Negative Keywords in Google Ads: How to Find Them (+ Starter List for Indian Businesses)

This guide explains how to use negative keywords in Google Ads to stop paying for clicks that don't convert. It's for performance marketers who want to cut wasted spend and improve their return on ad spend (ROAS).

• Understand what negative keywords are and how they work.
• Learn the difference between negative match types.
• Discover how to find negative keywords in your search terms report.
• Get a starter list of negative keywords for Indian businesses.

Are you paying for search terms like "free," "jobs," or "how-to" in your Google Ads account? Negative keywords are the tool you use to stop this, ensuring your ad budget is spent only on clicks from potential customers.

What Are Negative Keywords in Google Ads?

A negative keyword is a specific word or phrase you add to your campaign to prevent your ad from being shown for searches containing that term. While your regular keywords tell Google when to show your ad, negative keywords tell it when not to. This is crucial for controlling costs and targeting the right audience. For fashion and apparel brands, this means filtering out searches for "jobs," "free patterns," or "DIY tutorials" when you're trying to sell a finished product. Every irrelevant click is a portion of your budget that could have been spent reaching a customer ready to buy.

As Google's keyword matching becomes broader, especially with tools like Performance Max and Broad Match, using negative keywords has become more important than ever. They act as a necessary filter to weed out irrelevant traffic that can quickly drain your ad spend. Without a robust negative keyword strategy, you are essentially letting Google's algorithm make decisions about your budget without the critical context of what your business doesn't do. This is especially true in competitive markets where every click comes at a premium.

Why is a Negative Keyword Strategy Essential for ROAS?

The immediate benefit of a well-managed negative keyword list is cost savings. By preventing your ads from showing on irrelevant searches, you stop wasting money on clicks that will never convert. This directly improves your return on ad spend (ROAS). But the benefits go beyond just financial savings. A targeted campaign, free from irrelevant impressions and clicks, will also see a higher click-through rate (CTR). A higher CTR signals to Google that your ads are relevant to the users who see them, which in turn can improve your Quality Score. A better Quality Score can lead to lower costs per click (CPC) and better ad positions.

Furthermore, by filtering out unqualified traffic, you get cleaner data. Your conversion rate will more accurately reflect the performance of your ads and landing pages among a relevant audience. This makes it easier to make informed decisions about your campaigns, from ad creative to budget allocation. In essence, negative keywords are not just a defensive tool; they are a critical component of a proactive, data-driven advertising strategy that pays dividends in both the short and long term. Neglecting them is akin to leaving a tap running; the waste is silent but constant.

The Financial Impact of a Poor Negative Keyword Strategy

Let's consider a hypothetical scenario. A fashion brand is spending ₹5,00,000 per month on Google Ads. Through a quick audit of their search terms report, they find that 15% of their spend is on irrelevant queries like "fashion design jobs," "free sewing patterns," and "how to start a clothing line." That's ₹75,000 of wasted ad spend in a single month. Annually, this amounts to a staggering ₹9,00,000 that could have been reinvested into profitable campaigns, creative development, or other growth initiatives. This isn't an exaggeration; for many accounts that aren't regularly maintained, the percentage of wasted spend can be even higher.

The opportunity cost is another factor. The budget wasted on irrelevant clicks could have been used to bid more competitively on high-converting keywords, increasing impression share and capturing more market share from competitors. By implementing a thorough negative keyword strategy, this brand could immediately redirect that 15% of their budget to terms that actually drive sales, leading to a significant and immediate uplift in their overall ROAS.

Exploring the Different Negative Keyword Match Types

There are three match types for negative keywords, and they function slightly differently from their positive counterparts. It's important to understand these distinctions to use them effectively. Getting the match type wrong can either lead to missed opportunities by blocking too much traffic, or wasted spend by not blocking enough. Each match type offers a different level of control, and a comprehensive strategy will use all three.

Match Type	How to Add It	Blocks the ad when the search...	Example Negative: "fashion ads"
Negative Broad	fashion ads	contains all the words, in any order	Blocks "ads for fashion" but not "fashion ad"
Negative Phrase	"fashion ads"	contains the exact words in the same order (other words can be included)	Blocks "best fashion ads" but not "ads for fashion"
Negative Exact	[fashion ads]	is exactly those words, with no extra words	Only blocks the search "fashion ads"

The Critical Rule: No Close Variants

A key difference from regular keywords is that negative keywords do not include close variants. This means they won't automatically block plurals, misspellings, or other variations. If you add "job" as a negative, it won't block searches for "jobs." You need to add each variation you want to exclude. This requires a more hands-on approach than managing positive keywords, but the precision it offers is invaluable for campaign control. It's a manual task, but automation tools and scripts can help manage this at scale.

