All advertisers are hoping to find ideal keywords to advertise for PPC. Hours are invested learning of high-volumes of phrases, a competitive analysis, and correctly formatted ad copy. But there is another aspect of keyword strategy that is equally critical—and often overlooked.
We’re talking about negative keywords. They are the unheralded champions of PPC advertising. In the same way that positive keywords instruct Google to bid, negative ones instruct Google not to. It is a rather simple idea, which can significantly accelerate the performance of campaigns, prevent expensive waste, and create maximum return on ad spend.
Why Negative Keywords are Your Secret Weapon
The negative keywords are a filter for your PPC campaigns, thus, your ad will be shown only for similar searches. That is, including negative keywords for a campaign means that your ad is not shown when these words are part of a searching query for a user.
Its effects on your campaign performance can be humongous. By eliminating unwanted traffic, negative keywords can enable more click-through, alongside more conversion. Your ad will be displayed to users more likely to be willing to buy your service or product, resulting in better quality traffic, alongside better spend.
It saves your budget from unproductive clicks. If negative keywords are not utilized, your ad can be displayed for not quite so intended but relevant searches. This means user clicks which are not even enthused about the service that you are promoting.
Finding the Best Negative Keywords
It begins with knowing your target market, including having a conversation with your campaign data. Begin with a reading of your search terms report, which will disclose the real questions that got your ad shown. Keep a special note for phrases that received a click but not a conversion, or questions that are undeniably not a match for your company.
Maintain the objective of other long-tail definitions. If selling expensive software, “free” could be a negative keyword so that not to receive clicks from users seeking a free service. If selling to B2B clients, “DIY” or “tutorial” could be words that are not consistent with targets.
Another level of targeting is industry-specific negative words. These are specialized words that are specific to your exact industry, but not your service. For a digital marketing company, negative words such as “jobs,” “salary,” or “courses” can be introduced to exclude queries related to careers.
Adding Negative Keywords to Leverage
There must be careful management of negative keywords, and services like kingkong.co/ppc-management-agency/ can help you get started if you lack resources. Begin from static negative words at a campaign level, e.g., competitors’ company names, irrelevant groupings of items, or words that definitely are not aligned with your target market.
Check campaigns regularly and revise negative keyword lists from performance histories. This is a regular optimization which keeps your campaigns new and effective even after a long gap. Shared negative keyword lists are possible, shared with other campaigns, if only other campaigns are highly interconnected.
Keep in mind that negative keywords are match type specific. Only the exact match negative keywords exclude the exact match queries, whereas phrase match negatives exclude queries that include that phrase. Select the right match type based on the level of broad application desired for exclusion.
Let Your Climb Begin
PPC advertising’s least-leveraged opportunity may be negative keywords. Controlling when your ad shouldn’t show, not show at all, can trim when they do big-time. Begin through auditing running campaigns, finding wasteful searches, and generating thorough negative keyword lists. Your expanded click-throughs, lower costs, and more-converting results will justify that, every now and again, being able to say no is the ticket to a positive result.
