---
title: "What are negative keywords in Google Ads, and how do I add them?"
description: "Negative keywords in Google Ads: how each match type matches, how to use them on an ad group, a campaign or the account, their limits, and Performance Max."
canonical: https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords
last-updated: 2026-10-03
---

Guide

# What are negative keywords in Google Ads, and how do I add them?

Negative keywords in Google Ads: how each match type matches, how to use them on an ad group, a campaign or the account, their limits, and Performance Max.

In short

- A negative keyword is a word or phrase that keeps your ads off searches containing it: add free as a negative, and Google Ads doesn't show your ad on any search containing free.
- It can be broad, phrase or exact match, and each blocks only its own words: add the singular, the plural and each synonym you want kept out. Google's help says negatives do account for casing and misspellings.
- A negative is kept in one of four places: on an ad group, on a campaign (up to 10,000), in a negative keyword list applied to campaigns (5,000 a list, 20 lists), or at the account level (1,000, applied to all your search and shopping inventory).
- Add one on the Negative search keywords tab, under Campaigns, then Audiences, keywords, and content, then Search keywords, or from the search terms report. Performance Max takes them on the campaign, for its Search and Shopping inventory only.
- Goldbeater reads every campaign's search terms every day, and raises a word that runs through three or more searches where none of them converted, with the phrase negative that stops them, and a Search or Shopping campaign with no negative keywords at all.

Goldbeater checks this every 24 hours

- Paying for words that never convert
- A Search or Shopping campaign with no negative keywords
- Negative keywords your similar campaigns keep, missing from one
- [and 3 more](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#goldbeater)

Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on the findings. A free first look shows how many problems these and 157 other checks find on one of your accounts, and what they cost. No card.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) [or start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

1. [01 How negative keywords work: your ad stays off the searches you name.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#how-they-work)
2. [02 Negative keyword match types don’t match the way keywords do.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#match-types)
3. [03 Ad group, campaign-level and account-level negative keywords, and lists](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#levels)
4. [04 How to add negative keywords in Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#how-to-add)
5. [05 A negative keywords example: one word across six searches](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#by-hand)
6. [06 What a campaign with no negative keywords looks like](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#none)
7. [07 Negative keywords in Performance Max, Shopping, Display and Video](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#performance-max)
8. [08 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#in-goldbeater)
9. [09 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#questions)

Contents

1. [01 How negative keywords work: your ad stays off the searches you name.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#how-they-work)
2. [02 Negative keyword match types don’t match the way keywords do.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#match-types)
3. [03 Ad group, campaign-level and account-level negative keywords, and lists](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#levels)
4. [04 How to add negative keywords in Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#how-to-add)
5. [05 A negative keywords example: one word across six searches](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#by-hand)
6. [06 What a campaign with no negative keywords looks like](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#none)
7. [07 Negative keywords in Performance Max, Shopping, Display and Video](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#performance-max)
8. [08 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#in-goldbeater)
9. [09 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords#questions)

The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.

## How negative keywords work: your ad stays off the searches you name.

A negative keyword is a word or phrase you tell Google Ads not to show your ads on. Google’s own example: add free as a negative keyword to a campaign or an ad group, and your ad isn’t shown on any search containing free.

Search terms vs keywords. A search term is the word or words a person typed into Google. A keyword is the word or words you added to an ad group so your ads reach the right people. Keywords match by meaning: a broad match keyword shows your ads on searches related to it, and a phrase match one on searches that include its meaning. So the searches you pay for run wider than the keywords you wrote, and a negative keyword is how you turn one of them away.

Google’s advice on which to turn away: look for search terms that are similar to your keywords and come from people after a different product. Its example is an optometrist who sells eyeglasses and adds negatives for wine glasses and drinking glasses. The [wasted search terms guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms) shows how to find yours in the search terms report.

Two cautions come with them. Google warns that with too many negative keywords your ads might reach fewer customers. And a negative that overlaps one of your own keywords stops that keyword’s ad from showing, which the same guide covers.

