Exclude the wrong intent without erasing the right audience
Use exclusions to reduce clearly irrelevant intent while preserving legitimate discovery. Overly broad negatives can block useful prospects along with unsuitable traffic.
Negative keywords can reduce unwanted matching, but broad exclusions may also remove relevant searches. Start with observed mismatches and understand negative matching behavior before applying a shared list everywhere.
A worked example
A hypothetical engineering firm sees consumer repair searches. Excluding that specific intent may help. Excluding the word repair globally could also block commercial repair projects the firm actually wants. Context and scope matter.
How to apply it
- Group available search terms by the reason they are unsuitable.
- Select appropriate campaign or ad-group scope and verify matching rules.
- Check later delivery and relevant inquiry evidence for unintended exclusions.
What the result can establish
A negative list is an operational control, not a guarantee of lead quality. Some poor-fit demand remains ambiguous from a query alone. Keep a change record so a future reviewer can understand why traffic changed.
Reference: Google Ads: search terms and negative keywords.
Supporting documentation
Google Ads: search terms and negative keywordsGoogle Ads: conversion tracking