Negative Keywords Guide: Match Types and Lists
The short answer
A negative keyword is a word or phrase that stops your ads from showing for searches that contain it. You add negatives to an ad group, a campaign, a shared negative keyword list or the whole account, and you choose broad, phrase or exact match; unlike normal keywords, negatives never match close variants, so plurals and synonyms must be added by hand.
Used well, negatives are the cheapest way to stop paying for searches that cannot become customers. Used carelessly, they block good traffic without any warning. This guide covers both sides.
On this page
How do negative keyword match types work?
Negative keywords use the same three match types as keywords, but they behave more literally. The table uses Google's own example, the negative running shoes:
| Negative match type | How you write it | Blocks | Does not block |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad (default) | running shoes | Searches with all the words in any order: blue running shoes, shoes running | running shoe, blue tennis shoes |
| Phrase | "running shoes" | Searches with the words in that order, extra words allowed: blue running shoes | shoes running, running shoe |
| Exact | [running shoes] | Only the search running shoes, with no extra words | blue running shoes, running shoe |
Three rules follow from Google's help on negative keywords:
- No close variants. A negative does not block plurals, singulars, synonyms or other expansions. If you want to block job and jobs, add both, and add the misspellings you actually see in the report.
- Only three symbols count. Ampersands (&), accent marks (á) and asterisks (*) are read as part of the keyword. socks & shoes and socks and shoes are different negatives, and so are accented and unaccented spellings.
- Very long searches. If a search is longer than 16 words and your negative comes after the 16th word, the ad can still show.
For Display and Video campaigns, negatives work differently: Google adds them all as broad match and considers at most 1,000. Everything below is about Search campaigns.
Where can you add negative keywords?
| Level | Applies to | Limit (Google Ads Help, October 2026) | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad group | One ad group | No separate limit in Google's negative keyword help | Steering a search to the right ad group in the same campaign |
| Campaign | One campaign | No separate limit in Google's negative keyword help | Searches wrong for this campaign only |
| Negative keyword list | Every campaign you attach it to | Up to 20 lists per account, 5,000 negatives per list | Words wrong in many campaigns: jobs, free, course |
| Account level | Search and Shopping inventory in Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns | 1,000 negatives per account | Words you never want anywhere, such as brand safety terms |
Account-level negatives reach beyond Search into Performance Max, Shopping and the other types in the table. That makes them useful for words you never want anywhere, and risky for everything else: one wrong word there affects every campaign type at once.
How do you add negative keywords, step by step?
From the search terms report
This is the most common path, because you add negatives for searches that actually cost you money.
- Open the report. In Google Ads, go to Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms.
- Tick the searches you want to block. Then choose Add as negative keyword.
- Choose where they go. Ad group or Campaign adds each negative to the ad group or campaign where that search ran. Negative keyword list adds them to an existing list, or saves them as a new list applied to the campaigns involved.
- Check the match type before you save. Negatives added from the report to a Search campaign are exact match by default. That blocks only the search you ticked. If you are blocking a pattern, edit the term to phrase match ("jobs") first.
- Save.
By hand, on a campaign or ad group
- Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords.
- Open the Negative search keywords tab and click the plus button.
- Choose the campaign or ad group, add one negative per line using the symbols above, and save. Adding to a campaign also lets you save them to a new or existing list.
As a shared list
- Go to Tools › Shared library › Exclusion lists and open the Negative keyword lists tab.
- Click the plus button, enter a List name, then paste one negative per line.
- Save, then apply the list: in Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords › Negative search keywords, click the plus button, choose Use negative keyword list, pick the campaign and tick the lists.
Changes to a list apply to every campaign that uses it. A list built in a manager account appears in its client accounts' shared libraries, but each client account still has to apply it.
At account level
Go to Admin › Account settings, expand Negative keywords, click the plus button, add one term per line and save. You can set each term's match type in the Match type column.
Which match type should you choose?
Start narrow and widen only when you have seen what the wider version would block.
- Exact for one bad search whose words are fine elsewhere. [dentist salary] blocks that search, not dentist prices.
- Phrase for a pattern. "jobs" blocks every search containing the word, which is usually what you want for job seekers.
- Broad only for multi-word negatives where order does not matter and each word alone would be too strong. Broad negative free trial blocks trial free and free 7 day trial but not free consultation.
A single word as phrase or broad is the strongest negative there is. Before adding one, filter the last 90 days of search terms for that word and read every row it would have blocked.
What are the common mistakes?
- Blocking your own keywords. If a negative matches one of your keywords, that keyword stops serving. Google's help warns about exactly this. Before you add a broad or phrase negative, search your keyword list for the same words.
- Words your page actually offers. A phrase negative free is a mistake if your landing page offers a free consultation.
- Expecting variants to be covered. cheap does not block cheaper or cheapest. Add the forms you have seen in the report.
- Putting campaign-specific words on a shared list. A list attached to every campaign should hold words that are wrong everywhere. A word that is only wrong for one service belongs on that campaign.
- No record. A negative that blocks good searches costs you quietly. Keep a note of what you added and why, so you can find it when traffic drops. Google Ads records the change itself in its change history.
Sources
- Google Ads Help: About negative keywords
- Google Ads Help: About negative keyword lists
- Google Ads Help: Add negative keywords to campaigns
- Google Ads Help: Get negative keyword ideas using the search terms report
- Google Ads Help: About account-level negative keywords
- Google Ads Help: Create negative keyword lists in a manager account