Why Negative Keywords Are More Important Now Than They've Ever Been

Published: January 2026 | By Stevie Morris

Negative keywords are more important now than they've ever been.

If you're running Google Ads and not actively managing negative keywords, you're bleeding budget. Accounts with significant spend are wasting hundreds, if not thousands, every month on completely irrelevant traffic.

Here's why this problem has gotten worse, and what you can do about it.

Table of Contents

1. The Core Problem: Google's Business Model

2. Think of It Like Gambling

3. Performance Max Makes This Worse

4. The Company Name Problem

5. The Financial Impact (Real Numbers)

6. Why People Neglect This

7. My Approach to Negative Keywords

8. Action Steps You Can Take This Week

The Core Problem: Google's Business Model {#the-core-problem}

Google is a business. Their goal is to show your ads to a wider audience.

Unless you have significant data already, they're making their best guess at who will convert.

And they get it wrong. A lot.

That costs you money.

Google's incentive is to show your ads as broadly as possible. More impressions, more clicks, more revenue for them. Your incentive is to show ads only to people likely to convert. These incentives don't align.

That's where negative keywords come in. They're your control mechanism to prevent Google from showing your ads for irrelevant searches.

Think of It Like Gambling {#gambling-analogy}

Here's the best way to understand negative keywords:

Google Ads is gambling. Each search term has odds.

The closer the search term is to your intent, the better the odds of conversion.

Good Odds vs Bad Odds

Good Odds:

• "Window installers Lincoln"
• "Composite doors Sheffield"
• "PPC consultant London"

These have clear intent. Someone is actively looking for what you offer in your location.

Terrible Odds:

• "[Competitor name] telephone number"
• "Free window installation"
• "DIY door fitting"

These searches have clear intent too - but not for YOUR service. They're looking for someone else, free information, or DIY solutions.

But your ad still shows. And you pay a premium CPC for that click.

Without negative keywords, you're taking bets with terrible odds all day long.

Performance Max Makes This Worse {#performance-max}

Performance Max is a black box.

You have little control over where it spends. And if given the chance, it will eat your entire budget.

It can work well for audience discovery in some markets. But it's not suitable for all advertisers.

The Biggest Performance Max Mistake

The biggest mistake I see? No brand exclusions.

When Performance Max is your main driver, it goes for the easiest conversions - your brand terms.

It steals conversions you would have got anyway instead of finding new customers.

Think about it:

• Someone searches "[Your Brand] buy now"
• They're ready to convert
• Performance Max shows your ad
• You pay for the click
• They convert
• Google claims credit

But they were going to buy anyway. You just paid for a conversion you would have got organically or through a cheaper brand campaign.

The Solution: Add your brand terms as negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns. Force it to find NEW customers, not steal existing ones.

The Company Name Problem {#company-names}

This is one of the most expensive wastes I see.

Search for "window companies" and Google will show your ad for hundreds of competitor names in your area.

Same with:

• "Pet store"
• "Plumber near me"
• "Accountant London"
• "Hotel Sheffield"

You're bidding on every local business name that matches your category and location.

Why This Is Expensive

These clicks are expensive. You're paying premium CPCs for completely irrelevant traffic.

Why premium CPCs? Because:

1. The competitor might be bidding on their own brand (high competition)

2. Google sees these as commercial searches (higher value = higher cost)

3. You have low Quality Score (your ad isn't relevant to their brand)

Real Example

I recently analysed a doors campaign for a client. They were showing for:

• "Climadoor Chesterfield" - £6.03 per click
• "Vibrant Doors Sheffield" - £3.40 per click
• "Door Division near me" - £0 spent (no clicks, but impressions)

These are all competitors. Every impression wasted. Every click expensive and useless.

Potential savings from excluding competitor brands: £50-100 per month on one small campaign.

The Financial Impact (Real Numbers) {#financial-impact}

Let me be specific about what this costs.

Accounts with significant spend are wasting hundreds, if not thousands, every month on irrelevant traffic without proper negative keywords.

Case Study: Doors Campaign

I just analysed a doors campaign for a UK window and door installer.

What I found:

• Windows and glazing terms eating budget (they only sell doors)
• Competitor brands getting clicks
• Trade/B2B searches (distributors, wholesale) showing ads
• Repair and emergency service searches (they don't offer this)

Financial impact:

• £653.83 total spend in 30 days
• 101 clicks
• 7 conversions
• Potential savings: £50-100 per month just from adding proper negatives to this one campaign

That's one small campaign.

Scale that across an entire account? The waste adds up fast.

What You're Typically Wasting

From accounts I've audited:

Small accounts (£500-2,000/month spend):

• Wasting £50-200/month on irrelevant traffic

Medium accounts (£2,000-10,000/month spend):

• Wasting £200-1,000/month

Large accounts (£10,000+/month spend):

• Wasting £1,000-3,000+/month

These are conservative estimates. I've seen worse.

