Google SEM bidding promotion, how to set negative keywords?

When operating a SEM account, it is often necessary to expand the audience coverage by adding keywords and interests. But will simply adding things really produce good results? Today, I’m going to teach you something different. Let’s do “subtraction” on our account – by adding negative keywords to avoid non-target groups and improve the accuracy of your targeting, you can not only allow truly interested users to see your ads, but also increase your return on investment!

[First, let’s understand what negative keywords are]

Negative keywords are keywords that can prevent your ads from being triggered by specific words or phrases. This matching method is also called negative matching.

What are the types of negative keywords? 】

For search campaigns, we can use three types of negative keywords: broad match, exact match, and phrase match. For Display and Video campaigns, negative keywords are always treated as exact matches.

1. Negative broad match

The default type of negative keyword, if all of the words in your negative keyword are included in the search, even if the words are in a different order, your ad will not show. If only some of your keywords are included in the search, your ad may still appear. For example: Negative broad match keyword: running shoes

1. Negative phrase match

For negative phrase match keywords, your ad won't show if all of the words that make up your keyword are included in the search in the same order. Phrase matching is generally represented by "Keyword". For example: Negative phrase matching keyword: "running shoes"

1. Negative exact match

For negative exact match keywords, your ad will not show if all of the words that make up your keyword are included in the search in the same order, and the search does not include the additional words. If the search contains words other than all of your keyword, your ad may still appear. Exact match is usually indicated by [Keyword]. For example: Negative exact match keyword: [running shoes]

How to determine and add negative keywords? 】

The most direct and effective way to determine negative keywords is to use the search terms report in your Google Ads account. The search term report reflects the user's most authentic search behavior. We can filter out irrelevant traffic by filtering the keywords in the report and adding irrelevant words as negative words into the account.

To set negative keywords, just go to your Google Ads account, click “Keywords,” click “Negative Keywords,” and then click the plus button “+.”

【Points to note when using negative keywords】

1. Although negative keywords can avoid irrelevant traffic, do not use them too much, otherwise your ads will not attract enough customers due to too little traffic.

2. Even if you set negative keywords, your ad may still appear when users search for close variations of your negative keywords. So you should pay attention to the search term report and eliminate irrelevant traffic!

The above is how to set negative keywords. Do you get it? To learn more about Google Ads, please consult Qinggua Media~