Every search that triggers your ad but doesn’t turn into a sale costs you.
Some of those searches are easy to see coming. People look for jobs, free stuff, school projects, and how-to videos with the same words your buyers use, and Google Ads charges you when they click.
A negative keyword tells Google Ads to skip those searches. Our negative keyword list starts you with 10 lists of searchers who rarely buy, like job seekers and DIYers, and you keep the ones that fit your business.
What sets ours apart is the check in step 2. You paste your own keywords, and the tool shows you any negatives that would block one of them.
A single word can do a lot of damage.
If you run a dog training business, “training” on your negative list stops your ads for “dog training near me”, which is the search you most want to show up for.
What is a negative keyword list?
A negative keyword list is a saved set of negative keywords you can apply to 1 campaign, or to several campaigns at once. When you add a word to the list, every campaign using it stops showing your ads for that word (Google Ads Help on negative keyword lists).
A list saves you from adding the same negatives to each campaign and ad group by hand.
Google Ads also has an account-level option, and each one has its own limit:
| Where the negatives go | Limit | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| A negative keyword list | 5,000 negatives per list, 20 lists per account | Each campaign you apply the list to |
| Account-level negatives | 1,000 per account | Search and shopping ads in Search, Performance Max, Shopping, and a few other campaign types |
The account-level limit and campaign types come from Google Ads Help on account-level negative keywords. If your list goes over either limit, the tool tells you under Checks.
Negative keyword examples
Negative keywords fall into a few groups, and each group is a type of searcher who isn’t going to buy from you.
We built the 10 lists in the tool around those groups. You’ll likely want most of them. A list that describes your own buyers will cost you sales, though, so here’s when to leave each one off:
| List | Examples | Leave it off if |
|---|---|---|
| Job seekers | jobs, careers, hiring, salary, resume, internship, “job openings”, indeed, glassdoor | You’re hiring through your ads |
| Training and school | course, class, certification, school, college, tutorial, homework, “study guide”, “school project” | You teach classes, or you sell to schools |
| DIY | diy, homemade, hacks, “how to make”, “how to fix”, “how to install”, “step by step” | You sell parts to people who fix things themselves |
| Research and definitions | definition, meaning, wikipedia, examples, history, “what is”, “types of”, “who invented” | You run ads on articles or guides |
| Free and bargain | free, cheap, cheapest, giveaway, coupon, “promo code”, craigslist, ebay, “facebook marketplace” | You offer something free, like an estimate or a sample |
| Used and rental | used, secondhand, “pre owned”, refurbished, salvage, “for parts”, rental | You sell or rent used equipment |
| Home and retail shoppers | residential, “for home”, “for kids”, toys, “home depot”, walmart, amazon, costco, etsy | Homeowners are your buyers |
| Pictures and videos | images, photos, youtube, tiktok, pinterest, wallpaper, clipart, memes, reddit | You sell images, photos, or video |
| Logins | login, “sign in”, password, “forgot password”, “my account” | You sell login or account software |
| Complaints and lawsuits | complaint, lawsuit, “class action”, scam, recall | You’re a law firm that takes these cases |
We left words like price, cost, quote, and supplier off every list. Someone searching for a price is usually close to buying, and those are the clicks you want.
Check your negatives against your own keywords
A negative keyword blocks every search that matches it, and that includes searches for the things you sell.
Google Ads catches some of these once the negatives are live, with a Remove conflicting negative keywords recommendation (Google Ads Help on recommendation types). Until you see that recommendation, those keywords don’t show ads.
Our tool checks before the list goes in. Once you paste your keywords in step 2, a box under the list shows each conflict. For example, the Try example keywords button turns up 4:
| Negative | Blocks your keyword | Why you’d want the keyword |
|---|---|---|
free | free estimate roof repair | A free estimate is how a roofer gets the job |
training | dog training near me | Training is the service |
used | used forklifts for sale | Used equipment is the product |
residential | residential cleaning service | Homeowners are the buyers |
If any of these look like your business, click Take them off the list. The tool moves them into Words to keep off the list, so they stay off while you work.
The tool checks each negative the same way Google Ads matches it. A negative broad keyword blocks any search that has all of its words, in any order.
Negative phrase needs the words in the same order, and negative exact needs the exact words with nothing added.
Negatives also don’t match plurals or synonyms, which is why our lists spell out both “job” and “jobs”. Misspellings are the exception, since Google Ads covers those for you (Google Ads Help on negative keywords).
Our keyword wrapper goes into the 3 negative match types in more detail.
How to make a negative keyword list in Google Ads
Once your list looks right, it takes a few minutes to set up in Google Ads. These steps match Google Ads as of late 2026, but Google moves its menus around a lot, so the names may differ in your account.
- Click Copy on the negative keyword list above.
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns, then Keywords, and select the Negative keywords tab.
- Click the plus button and choose a campaign.
- Paste the list, 1 negative per line.
- Check Save to new or existing list, name the list, and click Save (Google Ads Help on setting up negative keyword lists).
You’ll find your saved lists later under Exclusion lists in the Tools menu, on the Negative keywords lists tab. From there, you can check a list and click Apply to campaigns to add it to more campaigns.
How the negative keyword list works
The tool builds your list in 5 steps, in this order:
| Step | How |
|---|---|
| Adds your lists | Every term from the lists you picked, with plurals written out |
| Adds your negatives | Your own terms, minus quotes, brackets, and dashes, with plurals added when the box is checked |
| Removes words to keep | Drops any term in Words to keep off the list, and any repeat |
| Sets match types | 1 word as negative broad, 2 or more as negative phrase, unless you pick all phrase or all exact |
| Checks your keywords | Tests each negative against each of your keywords with Google’s negative match rules |
The one thing the tool can’t see is your search terms report.
That report shows what people typed when your ad showed up (Google Ads Help on the search terms report). Once your ads have run for a week or so, we’d look through it for searches you don’t want and paste them into Add your own negatives. Our search terms report analyzer does the looking for you, by adding up what each word in the report has cost.
Don’t want to deal with any of this? Take a look at our Google Ads management service, and we’ll build the negative lists and run the ads for you.
Questions we get
Do negative keywords work in Performance Max?
Account-level negative keywords work in Performance Max. Google applies them to search and shopping inventory in Search, Performance Max, Shopping, App, Smart, and Local campaigns. An account holds up to 1,000 of them, under Account settings, in the Negative keywords section.
Should I use a universal negative keyword list?
A universal negative keyword list is a starting point, never a finished list. Long lists online include words like cost, online, and free, and those words bring in real buyers for a lot of businesses. We'd check any list against your own keywords before it goes in.
Is my keyword list saved or sent anywhere?
Your keyword list isn't saved or sent anywhere, because the negative keyword list runs in your browser. The list is gone when you close the page. Use Copy or Copy results to keep it.