Why People Neglect This {#why-neglected}

If negative keywords save this much money, why don't people use them?

Most professional PPC people have negatives as part of their workflow.

But in-house teams? That's where the problem is.

Often an employee is seconded to manage Google Ads without any real interest in it. It's just another task on top of their actual job.

They do the minimum to avoid being questioned.

Why Negative Keywords Get Skipped

Negative keywords are:

• Boring - Not exciting like launching new campaigns
• Not sexy - No one asks "what's your negative keyword strategy?"
• Time-consuming - Requires regular search term reviews
• Ongoing - It's not a one-time task, it's maintenance
• Invisible when done right - No one notices good negative keywords, only bad results

So they get skipped.

The In-House Problem

In-house marketers managing Google Ads often:

• Have no formal PPC training
• Are managing ads as 10-20% of their job
• Don't have time for ongoing optimization
• Follow Google's recommendations (which push broad match and automation)
• Never look at search term reports

The result? Accounts bleeding money on irrelevant traffic.

My Approach to Negative Keywords {#my-approach}

Here's how I handle negative keywords for clients:

1. Tools and Data to Identify Bad Terms

I use tools and data to identify bad search terms before they waste budget.

This includes:

• Search term reports (obviously)
• Keyword research tools to find related terms
• Competitor brand lists
• Category-specific exclusions (repairs, DIY, wholesale, etc.)

2. Proactive, Not Reactive

Most people add negatives AFTER wasting money. I build lists before launch:

Before launching a campaign:

• Build competitor brand negative list
• Add category exclusions (repair, free, DIY, wholesale, etc.)
• Create location exclusions if needed
• Set up shared negative lists to apply across campaigns

3. Regular Search Term Reviews

Ongoing discipline:

• Weekly search term reviews for active campaigns
• Monthly deep-dives for all campaigns
• Immediate action on high-spend irrelevant terms
• Document patterns and add to shared lists

4. Shared Negative Lists

I use shared negative keyword lists applied across all campaigns:

• Competitor Brands - All local competitor names
• Category Exclusions - Repairs, DIY, wholesale, jobs, courses, etc.
• Location Exclusions - Cities/regions we don't serve
• Brand Exclusions for Performance Max - Client's own brand terms

This ensures consistency and saves time.

5. Disciplined Process

It's not complicated. It's just disciplined.

And it saves clients hundreds every month.

Action Steps You Can Take This Week {#action-steps}

If you're running Google Ads, here's what to do this week:

Step 1: Run a Search Terms Report (30 Days)

Go to Google Ads > Campaigns > Insights and Reports > Search Terms

Look at the last 30 days of search terms across all campaigns.

Look for:

• Competitor names
• Irrelevant categories (if you sell windows, look for "doors", "conservatories", etc.)
• Wrong intent (repair, DIY, free, jobs, courses)
• Wrong locations
• Trade/B2B terms (wholesale, distributor, trade)

Step 2: Create a Negative Keywords List

Open a spreadsheet and categorize:

High Priority (Add Immediately):

• Competitor brand names
• Completely irrelevant categories
• Wrong service type (repair vs install, B2C vs B2B)

Medium Priority (Add This Week):

• Wrong locations
• Price/deal hunters (if you're premium)
• DIY/self-service terms

Monitor:

• Borderline terms that might be relevant
• Low volume terms that haven't cost much yet

Step 3: Add Negatives to Your Campaigns

Two ways to do this:

Option 1: Campaign Level

Add negatives directly to individual campaigns. Use this for campaign-specific exclusions.

Option 2: Shared Negative Lists (Better)

Create shared negative keyword lists and apply them across all campaigns. Much more efficient.

Step 4: Check Performance Max Campaigns

Specifically for Performance Max:

Do you have brand exclusions?

If not, add your brand terms as negative keywords. Force Performance Max to find NEW customers, not steal existing ones.

Step 5: Set a Recurring Reminder

Add a weekly or monthly recurring task:

• "Review search terms and add negatives"

Make it part of your workflow, not a one-time task.

Bottom Line

If you're running Google Ads and not actively managing negative keywords, you're bleeding budget.

The problem has gotten worse with Performance Max, broad match changes, and Google's push toward automation.

But the solution is simple:

Review your search terms this week.

Look for competitor names. Look for irrelevant categories. Look for what Performance Max is actually bidding on.

Add negatives. Save money. Improve ROAS.

It's the easiest win in PPC right now.

Need Help?

I'm Stevie Morris. I've been managing Google Ads accounts for 12 years, specializing in ecommerce and B2C lead generation.

If your Google Ads account is wasting budget on irrelevant traffic, I can help.

[Get in touch here] → [Contact link]

Last updated: January 2026

Stevie Morris

PPC Consultant Involved in online marketing for the last 25 years first with SEO , Web Development and now for the last 12 years focusing on  PPC & Google Ads