How Do Negative Keywords Work in Google Ads (And Which Ones Should Every Lead-Gen Account Have)?
- Jesse Heslinga
- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
You're paying for clicks. Some of those clicks are from people who will never become customers. A job-seeker Googling "roofing jobs near me" triggers your roofing ad. A student researching "HVAC systems" for a college assignment clicks through. Someone looking for cheap DIY plumbing parts. The clicks cost money. None of them call.
Negative keywords are how you stop this. They tell Google which searches should never show your ads. They're one of the most direct levers you have over your cost per lead, and in accounts I take over, the negative keyword list is almost always underdeveloped or missing entirely.
The good news: this is one of the few things in Google Ads that doesn't require months to see results. A clean negative keyword setup starts filtering wasted spend immediately.
The Short Answer
Negative keywords prevent your ad from showing on searches containing that term
Three match types: negative exact, negative phrase, and negative broad (each blocks differently)
Every lead-gen account needs at minimum 7 categories of negatives covered: job-seekers, DIY/research intent, students, freebie seekers, wrong service variations, informational searches, and geographic mismatches
The best source for account-specific negatives is your own Search Terms Report, reviewed weekly or monthly depending on spend
Performance Max needs shared negative lists because you can't add negatives directly at the ad group level
What Negative Keywords Actually Do
When someone searches Google, the platform looks for keyword matches across your campaign. If you're bidding on "emergency plumber," Google will also show your ad for "plumber salary," "plumbing school near me," and "plumbing parts wholesale," because all of these contain related terms and Google's matching has expanded over time, especially with broad match.
A negative keyword breaks that chain. Add "jobs" as a negative, and any search containing the word "jobs" won't trigger your ad, regardless of what else is in the query.
The result is that your budget goes toward clicks from people who are actually looking to hire, not people who are looking to learn, save money, apply for a job, or buy materials.
Verdict: negative keywords are a filter, not a strategy. They cut the clicks from people who will never hire you. Your positive keywords still do the work of reaching the right ones.
Keep in Mind: Negative keywords only block, they never target. Adding the right negatives protects your budget. Finding the right positive keywords is a separate job. Both matter.
Negative Keyword Match Types: Which One to Use
Negative keywords have three match types, and they work differently from positive keyword match types.
Match type | Format | What it blocks |
Negative broad | jobs | Any search containing "jobs" in any order, including "plumbing jobs" and "jobs in roofing" |
Negative phrase | "roofing jobs" | Searches containing that exact phrase in that order |
Negative exact | [roofing jobs] | Only the exact search "roofing jobs". Nothing else. |
For most negative keywords in lead-gen, negative broad (no punctuation needed, just add the term) is the right default. It casts the widest exclusion net.
Use negative exact sparingly. For example, if you want to block "free estimate" but keep running for "estimate," be careful: negative exact is very narrow and can miss variations.
Use negative phrase when a term is fine in some contexts but harmful in a specific phrase. For example: you want to block "HVAC jobs" but still run for "HVAC job size" questions.
Verdict: start with negative broad for category terms. Use negative exact only when you need surgical precision.
Pro Tip: Add negative keywords at the campaign level for anything that should never trigger across the whole account (jobs, salary, DIY). Use ad group level for exclusions that only apply to that service line, for example blocking "commercial" at the ad group level if that group is residential only.
The 7 Categories Every Lead-Gen Account Needs Covered
This is the starting point, not an exhaustive list, but the categories that cover the vast majority of wasted spend in service business accounts.
