Negative keywords tell Google which searches you don't want your ads to show for, and the search terms report shows you the actual searches you've been paying for. Used together, they're the single quickest way to stop wasting money on Google Ads. Read the search terms report, find the searches that were never going to become customers, and add the words that caused them as negatives. For a new campaign, do it daily for the first few weeks. After that, weekly is usually enough.
I review the search terms report daily in the early weeks of every new campaign I manage, and the aim on every account is to push unwanted paid clicks as close to zero as possible. This guide is exactly how I do it, including the shared lists I use across all my clients' accounts and the kinds of search I exclude. It's part of my small business guide to Google Ads.
Why negative keywords matter more than ever
Short answer: Google is matching your ads to a wider range of searches than it used to, so the searches you don't want need to be excluded deliberately.
Broad match keywords can show your ads on searches Google decides are related, and its own keyword matching page says that can include searches that don't contain the direct meaning of your keywords. On top of that, Google is moving some Search campaigns to AI Max from September 2026, and AI Max's search term matching goes beyond your keyword list by design. The more Google expands where your ads can show, the more your negative keywords are doing the work of keeping you out of the wrong auctions.
For a tradesperson, the wrong auctions are expensive. People searching for jobs, training and DIY help use exactly the same words as your customers. Here's how much of that searching goes on in the UK every month:
| Search | Average UK monthly searches |
|---|---|
| how to bleed a radiator | 33,100 (peaking at 74,000 in winter) |
| how to unblock a toilet | 18,100 |
| electrician course | 9,900 |
| plumbing courses | 6,600 |
| electrician jobs | 5,400 |
| plumber jobs | 4,400 |
| electrician salary | 2,900 |
| how to repressurise a boiler | 2,900 |
| plumber salary | 1,900 |
| roofing jobs | 1,300 |
Source: Google Ads keyword data for the United Kingdom, 12 months to August 2026. None of those people is looking to hire you, and every one of those searches contains a word you're probably bidding on.
What the search terms report shows you
Short answer: the search terms report lists the searches that triggered your ads, alongside clicks, cost and conversions for each. Your keywords are what you asked Google for. Your search terms are what you actually paid for.
Google's search terms report help page explains that a search term is what a person typed, while a keyword is what you added to your account. The match type column tells you how closely the search was related to your keyword.
One thing to be aware of: the report doesn't show everything. Google says some search terms without enough query activity are left out for privacy reasons. So the waste you can see is usually a sign of more that you can't, which is exactly why a proper set of negatives up front matters more than chasing individual terms after the event.
How I read it
- Set the date range. Yesterday for a new campaign, the last 7 days for a settled one, the last 30 days for an audit.
- Sort by cost, highest first. The expensive irrelevant searches are the priority.
- Ask one question of each term: could this person be about to hire me for a job I want, in my area? If the honest answer is no, or "maybe", it's a candidate for a negative.
- Pick out the word that makes it irrelevant, not the whole search. In "boiler repair course near me", the problem word is "course".
- Decide where it belongs: one of your shared lists, a single campaign, or a single ad group.
- Choose the match type (more on that below) and add it.
- Check the good terms too. Searches that converted well might deserve their own keyword and ad.
The searches I exclude: a trade example table
Short answer: anything that isn't directly transactional. If the search doesn't clearly come from someone wanting to hire a business like yours, I exclude it.
This is the kind of list that builds up over time. The examples use plumbing, electrical and roofing, but the pattern holds for any trade.