How Do You Find a Continuous Stream of Negative Keywords?

Finding the right negative keywords is an ongoing process of monitoring your campaign's performance and search query data. Here are the most effective methods to build and refine your lists. A proactive and systematic approach will always outperform a reactive one.

1. Master the Search Terms Report

This is your most valuable source. In your Google Ads account, navigate to Insights and reports > Search terms. Set the date range for the last 30 days and sort by cost. Look for terms that have spent money but resulted in zero conversions. If the searcher's intent is clearly not aligned with your product, add the irrelevant term as a negative keyword. This process is foundational to campaign hygiene and ensures that your budget is continuously optimized toward high-intent queries. A weekly review of this report, even for just 15 minutes, can yield significant savings and performance improvements over time. Look for patterns in the irrelevant queries; a single negative keyword can often block a dozen low-quality search terms.

2. Leverage Google's Autocomplete and "People Also Ask"

Start typing your primary keywords into the Google search bar and see what suggestions appear. These are based on real user searches. Any suggestions that indicate the wrong intent, such as queries including "jobs," "free," or "tutorial," are good candidates for your negative keyword list. This proactive approach allows you to filter out irrelevant traffic before you even spend a single dollar on those queries. The "People also ask" section on the search results page is another goldmine for identifying user intent that doesn't align with your commercial goals. These are questions real users have, and if they're not your target audience, you should take note.

3. Utilize the Keyword Planner for Proactive Exclusions

When you're doing initial keyword research, the Google Keyword Planner will often suggest related terms that are not relevant to your business. Make a note of these and add them to your negative keyword lists from the start to prevent wasted spend before it happens. This step integrates negative keyword management into the campaign creation process, making it a core part of your strategy rather than an afterthought. A well-researched negative list at launch is a hallmark of a professional campaign setup. It demonstrates a deep understanding of your target market and the nuances of how they search.

Where Should You Add Negative Keywords for Maximum Impact?

You can add negative keywords at different levels within your Google Ads account. Where you add them depends on how broadly you want to exclude the term. A well-structured account uses a combination of these levels for maximum control and efficiency, creating a cascading effect of exclusions.

• Ad Group Level: Use this to prevent overlap between ad groups. For example, in a campaign for "women's shoes," you might add "men's" as a negative keyword to the women's ad group. This is crucial for maintaining tight ad group relevance and improving Quality Score. It ensures that the most relevant ad is always served for a given query.
• Campaign Level: Add terms that are irrelevant to a specific campaign but might be relevant to others. This level of control is useful for campaigns with distinct targeting or product focuses. For instance, a "clearance sale" campaign might not want to exclude the word "cheap," but your mainline campaigns would. Proper use of campaign-level negatives prevents cannibalization and ensures budget is allocated appropriately.
• Shared Negative Keyword List: This is the most efficient way to manage negatives that apply to multiple campaigns. Create lists for common themes like "jobs" or "free" and apply them across your account. This saves time and ensures consistency. According to Google Ads documentation, you can have up to 20 shared lists per account, which is ample for most businesses. Regularly updating these shared lists is a high-leverage activity.
• Account Level: For terms you want to exclude from all your campaigns, including Performance Max. You can add up to 1,000 keywords at this level. This is the broadest level of exclusion and should be used for terms that are universally irrelevant to your business, such as competitor brand names you've chosen not to bid on, or terms related to fraud or illegal activities. Use this level with caution, as it can have far-reaching effects.

Advanced Tactics for Negative Keyword Management

Once you've mastered the basics, there are several advanced tactics you can employ to take your negative keyword strategy to the next level. One such tactic is the use of "negative keyword sculpting." This involves using negative keywords at the ad group level to force traffic for a specific query to a particular ad group. For example, if you have one ad group for "running shoes" and another for "men's running shoes," you would add "men's" as a negative to the first ad group to ensure that any searches containing "men's" are directed to the more specific ad group. This gives you granular control over which ads are shown for which queries, allowing you to tailor your ad copy and landing pages more precisely.