## Negative keyword match types don’t match the way keywords do.

In a Search campaign a negative keyword is broad, phrase or exact match, as a keyword is. The names are the same and the matching isn’t.

- Negative broad match, the default, blocks a search that contains all the negative’s words, in any order. A search with only some of them can still show your ad.
- Negative phrase match blocks a search that contains the words in the same order, with or without other words around them.
- Negative exact match blocks a search that is those words in that order with nothing added.

Negative: running shoes

Example

| Search             | Broad   | Phrase  | Exact   |
| ------------------ | ------- | ------- | ------- |
| blue tennis shoes  | Shows   | Shows   | Shows   |
| running shoe       | Shows   | Shows   | Shows   |
| blue running shoes | Blocked | Blocked | Shows   |
| shoes running      | Blocked | Shows   | Shows   |
| running shoes      | Blocked | Blocked | Blocked |

Google’s own example: the negative keyword running shoes in each match type, and five searches. Blocked means your ad can’t show on the search.

You choose the match type with symbols as you type the negative: nothing around it for broad, quotation marks for phrase ("running shoes") and brackets for exact (\[running shoes]).

The table’s second row is the difference. A keyword also matches close variants of itself, such as singular and plural forms and synonyms. A negative doesn’t: Google’s example is the negative flowers, which blocks red flowers and not red flower. So add the singular, the plural and each synonym you want kept out. Casing and misspellings are different: Google’s help says negative keywords account for those automatically, so they don’t need adding.

Two more things from the same page. The rules hold whether a negative is one word or several, and it follows from them that a one-word negative blocks the same searches as broad or as phrase, since one word has no order. And a negative isn’t read past the 16th word of a search: Google’s example is the negative discount, which blocks a search where it’s the 16th word and lets your ad show where it’s the 17th.

## Ad group, campaign-level and account-level negative keywords, and lists

A negative keyword works only where it’s kept, and Google Ads has four places to keep one.

- On an ad group. The negative applies to that ad group and no other. Google’s example is a Shopping campaign with an ad group for each top brand, so each brand’s negatives are set separately.
- On a campaign. A campaign-level negative keyword applies to the whole campaign. A campaign can hold 10,000 of them.
- In a negative keyword list. A list is a named set of negatives you apply to as many campaigns as need it: up to 5,000 negatives in a list, and 20 lists in an account. It does nothing until it’s applied to a campaign. The [negative keyword lists guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/negative-keyword-lists) covers making one and finding the campaigns it’s missing from.
- At the account level. One list in your account’s settings applies by itself to all search and shopping inventory in your Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns. It holds 1,000 negatives.

Keep a negative at the widest level where it’s true. A word nothing you sell is named with belongs at the account level or in a list. A search one campaign shouldn’t buy and another should belongs on the campaign, or on the ad group where two ad groups of one campaign would both match it.

## How to add negative keywords in Google Ads

To a campaign or an ad group, from the keywords page:

1. Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords and open the Negative search keywords tab.
2. Select the plus button.
3. Choose whether the negatives go on a campaign or an ad group, and select the one they’re for.
4. Enter or paste one negative keyword per line, with quotation marks for phrase match or brackets for exact match.
5. To keep them as a list too, tick Save to new or existing list and name it. Select Save.

Some of Google’s pages call the same place Campaigns › Keywords and its tab Negative keywords. To change one later, hover over it there and select the pencil icon; the match type has a drop-down of its own.

From the search terms report, where you can see what each search cost before you block it:

1. Go to Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms.
2. Tick the box beside each search to block, and select Add as negative keyword.
3. Choose Ad group or Campaign to add each one where its search came from, or Negative keyword list to put them in a list.
4. Select Save.

In a Search campaign, a search added from the report becomes an exact match negative by default, which blocks that search and nothing else. Change the symbols around it to block more.