| Type of search | Example searches | Negatives I'd typically add |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs and careers | plumber jobs near me, electrician vacancies, roofing labourer wanted | "plumber jobs", "plumbing jobs", vacancies, vacancy, hiring, recruitment, cv |
| Pay | plumber salary uk, how much do electricians earn | salary, salaries, earn, wage, wages, pay rate |
| Training | plumbing courses, electrician apprenticeship, gas safe training | course, courses, training, apprenticeship, apprentice, college, nvq, qualification |
| DIY and how-to | how to bleed a radiator, how to fix a leaking tap, replace fuse yourself | "how to", diy, yourself, tutorial, video, youtube, guide |
| Trade supplies and wholesale | plumbing supplies, roofing felt wholesale, copper pipe trade price | supplies, wholesale, wholesaler, merchant, trade counter, stockist |
| Buying parts or products | radiator valve for sale, roof tiles price per pallet | for sale, pallet, spares |
| Free | free boiler, free electrical safety check | "free boiler", "free boilers", grant (only if you don't do grant work) |
| Information and regulation | gas safe register check, part p regulations | register, regulations, definition, meaning |
| Ambiguous | gas near me, roof near me, electric near me | "gas near me" and similar, as exact or phrase |
The ambiguous row is where I'm stricter than most. "Gas near me" could be someone who needs a gas engineer. It could equally be someone looking for a gas bottle or a petrol station. There's enough qualified search volume in most trades that I don't need to pay to find out what an ambiguous searcher meant, so I exclude those and let the clear searches, like "gas engineer near me", carry the campaign.
A word of caution on the free row. A broad negative on "free" on its own would also block "free quote" searches, which for many trades are from genuine customers. That's why I use "free boiler" as a phrase rather than excluding "free" everywhere. The same thinking applies to "jobs": a handyman who excluded "jobs" would block "handyman for small jobs", which is a customer. And I don't exclude "buy" for a heating engineer, because "buy a new boiler" can be someone who wants one fitted.
Negative keyword match types: how they actually work
Short answer: negative match types work differently from normal keyword match types. They don't stretch to close variants, so you have to add plurals and synonyms yourself.
Here's how Google's negative keywords help page defines them, with trade examples:
| Negative match type | How you enter it | Blocks | Doesn't block |
|---|---|---|---|
| Negative broad | plumbing course | Any search containing all the words, in any order: "course in plumbing", "plumbing level 2 course" | "plumbing courses" (plural), "plumbing training" |
| Negative phrase | "plumbing course" | Searches containing those words in that order: "plumbing course london" | "course plumbing", "plumbing courses" |
| Negative exact | [plumbing course] | Only the exact search "plumbing course" | "plumbing course london", "plumbing courses" |
The points that catch people out, all from Google's own documentation:
- No close variants. Google says negative keywords won't match to close variants or other expansions. Its example: excluding "flowers" blocks "red flowers" but not "red flower". So add "course" and "courses", "job" and "jobs".
- Synonyms need adding separately. Excluding "course" won't block "training".
- Casing and misspellings are handled for you. Google's current help page says negative keywords automatically account for casing and misspellings, so you don't need to add those separately.
- Very long searches can slip through. If a search is longer than 16 words and your negative comes after the 16th word, your ad can still show. Rare, but it explains the odd strange term.
- Don't block your own keywords. Google warns that negatives overlapping with your normal keywords will stop your ads showing. It's easily done with broad negatives.
As a rule, I use single-word negative broad for words that are never relevant (salary, apprenticeship, wholesale), and phrase or exact for anything where the word on its own could appear in a genuine search.
Where to add negatives: lists, campaigns and account level
Short answer: put exclusions that apply everywhere into shared lists, and keep campaign or ad group negatives for exclusions that only make sense in one place.
| Level | Use it for | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Ad group | Steering searches to the right ad group, for example stopping a "boiler repair" ad group taking "boiler installation" searches | Part of the campaign total |
| Campaign | Exclusions for one campaign only, such as a service one campaign doesn't cover | 10,000 per campaign |
| Negative keyword lists | Shared exclusions applied to many campaigns at once | 20 lists per account, 5,000 keywords per list |
| Account level | A short list of terms you never want anywhere in the account | 1,000 per account |
The limits come from Google's account limits page, its guide to negative keyword lists and its page on account-level negative keywords, which apply across Search, Performance Max, Shopping and other campaign types. If you run Performance Max, you can now add campaign-level negatives and lists to it too. My guide to Performance Max for small businesses covers that.
How I organise negatives: three shared lists
Short answer: I keep shared negative keyword lists split into a generic list, a trade list and a places list, and apply them across the accounts I manage. Every new campaign starts with years of exclusions already in place.
I manage all my clients' accounts from one Google Ads manager account. Google's help page on using negative keyword lists across accounts explains that lists created in a manager account appear in the shared library of each client account, ready to apply. A manager account can hold 20 lists of its own. Here's what goes in each of mine:
- Generic list. Searches no service business wants to pay for: job hunting, salary, courses, apprenticeships, DIY, wholesale and so on, with phrase match used wherever a word could also appear in a genuine search. This applies to almost every campaign.
