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A Google Ads account pays for clicks on searches nobody chose. You target “scheduling software”, and the ad also shows on “blank schedule template to print” or “scheduler job vacancy”. Every one of those clicks is billed, and none will become a customer. Negative keywords cut that spend, and they are often the action that pays back most for the least time. This article is part of our online advertising guides, alongside our method for setting a test budget that gives a signal.
In short
Exclusions come from real searches, read every week in the search terms report.
There are three negative match types, and they do not block the same things.
Google does not exclude plurals or synonyms for you: you have to add them.
Shared lists save redoing the work campaign by campaign, Performance Max included.
Why it is the fastest saving
The other levers in an account take weeks: a new page to build, a bid strategy that learns, an ad to test. An exclusion acts from the next auctions onwards, on spend you have already seen. It needs no extra budget, only the habit of reading what people actually typed.
The benefit is not just the money saved. A campaign rid of useless clicks has a more accurate enquiry rate, and automated bidding learns from visitors who look like your customers. It is also what makes a tight test budget readable: every remaining euro goes on searches you wanted.
Where to find the searches to exclude
In the search terms report. According to Google Ads Help, it lists the searches that triggered impressions and clicks, with the match type and the keyword that matched them. Google itself gives the example of a seller of eyeglasses who sees “wine glasses” and excludes the word “wine”.
The same page warns that some terms are left out to meet Google’s data privacy standards: those not searched by enough people. So you will never see every search you paid for. That is why it pays to exclude, from launch, the families of searches you already know are useless.
What B2B accounts often exclude
Job searches: “job”, “internship”, “salary”, “apprenticeship”
Learning searches: “course”, “training”, “definition”, “example”
Do-it-yourself searches: “template”, “pdf”, “excel”
Neighbouring trades or products you do not sell
What to keep
Buying words: “provider”, “quote”, “pricing”, “software”
The name of your category, with its variants
Queries that have already produced qualified enquiries
Comparisons with a competitor, if you know how to answer them
These lists are starting points, not rules. “Training” is one to exclude for a software publisher, and the core business of a training provider. Only your report decides.
One family deserves a separate look: reputation searches, your name followed by “reviews” or “scam”. Excluding them by reflex leaves the space to others on a question your prospects are asking. What circulates about a brand, true or false, is handled first through what you publish yourself, as our article on AI and disinformation points out.
Three Google rules to know
The match type changes what is blocked
Google’s help page on negative keywords uses the example “running shoes”:
- negative broad match: the ad is blocked if the search contains all the terms, in any order (“shoes running” is blocked, “running shoe” is not);
- negative phrase match: blocked if the terms appear in the same order, even with other words around them (“blue running shoes” is blocked);
- negative exact match: blocked only if the search is exactly that, with no other word.
A single word (“job”) in broad match already covers every search that contains it. Exact match is for excluding one precise search without touching its useful neighbours.
Close variants are not covered
This is the difference that costs most compared with positive keywords. Google says it plainly: negative keywords do not match close variants or other expansions, and you have to add synonyms, singular and plural forms yourself. Accents count: in Google’s example, “sidewalk café” and “sidewalk cafe” are two different negative keywords.
Too many exclusions reduce reach
Google says so on the same page: if you use too many, your ads may reach fewer people. An exclusion that is too broad (“management” for management software) can switch off a whole campaign. Treat each addition as a decision, not as tidying up.
Lists so you do not redo everything
Exclusions shared by several campaigns are better kept in a shared list, which you build once and apply everywhere.
of negative keywords at most per account
at most per list
at most per campaign
Performance Max also accepts campaign-level exclusions. According to Google, they only apply to Search and Shopping inventory, and account-level negative keywords apply automatically to all of that inventory, Performance Max included. What that campaign still shows and hides is covered in our article on Performance Max.
Watch out
Display and video read exclusions differently
On the Display Network and in video, Google says negative keywords do not work as they do on the Search Network: they keep ads away from pages whose topic is close to them, even without the exact terms, and only 1,000 are taken into account. A list designed for search does not carry over as it is.
A twenty-minute weekly routine
The weekly exclusions routine
- Read
The week’s search terms, sorted by cost.
- Sort
What could sell, what never will, what to watch.
- Exclude
With the right match type, plurals and synonyms, in the right list.
- Check
That volumes and enquiries do not drop the following week.
Our SEO engine, running since 25 August 2026, works from the same reflex for organic search: every day it reads the real queries in this site’s Search Console, rather than the ones we imagine. In advertising the rule is the same: exclude what people typed, not what you assume.
Sorting becomes safer when you know which searches ended in customers, not just in forms. That is the subject of our guide to sending CRM sales back to Google Ads. And if a relevant search brings clicks that leave without sending anything, the problem may lie elsewhere: see why the landing page matters as much as the ad.
For a business still weighing the platforms, our Google Ads or Meta comparison and our article on LinkedIn Ads help decide where this work begins. To take over an account that spends without exclusions, our digital marketing offer starts from your real search terms.
Frequently asked questions
What is a negative keyword in Google Ads?
It is a word or phrase for which you do not want your ads to appear. If you sell software and exclude “job”, a search for “scheduling software job” will not show your ad. Negative keywords can be set at ad group, campaign, shared list or account level.
How often should you add negative keywords?
Every week when a campaign launches, when useless searches are most numerous, then every two to four weeks once the report settles. A change of keywords, match type or budget brings the need back: read the report after every change.
Why does my negative keyword not block a search?
Most often it is a variant: a plural, a synonym or a form without an accent, which Google does not exclude automatically. Also check the match type (an exact negative only blocks the identical search) and the level where the exclusion sits: a campaign exclusion does not apply to other campaigns.
Can you exclude keywords in Performance Max?
Yes. According to Google, Performance Max accepts campaign-level negative keywords, shared lists since its August 2025 announcement, and account-level exclusions apply to it. They only cover Search and Shopping inventory, not YouTube, Display or Discover, so read that campaign’s search terms report as you would for any other.
Sources
- Google Ads Help, search terms report (new tab)support.google.com
- Google Ads Help, about negative keywords (new tab)support.google.com
- Google Ads Help, negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns (new tab)support.google.com
Google Ads Help, negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns
Read on support.google.com(new tab)Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
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