At the account level, for a word no campaign of yours should show on:

1. Select the Admin icon, then Account settings.
2. Expand the Negative keywords section.
3. Select the plus button, enter one word or phrase per line, and select Save.
4. To change a negative’s match type, use the drop-down in its Match type column.

## A negative keywords example: one word across six searches

Most negatives are found a search at a time: one search, its cost, no conversions. The ones that method misses are small. They are searches that each cost too little to notice and share a word. To find them:

1. Go to Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms, choose one campaign, and set the date range to the last 30 days.
2. Read down the search terms for a word that keeps coming back and that nothing you sell is named with. A long report is easier to read in a spreadsheet, and the download button above the table exports it.
3. Add up the Cost of every search holding the word, and check each one’s Conversions. If one of them converted, stop: a negative of the word would block that search too.
4. Leave out the costliest of them and add up again. If little is left, the word is one search’s problem, and that search is the negative to add. If what’s left is more than the campaign pays for a conversion, the word has cost you a sale’s worth of clicks.
5. Look for the same thing said another way. A negative blocks only its own words, so each synonym and plural needs a negative of its own.

Beds — Phrase

Sample data

| Search term                | Clicks | Cost    | Conv. | With “garden” negative |
| -------------------------- | ------ | ------- | ----- | ---------------------- |
| oak bed frame              | 186    | $279.00 | 6     | Shows                  |
| king size wooden bed frame | 104    | $166.40 | 4     | Shows                  |
| solid wood bed frame queen | 82     | $118.90 | 2     | Shows                  |
| storage bed frame          | 58     | $81.20  | 1     | Shows                  |
| raised garden bed frame    | 18     | $18.90  | 0     | Blocked                |
| wooden garden bed frame    | 16     | $17.60  | 0     | Blocked                |
| garden bed frame kit       | 15     | $15.75  | 0     | Blocked                |
| metal garden bed frame     | 13     | $13.65  | 0     | Blocked                |
| cedar garden bed frame     | 12     | $12.60  | 0     | Blocked                |
| garden bed frame ideas     | 10     | $9.50   | 0     | Blocked                |
| raised planter bed frame   | 6      | $6.60   | 0     | Shows                  |
| vegetable bed frame        | 5      | $4.60   | 0     | Shows                  |

Every search Beds — Phrase bought in the last 30 days. Six hold garden: 84 clicks and $88 between them, and no conversion. None has cost $20, so none looks worth a negative alone. Leave out the costliest and the other five cost $69.10, more than the $57.28 this campaign’s search terms pay for a conversion ($744.70 ÷ 13).

Cedar & Pine sells bed frames for bedrooms, and its phrase keywords also matched people building a raised bed for a garden. It could be bad luck that none of them bought. The campaign’s other searches convert 2.9% of clicks (13 on 441), so 84 clicks would have brought about 2.5 sales, and these brought none. The [keyword guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-keyword-optimization) reads the keyword that bought them over 13 weeks.

So the negative is "garden", phrase match, on the campaign. The last column shows what it does. It blocks the six. It lets through two searches for the same thing said without the word, raised planter bed frame and vegetable bed frame, which need negatives of their own once there are enough of them to judge.

This campaign isn’t short of negatives. It carries a list, Not for sale, and four negatives of its own. None of them is garden, because a negative is written one unwanted search at a time, and nobody had read these six together.

## What a campaign with no negative keywords looks like

A campaign with no negative keywords shows your ads on every search its keywords match, and nothing turns one away. A Shopping campaign has no keywords to choose, so negative keywords are how you keep it off a search. To see whether a campaign has any, look in the three places a negative can reach it from:

1. Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords, select the campaign, and open the Negative search keywords tab. It’s where your negative keywords are listed, and a list applied to the campaign shows there too.
2. Check your lists under Tools › Shared library › Exclusion lists. A list that isn’t applied to the campaign does nothing for it.
3. Check the account level: the Negative keywords section of Admin › Account settings.

