What are Negative Keywords Examples? Save Your Ad Spend Now!
Negative keywords are essential in making sure your PPC campaign is more defined and cost-effective. With these examples of negative keywords, you now have an idea of how to use them in your ads.
Tips:
1. Think like a customer: To find negative keywords examples, put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer. Ask yourself what terms they might use to search for products or services similar to yours.
2. Use keyword research tools: Tools such as Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush can help you identify keywords that are not a good fit for your business. Use these tools to create a list of negative keywords to exclude from your campaigns.
3. Dig into your search terms data: Go through your search terms report regularly to identify negative keywords. If you see a keyword that is driving traffic and clicks but not converting, it can be added to the list of negative keywords.
4. Review competitors’ keywords: Look at your competitor’s ads and identify keywords that are not relevant to your business. Add them to your negative keyword list to avoid wasting your ad spend on irrelevant traffic.
5. Keep updating your list: Your negative keyword list should be updated regularly. As your business grows, you may discover new keywords to add to the list. Stay up-to-date and make changes as needed to optimize your campaigns.
Understanding Negative Keywords in PPC Advertising
PPC advertising is a popular way for businesses to advertise their products and services online. However, simply bidding on a keyword and running an ad for it is not always enough. Sometimes your ads can show up for irrelevant or low-quality searches, which results in wasted ad spend and lower ad relevancy. Negative keywords allow you to exclude certain keywords and phrases from triggering your ads, which ensure your ads only display for relevant searches.
In simple terms, negative keywords are keywords or phrases that a business includes in their PPC campaign to avoid their ads from showing up in irrelevant searches. They work by excluding certain searches that may not match the intent of your ad. For instance, if you are selling high-end smartphones, including negative keywords such as “cheap” or “pre-owned” can help you avoid clicks from people looking for low-priced or used phones.
Advantages of Using Negative Keywords
Using negative keywords in your PPC campaign can have many advantages, such as:
Cost savings: By optimizing your ad spend on relevant searches, you can avoid paying for clicks that are unlikely to convert.
Better click-through-rates (CTR): Since negative keywords reduce clicks from irrelevant searches, your ads are more likely to appear to people interested in what you are offering, resulting in higher CTR.
Improved ad relevance: Negative keywords help you keep your ads highly relevant to the intended audience, which improves overall ad quality scores.
Reduced bounce rates: Targeting relevant searches means that people who click on your ads are more likely to find the information they are looking for on your landing page, which leads to lower bounce rates.
Negative Keywords vs Positive Keywords: Know the Difference
Positive keywords are the main keywords used to trigger your PPC ads. They are the keywords that you bid on and include in your ad campaigns. Conversely, negative keywords are the keywords that you don’t want to show up in your ad campaigns. They are excluded from your ad campaigns, so they don’t trigger the display of your ad.
To illustrate the difference between positive and negative keywords, consider an example where you sell laptops. If your positive keywords are “buy laptops online” and “fast laptops,” your negative keywords could be “cheap laptops” and “used laptops.” By doing this, you can ensure that your ad only displays for people searching for new and fast laptops.
Common Negative Keyword Examples for E-commerce
When it comes to E-commerce, negative keywords can help you optimize your PPC campaigns to show up for highly relevant searches. Here are some common negative keyword examples for E-commerce companies:
Brand names of products you don’t sell: If you sell clothing only for men, you might want to include negative keywords such as “women’s clothes” or “children’s clothing.”
Low-cost or low-quality products: Including negative keywords such as “cheap,” “bargain,” or “discount” ensures that your ads don’t show up for people looking for cheaper and less quality products.
Geographic locations outside your delivery area: If you only ship within the US, you can include negative keywords such as “international shipping” or “shipping to Canada.”
Implementing Negative Keywords: Best Practices
Implementing negative keywords can be a daunting task, but following some best practices can help you get started.
Use the right match type: Negative keywords match types determine the searches for which your ads will not appear. Using broad match negatives can exclude irrelevant searches, but it can also exclude relevant searches. Consider using negative keywords with exact and phrase match types to be more targeted in your exclusion.
Regularly update your negative keywords: As you collect data on your campaign performance, update your negative keyword list to exclude irrelevant searches.
Use negative keywords at ad group and campaign level: Use negative keywords at ad group level to exclude keywords that only affect a specific ad group, and at the campaign level to exclude keywords across all ad groups.
How Negative Keywords Can Optimize Your Ad Spend
By using negative keywords, you can optimize your ad spend by reducing wasteful ad impressions. Negative keywords help you exclude irrelevant searches, which means that your ad spend goes towards highly targeted and relevant searches. By reducing your wasteful ad impressions, you can get more conversions for your ad spend, resulting in a higher return on ad spend (ROAS).
The Role of Negative Keywords in Improving Ad Relevance
Negative keywords significantly improve the relevance of your ads by ensuring that they display only for highly targeted searches. By excluding irrelevant searches, you can ensure that your ads are highly relevant to what people are searching for. Highly relevant ads are more likely to get clicks and lead to conversions, which ultimately contributes to your ad campaign’s success.
Analyzing Negative Keywords for PPC Campaign Success
Analyzing your negative keywords is an essential aspect of PPC campaign success. Data-driven analysis can help you identify keywords that are hurting the performance of your ad campaigns. By analyzing your negative keywords, you can identify terms that are not relevant to your business and exclude them from your ad campaign. Additionally, analyzing your negative keywords can help you understand the intent of your target audience and help you optimize your ad campaigns accordingly.