Category | What it blocks | Example terms to add |
Job-seeker intent | People looking for employment, not services | jobs, careers, salary, hiring, internship, apprenticeship, vacancies, employment, "how to become a", job opening |
DIY and research intent | People doing it themselves or learning the topic | DIY, how to, tutorial, guide, course, learn, training, certification, "do it yourself", free template, calculator |
Student and academic intent | Students researching for assignments | assignment, homework, thesis, dissertation, research paper, essay, study, "university project", "college project" |
Freebie seekers | People who won't pay or who want something you don't offer | free, volunteer, nonprofit, pro bono, grant, subsidised (context-dependent; review before adding "cheap" broadly) |
Competitor / wrong brand | Searches for specific companies you aren't | [Competitor names relevant to your vertical] |
Wrong service variations | Same keyword root, different product | See vertical examples below |
Informational searches | People reading, not buying | "what is", "history of", statistics, report, survey, definition, meaning, review (context-dependent) |
In most accounts I take over or audit, this is the first item on the checklist. I keep negatives in named shared lists, one per category, so they're easy to apply across campaigns and audit over time.
Verdict: work through all seven categories before you touch anything else. Getting junk leads from Google Ads often traces back to two or three of these being completely uncovered.
Vertical-Specific Examples
The universal category list above is the foundation. What it blocks varies by what you actually offer. A few examples from the verticals I work in most:
Home services (plumbing, HVAC, roofing, landscaping)
Wasted spend usually comes from job-seekers and materials buyers. Add terms like: plumbing school, plumbing parts, plumbing supplies, plumbing materials, roofing shingles, roofing felt, roofing nails, HVAC parts, HVAC school, landscaping course, landscaping equipment for sale.
Clinics (dental, cosmetic, hair transplant, physio)
The big waste is students and people researching treatments, not booking them. Add: dental school, dental hygienist jobs, dental assistant, "how does [treatment] work", "is [treatment] safe" (informational, not buying intent), medical tourism (if you don't offer it), free consultation (if yours isn't free).
Professional services (legal, accounting, financial)
Biggest wasted categories are DIY researchers and wrong-intent searches. Add: legal aid, legal advice free, pro bono, law school, "how to file", "template", "form", "self-represented", "DIY legal", accountant jobs, bookkeeping course.
Common mistake: Adding "free" as a blanket negative when you actually offer free consultations. This blocks the searches most likely to convert. Review what you offer before adding freebie-category terms. Context matters.
How to Find the Negatives You're Missing Right Now
The Search Terms Report in Google Ads is the source of truth. It shows the actual searches that triggered your ads and cost you money.
To find it: go to Campaigns > Insights & Reports > Search Terms. Filter by the date range of the last 30-90 days. Sort by cost, descending. Work through the list and ask, for each row: "would this person hire me?"
Look for:
Job titles and employment terms
Product names (materials, tools) rather than service requests
Location names outside your service area
Brand names of competitors or suppliers
Questions that start with "what is" or "how does"
Anything with "school", "course", "certificate", "salary"
Add anything you'd want to block as a negative, then document it in a shared negative list so it applies account-wide.
For high-spend accounts (€3,000+/month), review the Search Terms Report weekly. Below that, monthly is sufficient.
Keep in Mind: For Performance Max campaigns, you can't add negatives directly at the ad group level. Use shared negative lists at the campaign level, or use the account-level exclusion tool for broad category blocks. PMax needs special attention. See the Performance Max for lead gen post for more on how it handles keyword control.
The Mistakes That Quietly Kill Reach
The other failure mode in negative keyword management is over-blocking: adding so many negatives that your ads can't show for relevant searches.
Mistakes I see regularly:
Blocking "free" when you offer a free consultation. Your best leads search "free [service] consultation." Block "free" and you block yourself from those searches.
Adding city names as negatives without checking if you serve those areas. If you're a roofing company in Amsterdam that also covers Utrecht, blocking "Utrecht" costs you leads.
Using negative exact for everything. If you add [plumbing repair] as a negative exact, you're only blocking that single query. You're still showing for "plumbing repair cost," "emergency plumbing repair," and everything else.
Adding product-level negatives too broadly. "Supplies" might be right to block for a service-only business, but "supply" could block "supply of hot water" queries from people with broken boilers.
Never reviewing the list. A negative keyword added two years ago might now be blocking relevant searches as your services or targeting have changed.
If your impression share has dropped unexpectedly and your bids haven't changed, audit your negative keyword list first. It's a common culprit.