Empty in all three, and the campaign has none. Start with what it has already paid for: the searches that cost money in the last 30 days and converted nothing, then the words several of its small searches share, as above. Then add what you can name before it costs anything, as Google advises: the products near yours that you don’t sell.

## Negative keywords in Performance Max, Shopping, Display and Video

Performance Max takes campaign-level negative keywords, which you may see called PMax negative keywords. They apply to its Search and Shopping inventory only. To add them:

1. Go to Campaigns › Keywords and select the Negative keywords tab.
2. Select the plus button, then your Performance Max campaign.
3. Add keywords one per line, with symbols for the match type, or select a negative keyword list you already have. Select Save.

Google’s page on Performance Max negatives gives no limit of its own; its account limits page allows 10,000 negative keywords per campaign. Account-level negative keywords reach Performance Max too. Before you save, Preview impact estimates what up to 10 negatives at a time would cost the campaign in conversions or conversion value, as a percentage.

Google asks for a light hand here. Its guidance is to use negative keywords in Performance Max only for essential brand safety needs or to block completely irrelevant terms, and to keep the campaign off your own brand name with a brand exclusion, which also blocks common misspellings and variants. The [brand exclusion guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/brand-in-performance-max) covers setting one up, and the [Performance Max guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization) the campaign’s other reports and controls.

Shopping campaigns have no keywords and take negative keywords on the campaign or on one ad group, with the same match types. The [Shopping ads guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization#negative-keywords) covers them.

Display and Video campaigns are where Google says negative keywords work differently. Every negative there is broad match, and you can’t change it. At most 1,000 are considered. On Display a set of negatives is excluded as a topic, so a page about that subject is blocked even where the words aren’t on it, and your ad may still occasionally appear on pages containing them. To keep those campaigns off unrelated sites and videos, Google points to site category options and content exclusions first.

## What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it

Every day Goldbeater reads the last 30 days of clicked search terms in each enabled campaign and takes every run of one to three words in them. It raises a run that three or more searches hold where no search containing it converted in that campaign, in the 30 days or over the last year, and where those searches’ cost with the costliest left out is at least $20, or the same in your account’s currency, and at least what the campaign’s search terms pay for a conversion. It never raises a word that is inside one of your keywords, or in the title of a product the campaign paid for.

Three kinds of word are raised on less, two searches and $20 with the costliest left out: a word that usually marks a search for something other than a purchase, such as free or jobs; a word customers in your line of business rarely buy with; and a country or region the campaign doesn’t target, or a city in a campaign that runs in English alone. The first two count only where your account’s own searches with the word convert less than its others.

Then it works out how often that many clicks would bring no conversion at the rate the campaign’s other searches convert. Past 20%, it’s early to judge: the finding reads low, and the phrase negative is offered rather than recommended. At 20% or under, the phrase negative is the drafted change, and the money sets how serious the finding reads: medium, then high from $200 and critical from $2,000 where the chance is 5% or less, marks that rise on a larger account. The figure on it is what the searches cost.

Finding

Sample data

Medium Medium severity

$88 Wasted spend, last 30 days

Searches with "garden" have taken $88 and converted nothing

Beds — Phrase

What Goldbeater saw

None of the 6 search terms with "garden" converted on their 84 clicks in the last 30 days, which happens 8% of the time by chance where this campaign's other searches convert 2.9% of clicks.

- Search terms

  6

- Clicks

  84

- Cost

  $88

- Conv.

