Negative Vs. Positive Google Ads Keywords — Make Them Work Together

Negative keywords are a wonderful thing that Google has made available for its advertisers. We all know the positives of picking the right keywords and interests and how they are useful for targeting our persona. But, the keywords and interests we sometimes use don’t rule out those who search for similar terms but have no interest in our ads, that’s why we must use negative keywords as a filter, writes, Binh An Nguyen,  Founder and CEO of Market Ease Business Promotions.

Working with keywords is an effective way to reach your target market through online advertising. The tricky thing is knowing when to pull back the reigns; are you reaching too broad of a market? While it’s critical for any marketing campaign manager to compile their keywords carefully, they may be forgetting an even more critical aspect of SEO: negative keywords. 

Google brought in negative keywords a while ago, but only recently is the digital marketing community really putting them to use. You can employ negative keywords to create a more significant impact, boost your ROI, and land right in front of people ready to enter your sales funnel.

Negative v. Positive Keywords

These keywords work in the same general way, where they stand in place to execute an action, or in the case of negative keywords to stop an action. It’s worth noting here that there is no “better” keyword between negative and positive options. Your best bet for a productive, efficient, and effective PPC campaignOpens a new window is to use them both together.

Positive keywords are the words that you tell Google to use as a trigger to generate your ad. However, with generalised keywords such as “meal plan,” you’ll be generating ads which will reach far too broad of a market. People searching “meal plan” may want a printed meal plan to guide them through creating meals at home or delivered meals.

Using negative keywordsOpens a new window , you can ensure that an ad will only generate for specific audiences. You can assign a negative keyword, or many of them, to your entire campaign, account, or an ad group. Additionally, you can use variances of keywords with options such as ‘exact match,’ ‘phrase,’ or ‘broad.’ With negative keywords, you ensure that you’re not wasting money on clicks that simply won’t convert.

Advantages of Negative Keywords

If your ad campaign isn’t turning out the performance you were expecting, negative keywords may be the solution. Using these keywords to filter or disassociate your business from popular user search queries can decrease irrelevant traffic, reduce the cost per click (CPC)Opens a new window , improve your return on investment (ROI), and boost your click-through rate (CTR). 

Create More Pertinent Ad Groups

One constant struggle of digital advertisers is creating relevant ad groups. When using negative keywords in combination with your positive keywords, you can focus in on a particular group. Your ad team can create a single voice or persona to fit the campaign.

Increased Click-Through-Rate

Click through rates are a significant concernOpens a new window , and this is where negative keywords shine. Positive keywords function to entice viewers to click, which will charge you for your ad. Negative keywords will ensure that you’re not wasting clicks on irrelevant queries.

Boosted Conversion Rate

Because negative keywords are filtering out the instances which will likely have a low impact or not convert you won’t be present. Your ad will not pop up during particular terms, and many companies are using them to avoid appearing against searches for competitors. All of these aspects lead to a higher conversion rateOpens a new window .

Using Negative Keywords as a Filter

Negative keywords help you focus on your target market and make your campaign meaningful. Many companies use negative keywords as filters or as a method of separating themselves from searches for their competitors.

For example, if you’re launching a meal plan service, you may start your initial keyword research with something like this:

Source: SEMRUSHOpens a new window

If you realise that any of these don’t apply to you specifically, you can use them as negative keywords to better direct your traffic. Say that you specialise in Whole30 or Atkins based weight loss meal plans, you can then add “Keto,” and “21 days fix” to your negative list. That will filter out the users who are looking for those specific types of meal plans.

Using Negative Keywords to Disassociate

Many people type in the name of the company into a Google search to find the site. This user search habit brings up two issues. First, if someone is trying to go directly to your competitor’s website, then you may appear unnecessarily on that search result. Second, you may come up with similarly named companies that have nothing to do with your services.

Consider the name “Mac.” Mac as a brand can refer to Apple’s Macintosh computers, MAC cosmetics, or Mac Tools. The same name for companies across three vastly different industries.

Source: Google

When searching for the very broad term “mac” both MAC cosmetics and Apple appeared as ads. However, when tailoring the search to include “computer” everything from the cosmetics line disappeared because it was no longer relevant. MAC cosmetics likely has “computer” and other similar words on their negative keywords list.

Using Positive and Negative Keywords Together

Thankfully you can start using positive and negative keywords hand in hand from the very start of your campaign planning. As mentioned above, your negative keywords will likely surface during your positive keyword research. Along with using tools such as the Google Keyword Planner, the Google Search Term Report or SEMrush, be sure to Google your keywords as well.

Your positive keyword listOpens a new window will probably be substantially longer than your negative words list. However, those few words should have a substantial impact. Many companies will add “free” or “printable” to all of their campaigns to ensure they’re not wasting clicks on users who don’t intend to make a purchase.

Consider the reason for adding your keywords when determining how your keyword will work. Google allows for three different negative keyword functions.

• Broad Match – Negative keywords that serve in the broad match capacity will not appear in any search with the entire keyword. If you added “free 30-day trial” to your negative keywords, then any searches with those words involved would not allow an ad to appear. Broad match even prevents searches where the words appear out of order, such as “free trial 30 day.”

• Exact Match – This type of negative keyword will only prevent an ad from appearing when the search query is exactly as is, with nothing before or after the keyword. Exact matches will restrict any search, including the keyword from generating an add. When using the exact match keyword type, be sure to double-check your spelling.

• Phrase Match – This match restricts the appearance of an ad only if words are in the exact order, but can have other words in front or after the phrase, and can allow for less restriction than a broad match or an exact match. This option is the conservative method of using negative keywords. 
   

After your research and deciding how to use your lists, you’ll need to import them into Google Ads. Adding negative keywords is easy and very similar to the process of adding positive keywords. Google provides thorough and clear directions for its users. As always be sure to tailor your campaign and adjust both positive and negative keywords as you track the impact of your ads.