Negative Keywords

Question 1

What happens if I apply a ‘negative keyword list’ to a campaign that includes a search term that includes the negative?

Answer 1

Google alerts you under notifications - and you can quickly apply the recommendation to remove the negative keyword so that the keyword/ adgroup can run it’s ad(s).

Question 2

Negs don’t work like positive KWs - how? (2)

Answer 2

1. Negs don’t use ‘close variants’ - i.e. the neg terms are treated as negative EXACT matches - eg you need to specify singular and plural versions, mis spellings, synonyms etc.
2. broad match modifier (+) doesn’t work with NEGs

Question 3

where to find Negative KW lists?

Answer 3

‘Tools and Settings’ (spanner icon) > Shared Library

Question 4

How to copy neg KWs from one list to another?

Answer 4

1. download negs from one list as .csv (download icon TR);

2. copy and paste from .csv (spreadsheet) into an existing Neg KW list or create a new list.

Question 5

What is the optimum way to mark ‘search terms’ as excluded, as part of adding neg KWs?

Answer 5

1. add the whole search term as a neg KW to the adgroup, campaign or list (It’s the addition of whole term that marks the historical search term as excluded) - BUT it may be too narrow for practical purposes, so in addition:
2. if it’s a larger search term, add whole term as KW to adgroup level so that is it’s marked as excluded in the historical search terms, but THEN also add parts of the search term (as required) to neg campaign level or a list, so that on a more practical level (i.e. all incidents of the neg kw are captured) 👍

Question 6

Problem/Scenario:
You want to clean up your negative KWs. They are not cleanly organised, and some are duplicated between campaign/ AG and Lists.

You have some neg KWs added at the campaign level and at AGs that are not in a list, and you want them in a neg list - how do you move them in to a list?

Answer 6

There is no download icon available, unlike when you are within a negative list.

So you need to manually copy them into a word or excel document then paste in to the list you want.

Or manually type.

Then once in the list, remove the negs from the campaign / AG level.

Question 7

Are negative keywords case sensitive?

Answer 7

Keywords are not case sensitive. It’s possible for you to add the same keyword in different cases, but the system reads them as the same (lower case). Both may accrue traffic, and reporting variations between the traffic on the terms is random.

Question 8

Scenario/ problem:

You have a KW which is relevant to your product but at the same time it relates to something completely different - consequently you can’t exclude the term using negatives. How might you tackle this to improve your traffic?

Answer 8

Add qualifying copy in your ad so people know that by clicking on the ad there are not going to find the alternative meaning for your KW.