  0

- Cost / conv. of the campaign's search terms

  $57.28

- Conv. rate expected

  3%

- Chance its clicks bring none

  8.4%

Could it be luck?

| Clicks with no conversion | Chance by luck | Reads                                        |
| ------------------------- | -------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| 0 clicks                  | 100%           | Too early to judge                           |
| 15 clicks                 | 64%            | Too early to judge                           |
| 30 clicks                 | 41%            | Too early to judge                           |
| 45 clicks                 | 27%            | Too early to judge                           |
| 55 clicks                 | 20%            | The line: Goldbeater recommends the negative |
| 60 clicks                 | 17%            | Enough to judge                              |
| 75 clicks                 | 11%            | Enough to judge                              |
| 84 clicks                 | 8%             | Searches with "garden", now: enough to judge |
| 90 clicks                 | 7%             | Enough to judge                              |
| 105 clicks                | 5%             | Enough to judge                              |
| 120 clicks                | 3%             | Enough to judge                              |
| 135 clicks                | 2%             | Enough to judge                              |
| 150 clicks                | 1%             | Enough to judge                              |

Now: 84 clicks, no conversion 8% by luck · enough to judge

Searches with "garden", now Chance of no conversion by luck, where this campaign's other searches convert 2.9% of clicks Under 20%, Goldbeater recommends the negative It crossed the line at 55 clicks, where Goldbeater recommends the negative: at 84 clicks, luck alone brings no conversion 8% of the time.

|                         |    |        |
| ----------------------- | -- | ------ |
| raised garden bed frame | 18 | $18.90 |
| wooden garden bed frame | 16 | $17.60 |
| garden bed frame kit    | 15 | $15.75 |
| metal garden bed frame  | 13 | $13.65 |
| cedar garden bed frame  | 12 | $12.60 |
| garden bed frame ideas  | 10 | $9.50  |

Why it matters

A word that runs through many of a campaign's searches, or a country or region the campaign doesn't target, where none of the searches containing it converted, in the last 30 days or over the year. Words like free or jobs, and the words customers in your line of business rarely buy with, count on less evidence only where your own searches with them convert less than your others. Goldbeater reads your line of business from your keywords and ads, and you can change it in Settings. One search is often too small to judge, but the word they share is not, and one phrase-match negative stops all of them. Each is rated by how likely its searches' clicks were to bring nothing at the rate the campaign's other searches convert; while a few clicks could still explain it, the negative is offered rather than recommended. Its figure is spend some search-term findings also count, so a campaign's total counts it once.

What to do

Add "garden" to Beds — Phrase as a phrase-match negative keyword, so it stops paying for searches containing it. None of the 6 search terms here with "garden" converted in the last 30 days. It's the change below.

What would change

- Add a phrase-match negative keyword "garden" Campaign Beds — Phrase

It reaches your account when you approve it in the change set and press Apply. An applied change can be undone.

This is “Paying for words that never convert” on a sample account. Goldbeater runs it on yours every 24 hours, and your AI analyst answers what you ask about any finding.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look)

Sample data. Cedar & Pine Interiors is an invented account, and its figures are made up.

Those are the six searches in the table above, and its sums: $88 on 84 clicks, against $57.28 for a conversion. The finding adds what the table can’t, how often so many clicks bring nothing by chance. No search here has cost $20, so none is raised alone, and planter and vegetable are one search each, which is no evidence about a word.

Five more checks read where your negatives are, and what gets past them:

- A campaign with no negatives. Goldbeater raises an enabled Search or Standard Shopping campaign that bought searches in the last 30 days and has no negative keyword anywhere: none of its own, none on its ad groups, no list applied that holds one, and none at the account level. It drafts nothing itself: the finding lists the campaign’s searches that converted nothing, and points to the ones Goldbeater raised there as wasted searches, whose findings carry the drafted negatives. It reads medium where those drafted negatives would stop at least a ten-thousandth of the account’s 30-day spend, and low otherwise.
- A negative your similar campaigns keep. A negative keyword that most of your campaigns of one type keep as their own, missing from another whose name has every word their names share. Most is a majority a coin toss would give 5% of the time or less, such as seven of eight. It’s raised only where the negative would block none of that campaign’s keywords and no search that converted there in the last year, and nothing already in force covers it. Goldbeater drafts adding them. They’re recommended, and the finding reads medium from $20 of blocked searches, only where those searches’ clicks bringing no conversion is no more than a 20% chance; otherwise they’re offered and it reads low.
- A search people pass over. A clicked search on one of your Search keywords that is clicked at under half the rate of everything else the keyword showed on in 30 days, where so few clicks is unlikely by Fisher’s exact test after correcting for every search tested, 5% overall. It reads low. It isn’t raised where the search converted there in the last year, recorded a sale or a lead, is one of the campaign’s keywords, names your brand, is already blocked, or has cost $20. Goldbeater offers an exact negative and never recommends it, and only where every keyword of the campaign that showed on the search is passed over on it; otherwise it names the ad group to add the negative to.
- A paused keyword’s search, still bought. A search that is one of a Search campaign’s paused exact keywords, respaced or reordered, and that the campaign’s other keywords bought in the last 30 days. Not where the campaign still bids on the words in any match type, a negative blocks the search, or it has cost $20 with no conversion. It reads low. Goldbeater offers an exact negative where the search converted nothing in 30 days or a year, and never recommends it, since a pause can be for a season. Where the search converts, it says the choice: enable the keyword again, or block the search and give those conversions up.
- Brand searches in the wrong campaign. A generic Search campaign, one with no keyword naming your brand, that spent $20 or more in 30 days on searches naming it that no brand campaign bought. Goldbeater drafts applying your own negative keyword list of the brand where it keeps all of them out, and otherwise the brand terms as phrase negatives, recommended where a brand campaign serving the same places and languages bids on each. And the reverse: a brand campaign that spent $20 or more on searches naming no brand term, matched as broad or with no keyword, has them drafted as exact negatives, recommended where none of them converted. Either reads high from $200. A brand campaign is one named Brand, and the brand terms are the ones in the account’s Settings.

A single search that cost money and converted nothing, and a negative that blocks one of your own keywords, are the [wasted search terms guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms)’s. A list missing from a campaign, and negatives copied onto several by hand, are the [negative keyword lists guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/negative-keyword-lists)’s. The [audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist) has every other line Goldbeater reads.

## Questions

- What are negative keywords in Google Ads?

  A negative keyword is a word or phrase that stops your ads showing on searches containing it. Add free as a negative keyword and your ad isn’t shown on any search containing free. You can keep one on an ad group, on a campaign, in a list several campaigns share, or at the account level.

- What is an example of a negative keyword?

  Google’s example is an optometrist who sells eyeglasses and adds wine glasses and drinking glasses as negatives. In this guide’s sample account, a store that sells bed frames adds garden, the word six searches for garden bed frames have in common.

- Do negative keywords block plurals and misspellings?

  Plurals, no. Negative keywords don’t match close variants, so the negative flowers blocks red flowers and not red flower: add the singular, the plural and each synonym you want kept out. Misspellings are different. Google’s help says negative keywords account for casing and misspellings automatically.

- What’s the difference between campaign-level and ad group-level negative keywords?

  Where they apply. A negative on a campaign applies to the whole campaign, and one on an ad group to that ad group alone. A negative keyword list is applied to campaigns, and account-level negative keywords apply to all your search and shopping inventory.

- How many negative keywords can I add in Google Ads?

  Google’s limits are 10,000 negative keywords per campaign, 5,000 in a negative keyword list with 20 lists in an account, and 1,000 at the account level. For Display and Video campaigns, at most 1,000 negative keywords are considered.

- Can I add negative keywords to a Performance Max campaign?

  Yes. Performance Max takes negative keywords on the campaign, a negative keyword list, and the account-level ones, and they apply to its Search and Shopping inventory only. Google’s guidance is to use them for brand safety or completely irrelevant terms, and a brand exclusion for your own brand name.

- Can a negative keyword stop my own keywords?

  Yes. Google’s help says to make sure your negative keywords don’t overlap with your regular keywords, because that causes your ad not to show. Check a broad or phrase negative against the campaign’s keywords before you save it.

