terms, one per line. Remove any you actually want to show for first.
- Click Save. Check the search terms report again after a week or two to see what's still getting through.
Find the searches wasting your budget — free audit
You approve your plan. Claritad builds your account, ads and tracking, then optimizes within agreed limits. No contract, cancel anytime. You pay Google directly for clicks.
$299$49/month launch offer
Launch offer: $49/month (regularly $299/month). Locked in for as long as you stay. Ends Dec 31, 2026.
58 days :11 hours :16 minutes
Ends Dec 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern
No contract, cancel anytime. You pay Google directly for clicks.
The plan preview is free, no card needed. Managed has a flat monthly fee; cancel anytime.
Frequently asked questions
Why would mortgage ads get real estate agent clicks?
Home-buying searches often blend lending and agent intent, especially early in the buying journey.
Should I exclude all calculator searches?
Yes, calculator and comparison-tool searches usually indicate someone isn't ready to talk to a broker yet.
Is 'hard money lender scam' worth excluding?
Yes — it signals research into a different, often non-broker lending product and rarely converts to a mortgage lead.
Related guides and tools
- Negative keyword list generator — A ready-to-copy negative keyword list for your industry.
- How to add negative keywords in Google Ads — Step-by-step: how to add negative keywords in Google Ads at the ad group, campaign or list level, and how to avoid blocking good traffic by mistake.
- 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..
- Google Ads audit for mortgage brokers — Rate-checking, general research and career searches are the usual leaks.
Sources
Last updated · Written by the Claritad team (Kyle Edward Gilligan LLC). Claritad is independent software and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.