Another advanced technique is to use scripts to automate the process of finding and adding negative keywords. Google Ads scripts can be set up to run on a schedule, automatically analyzing your search terms report and adding any queries that meet certain criteria (e.g., high cost, zero conversions) to your negative keyword lists. This can save you a significant amount of time and ensure that your campaigns are continuously being optimized, even when you're not actively managing them. While setting up scripts requires some technical knowledge, there are many pre-built scripts available online that you can adapt for your own use.

Building a Starter Negative Keyword List for Indian E-commerce

For businesses operating in the diverse Indian market, a generic negative keyword list won't suffice. You need to account for regional languages, local search behavior, and specific market-related terms that indicate a lack of commercial intent. This starter list is tailored for Indian e-commerce brands, particularly in the fashion and apparel space. Remember to customize it to fit your specific business needs, removing any terms that might be relevant to your products.

Theme	Negative Keywords to Consider
Jobs and Careers	job, jobs, vacancy, vacancies, hiring, salary, career, careers, naukri, internship, recruitment, resume, requirement
Free and Freebies	free, freebie, free sample, muft, giveaway, coupon free, free download, without cost
DIY and How-To	how to make, homemade, at home, ghar par, kaise banaye, diy, recipe, tutorial, formula, preparation
Learning and Research	course, training, syllabus, notes, pdf, project report, meaning, definition, wikipedia, essay, study, analysis
Media and Downloads	image, images, photo, wallpaper, png, logo, video download, song, status, movie, mp3
Second-hand and Rental	second hand, used, refurbished, olx, quikr, rent, rental, on rent, for hire
Wholesale and B2B (for D2C brands)	wholesale, wholesaler, bulk, manufacturer, distributor, dealership, franchise, supplier, agent
Existing-customer and Support	customer care number, complaint, refund status, order status, tracking, login, service center, help

Words to be Cautious With

While the terms above are broadly applicable, some words require careful consideration. Don't add these to your negative lists without a thorough analysis of your search terms report, as they can sometimes be used by genuine customers:

• cheap, sasta, price, rate, cost: These are often searched by people who are in the consideration phase of the buying journey and are comparing options. Blocking them entirely could cause you to miss out on valuable traffic.
• near me: For brands with a physical presence, this is an essential keyword. Even for online-only stores, it can indicate a user's preference for local brands or faster shipping.
• amazon, flipkart, myntra: If you sell your products on these marketplaces, blocking their names could prevent you from capturing traffic from users specifically looking for your brand on those platforms. If you only sell direct-to-consumer, then these are prime candidates for your negative list.
• review, best, top: These are classic research-intent keywords. Users searching with these terms are often close to making a purchase and are looking for final validation. While they may not convert on the first click, they are a valuable audience to capture for retargeting.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Negative Keywords

Even with the best intentions, it's easy to make mistakes when managing negative keywords. Here are some common pitfalls to watch out for:

• Being too broad: Adding a broad match negative keyword like "free" could inadvertently block relevant searches like "gluten-free shoes" or "shipping free." Always consider the potential for your negatives to block high-intent queries. Use more restrictive match types like phrase or exact match when necessary.
• Forgetting to add plurals and misspellings: As mentioned earlier, negative keywords don't have close variants. A common mistake is to add the singular form of a word but forget the plural, or to neglect common misspellings. Be thorough in your additions.
• "Set it and forget it": Your negative keyword lists are not static. New search trends emerge, and the way people search for your products can change over time. Regularly reviewing and updating your lists is essential for long-term campaign health.
• Ignoring campaign-level conflicts: It's possible to have a negative keyword at the campaign or ad group level that conflicts with a positive keyword in another ad group. Google Ads has a built-in tool to diagnose these conflicts, and it's a good idea to run it periodically.

What Role Does EngageReel Play in This Strategy?

At EngageReel, we focus on maximizing your return on ad spend. While our platform automates many aspects of ad creation and optimization, a solid negative keyword strategy is a fundamental part of a successful paid media campaign. By regularly refining your negative keyword lists, you ensure that the high-performance creatives generated by EngageReel are shown to the most qualified audience, driving better results and reducing wasted ad spend. A clean, well-managed account provides a better foundation for our creative intelligence to deliver optimal performance. Our goal is to ensure that your creative assets are not just compelling, but also efficiently targeted. We help you get the most out of your ad spend by ensuring your message reaches the right people, and a good negative keyword list is a cornerstone of that process. Find out more at EngageReel.com.