- Trade list. Wasted searches specific to one trade. A plumbing list, for example, holds things like parts, trade supplies and training terms that only make sense for plumbing. It's only applied to that trade's campaigns.
- Places list. Towns and areas outside where the client works, and places that share a name with somewhere local. A Kingston upon Thames business doesn't want Kingston upon Hull. A Richmond firm in London doesn't want Richmond in North Yorkshire.
The places list works alongside location targeting, not instead of it. Location settings decide where the person is. The places list catches people typing a different town into their search, wherever they happen to be. I target tightly around where a client is physically based, and the places list stops ads showing for places outside that area that people type into their searches.
The value of shared lists is that every lesson learned in one account protects all the others. When a new junk search turns up in one plumber's account, adding it to the list protects every plumbing campaign straight away.
My routine: how often to check search terms
Short answer: daily for the first few weeks of a new campaign, then weekly. The early weeks are when a campaign finds the most unexpected searches.
| Stage | How often | What I'm looking for |
|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1 to 4 of a new campaign | Daily | Anything irrelevant, especially ambiguous and research searches |
| Settled campaign | Weekly | New junk terms, new good terms worth their own keyword |
| After any big change | Daily for a week | New match types, AI Max, new services or a new area |
| Monthly | Once | Reviewing lists for negatives that might now be blocking good searches |
In my experience a new campaign typically takes three to four weeks to reach the point where Google has learned how best to convert, and daily search term reviews during that time stop the learning being wasted on the wrong people. I also send a weekly report every Monday across all my accounts, so anything odd is caught within days rather than at the end of the month.
Common mistakes with negative keywords
- Blocking your own customers. A broad negative on "free", "cheap" or "jobs" can knock out genuine searches like "free quote" or "small jobs". Check what a negative will block before adding it.
- Forgetting plurals. Negatives don't cover close variants, so "course" doesn't block "courses".
- Adding negatives in one campaign only. If the word is irrelevant everywhere, put it in a shared list.
- Adding whole search terms as exact negatives. Blocking [boiler repair course near me] only stops that exact search. Excluding the word "course" stops the whole family.
- Never checking the lists again. Businesses change what they offer. If you start doing grant-funded work, a negative on "grant" will need removing.
If your campaigns are getting clicks but not calls, irrelevant search terms are the first thing to check. My guide on why Google Ads get clicks but no calls covers the other causes. Cleaner search terms also tend to lift click-through rate and ad relevance, which feed into Quality Score. And if you want to check the rest of your account while you're at it, my Google Ads audit checklist takes you through it section by section.
FAQ
What are negative keywords in Google Ads?
Negative keywords are words or phrases that stop your ads showing when they appear in someone's search. For example, adding "apprenticeship" as a negative stops a plumber's ads showing for "plumbing apprenticeship near me". They're one of the most effective ways to cut wasted spend.
How often should I check the search terms report?
Daily for the first few weeks of a new campaign, then weekly once it has settled. Check it daily again for a week after any big change, such as switching to broad match, turning on AI Max or adding a new service.
Do negative keywords block plurals and misspellings?
Google says negative keywords account for casing and misspellings automatically, but they don't match close variants such as plurals. Add both singular and plural forms, and any synonyms, separately.
Should I use negative broad, phrase or exact match?
Use negative broad for single words that are never relevant, such as "salary" or "apprenticeship". Use phrase or exact where the word could appear in a genuine search, such as "free boiler" rather than "free" on its own, so you don't block "free quote".
Can I add negative keywords to Performance Max?
Yes. Performance Max now supports campaign-level negative keywords and negative keyword lists, as well as account-level negatives. They apply to Search and Shopping inventory.
Paying for searches you don't want?
If you're running your own ads and they're not paying, I'm happy to take a look. I'll go through your search terms report with you, show you what you've been paying for, and tell you which exclusions I'd add first. Every account I take on starts with my shared negative lists already in place, so the obvious waste is gone from day one. You deal with me directly, not an account manager.
Read more about my Google Ads management service and wider PPC services, or get in touch and tell me what's showing up in your search terms.