Verdict: the correct negative keyword approach blocks wasted spend without cutting into genuine demand. Review both sides: what you're blocking and what you might be blocking accidentally.
How I Handle This for Lead-Gen Businesses
When I take on a new account, the negative keyword audit is one of the first things I do. I pull the last 90 days of Search Terms data, categorize what's wasting budget, build a shared negative list covering the universal categories, then add vertical-specific exclusions based on the business.
In most accounts I inherit, somewhere between 15% and 30% of spend is going to searches with zero commercial intent. Cleaning that up doesn't always drop CPL immediately, but it frees budget to go to the searches that do convert, and it gives Smart Bidding cleaner signals to work from.
After the initial setup, I keep the Search Terms Report on a regular review cycle. Negative keywords aren't a one-time fix. Google's matching evolves, campaigns expand into new search territory, and new irrelevant queries appear over time.
The accounts that hold a consistently low CPL are almost always the ones where this review is happening on a schedule, not just when something breaks.
Not sure if your negative keyword setup is doing its job? If you've been running Google Ads and you're not confident the right searches are being filtered out, a second set of eyes is worth ten minutes. I'll look at your search terms, your match types, and where the budget is going, and tell you straight whether something needs fixing or you're in good shape.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many negative keywords should I have in my Google Ads account?
There's no target number. The right amount is whatever blocks irrelevant traffic in your account. A new account in a clean vertical might need 50-80. An account that's been running for a year with a wide keyword set might need several hundred. Focus on coverage by category, not hitting a specific count.
Can negative keywords hurt my campaign performance?
Yes, if added incorrectly. Over-blocking relevant search terms reduces your reach and can cut into conversion volume. The most common mistake is adding high-volume terms (like "free") without checking whether those searches actually convert in your account. Always review before adding, and monitor impression share after a large batch of exclusions.
Do negative keywords work in Performance Max campaigns?
Not directly at the ad group level. For PMax, you need to use campaign-level shared negative lists, or account-level exclusions for broad blocks. PMax gives you much less keyword control than Search campaigns, which is one reason negative lists matter even more. If you're running both Search and PMax, your shared negative lists apply to both.
Should I add competitors' names as negative keywords?
It depends on your goal. If you're not running competitor campaigns and don't want to show for someone searching a specific competitor by name, adding those names as negatives saves budget. If you are running competitor campaigns (intentionally bidding on competitor searches), you'd separate those into their own campaign rather than adding them as negatives.
How long does it take for negative keywords to take effect?
Negative keywords take effect almost immediately after you save them, usually within a few hours. You won't see historical data change (the wasted spend already happened), but new searches containing the excluded terms stop triggering your ads right away.
What's the difference between a negative keyword list and a shared exclusion list?
A shared exclusion list is a saved list of negative keywords that you can apply to multiple campaigns at once. In Google Ads, go to Tools > Shared Library > Negative keyword lists. This is the recommended approach for universal negatives: build one list of job-seeker terms, freebie terms, etc., then apply it to every campaign. It saves time and keeps your exclusions consistent across the account.
Should I add negative keywords to brand campaigns?
Brand campaigns (bidding on your own business name) usually need fewer negatives because the intent is very specific. But you may still want to exclude competitor names, job-seeker terms, and anything unrelated to your services. Review the brand campaign's Search Terms Report. It's not immune to irrelevant traffic.
How do I handle negative keywords for new campaigns with no data yet?
Start with the universal category list (jobs, salary, DIY, free, how to, tutorial, etc.) and the vertical-specific terms you know from experience. You won't have Search Terms data yet, but you can block the obvious categories on day one. Then review weekly as data builds up and add to the list as you see what's actually triggering your ads.
About the author
Jesse Heslinga | Google Partner | 7+ Years Google Ads | Lead-Gen Expert
I run Google Ads for lead-gen service businesses at Groove Media across clinics, home services, and professional services, working with clients directly, no account-manager layer. I build every account around one question: is this spend turning into real customers, not just cheap form fills?
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