What are the best ways to use negative keywords for effective PPC ad targeting?

1 Use keyword research tools

One of the best ways to find negative keywords is to use keyword research tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Moz Keyword Explorer. These tools can help you discover what search terms are related to your main keywords, and which ones are irrelevant or unwanted. For example, if you're selling leather shoes, you might want to exclude terms like "vegan", "cheap", or "repair". You can also use these tools to check the search volume, competition, and cost-per-click of your negative keywords, and prioritize the ones that have the most impact on your campaign performance.

2 Analyze your search terms reports

Another way to find negative keywords is to analyze your search terms reports, which show you the actual queries that triggered your ads. You can access these reports in your Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising accounts, and filter them by date range, campaign, ad group, or keyword. By reviewing your search terms reports, you can identify irrelevant or low-performing queries that are wasting your ad budget, and add them as negative keywords. For example, if you're selling software, you might want to exclude terms like "free", "download", or "crack".

3 Use different match types

Match types determine how closely a search query has to match your keyword to trigger your ad. There are four main match types: broad, phrase, exact, and modified broad. Depending on your campaign goals and strategy, you can use different match types for your negative keywords to control the level of exclusion. For example, if you use a broad match negative keyword, such as -shoes, you'll exclude any query that contains the word shoes, such as "shoes for sale" or "how to clean shoes". If you use a phrase match negative keyword, such as -"shoes for sale", you'll exclude only queries that contain that exact phrase, such as "shoes for sale near me" or "best shoes for sale online". If you use an exact match negative keyword, such as -[shoes for sale], you'll exclude only that exact query, and not variations or close matches.

4 Organize your negative keywords into lists

To manage your negative keywords more efficiently, you can organize them into lists and apply them to multiple campaigns or ad groups. This way, you can avoid adding the same negative keywords over and over again, and save time and effort. You can create negative keyword lists in your Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising accounts, and name them according to your categories, themes, or products. For example, you can create a negative keyword list for "general terms" that includes words like "free", "cheap", or "reviews", and apply it to all your campaigns. You can also create a negative keyword list for "specific terms" that includes words like "vegan", "repair", or "download", and apply it to only the relevant campaigns or ad groups.