“Negative” keywords are words that, if present, would allow you to appear in searches you don’t want to. In other words, adding a negative keyword to your search ad targeting strategy prohibits you from showing up in the results of searches that don’t apply. For instance, if you were selling toilets, you wouldn’t want to appear in searches for toilet paper, so you would add “paper” as a negative keyword. If you have positioned yourself as a premium brand, and don’t want to come up in searches performed by bargain hunters, you might want “free” and “discount” added as negative keywords. Here are some lists of important ones you may want to consider adding:
List of Negative Keywords:
The essentials: (Add these to every campaign): Free, cheap, nude, naked, sex, porn, porno, torrent, torrents, youtube, craigslist, ebay, kijiji
Employment Seekers (add to avoid people searching for jobs): Career, employment, hiring, intern, internship, job, recruiter, resume, salary
Reference (to avoid people looking for info that is only loosely related to your business): About, definition, diagram, example, history, sample, what are, what is
Research & Stats (to avoid people doing research) Association, associations, book, case studies, guide, journal, magazine, news, review, statistics, success stories, tutorial, white paper
Education (to avoid those looking for classes and education): Class, classes, college, course, education, school, training, university
Bargains (if you are a premium provider and to avoid discount audiences): Bargain, cheap, clearance, close out, discount, free, inexpensive, liquidation, overstock
Price Shoppers (who might just be looking for price quotes, not buying): Price, prices, pricing, quote, quotes, DIY, craft, create, hand made, home, homemade, how to, making
A broad list to also consider: Antique, club, consumer, consultant, export, import, hobby, measurement, model, photo, picture, regulations, rental, repair, retail, rules, safety, specifications, specs, standards, store, toy, used, vintage
You can indicate a negative keyword in the campaign creation process by just putting a (-) sign in front of the word. For instance: (-)paper, (-)free, (-)discount.