How Goldbeater checks this

## These checks run every day, and whenever you ask.

Each finding shows its evidence, an estimate of what it costs a month where it costs money, and, where a setting fixes it, a change drafted for you to approve.

A check is code that runs the same way every time, so a new finding means your account changed. Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on what the checks find, and your AI analyst answers any question about your account.

Checks A finding is worth

- Paying for words that never convert Fixing it lowers the Wasted spend
- A Search or Shopping campaign with no negative keywords Fixing it lowers the Risk
- Negative keywords your similar campaigns keep, missing from one Fixing it raises the Cleanliness
- A search people pass your ad over on far more than its keyword's others Your call
- A paused exact keyword's search your campaign still buys Fixing it raises the Cleanliness
- Brand and generic searches bought by the wrong campaigns Spend that would move

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) [Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

No card for the first look. [See every check](https://goldbeater.ai/checks).

Google's own pages

## Where the manual method comes from.

1. [About negative keywords (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453972?hl=en)
2. [Negative keyword: Definition (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/105671?hl=en)
3. [About keyword matching options (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7478529?hl=en)
4. [Keyword close variants: Definition (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9342105?hl=en)
5. [About the search terms report (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708?hl=en)
6. [Get negative keyword ideas using the search terms report (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7102466?hl=en)
7. [Add negative keywords to campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7102995?hl=en)
8. [Use negative keywords for a Shopping campaign (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6275313?hl=en)
9. [Manage a Shopping campaign with ad groups (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6275304?hl=en)
10. [Edit, remove, or download negative keywords (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7102298?hl=en)
11. [About account-level negative keywords (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11396330?hl=en)
12. [About your Google Ads account limits (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6372658?hl=en)
13. [About negative keyword lists (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453983?hl=en)
14. [Set up and apply negative keyword lists to campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7449003?hl=en)
15. [Fix issues with negative keywords (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9701952?hl=en)
16. [Negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/15726455?hl=en)
17. [About negative keywords (Search targeting & controls for Performance Max) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16668865?hl=en)
18. [About brand exclusions (Search targeting & controls for Performance Max) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16669487?hl=en)
19. [Estimate the impact of adding negative keywords to your Performance Max campaign (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16973204?hl=en)

More guides

## Other things worth checking by hand.

- [How do I audit a Google Ads account? Work through 163 checks, area by area, conversions first.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [Where do UTM parameters go in Google Ads? In the final URL suffix, not the tracking template.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/tracking-templates)
- [How do I set up Google Ads alerts? Know the day a campaign stops, overspends or loses traffic.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-alerts)
- [How do I set up location targeting in Google Ads? Pick Presence or interest, and see where clicks came from.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-location-targeting)

[All 54 guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

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Product

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- [What we find](https://goldbeater.ai/checks)
- [The dashboard](https://goldbeater.ai/#dashboard)
- [PPC monitoring](https://goldbeater.ai/ppc-monitoring)
- [Budget pacing](https://goldbeater.ai/budget-pacing)
- [Google Ads automation](https://goldbeater.ai/google-ads-automation)
- [AI analyst](https://goldbeater.ai/ai-analyst)
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- [Pricing](https://goldbeater.ai/pricing)
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Guides

- [Google Ads audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [Google Ads wasted spend](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms)
- [Google Ads MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mcp)
- [Broad match keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-broad-match)
- [Google search partners](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-search-partners)
- [Common Google Ads mistakes](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mistakes)
- [All guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

Goldbeater vs

- [Opteo](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-opteo)
- [Optmyzr](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-optmyzr)
- [Google's recommendations](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-google-recommendations)
- [Ryze AI and groas](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ryze-ai)
- [A PPC agency](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ppc-agency)
- [Adalysis](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-adalysis)
- [TrueClicks](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-trueclicks)
- [AI tools for Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/ai-tools-for-google-ads)
- [All comparisons](https://goldbeater.ai/compare)

Company

- [About Goldbeater](https://goldbeater.ai/company)
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