Google Ads negative keywords are the searches you tell Google never to show your ads for. In a B2B account they decide whether your budget reaches buyers or pays for job seekers, students and people hunting for a free version of what you sell.
The catch is that negative keywords follow different matching rules from the keywords you bid on, and the most common way people add them, ticking rows in the search terms report, quietly applies the narrowest match type there is.
This guide is for growth leads who already run Search and keep finding “jobs”, “salary” and “course” in their reports. You will leave with how negatives actually match, a starter list by theme with the match type for each, where to apply it, and a weekly routine. Every platform fact below comes from Google Ads Help, read on 28 October 2026.
The short version
- Negatives do not match close variants. “job” and “jobs” are two negatives, not one.
- Negatives added from the search terms report go in as exact match by default, which blocks one search and nothing around it.
- Build the list by theme (employment, education, free, research), mostly in phrase match, and share it across campaigns.
- Review search terms weekly, and check every new negative against the keywords you actually bid on.
Table of Contents
How Google Ads negative keywords actually match
Positive keywords are loose by design. Broad match, the default, can show your ad on searches that are only related to your keyword, including ones that do not contain its direct meaning, according to Google’s guide to keyword matching options. And every match type can match close variants, with no way to opt out. That looseness is where most irrelevant B2B spend comes from.
Negatives went the other way. Google states that negative keywords will not match close variants or other expansions (About negative keywords). They are far more literal than the keywords they protect, and every rule below follows from that.
Negative broad, phrase and exact match
Google defines three negative keyword match types for Search campaigns, written the same way as positive ones: no symbol for broad, quotation marks for phrase, square brackets for exact. Here is how each treats a B2B example. The rules are Google’s; the payroll example is ours.
| Negative keyword | Search: payroll jobs | Search: payroll jobs nairobi | Search: jobs in payroll | Search: payroll job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| payroll jobs (broad) | Blocked | Blocked | Blocked | Ad can show |
| “payroll jobs” (phrase) | Blocked | Blocked | Ad can show | Ad can show |
| [payroll jobs] (exact) | Blocked | Ad can show | Ad can show | Ad can show |
- Negative broad match blocks a search that contains all of your terms, in any order. It is the default for negatives.
- Negative phrase match blocks a search that contains your terms in the same order, with other words before or after.
- Negative exact match blocks only that exact search, in that order, with nothing added.
SOURCE · Google Ads Help, “About negative keywords”.
support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453972 — checked 28 October 2026.
No close variants, so you supply them
The last column is the one that costs money. “payroll job” gets past every version of the negative, because to a negative the singular is a different word. Google’s advice is explicit: add synonyms and singular or plural versions yourself. It does handle casing and misspellings for you.
One edge case rarely matters in B2B but is worth knowing: if a search runs past 16 words and your negative sits after the 16th, the ad can still show.
The overlap trap
A negative can switch off your own keyword. Google warns that negatives must not overlap with your regular keywords, or your ad will not show (Add negative keywords to campaigns). A shared “free” negative in an account that bids on “free trial payroll software” does exactly that. Check every new negative against your keyword list before it goes live.
A negative keywords list for B2B: the starter themes
Most B2B leakage falls into a handful of themes, and they repeat across software categories. Google’s own advice is to organize lists by theme (About negative keyword lists). Here is a starting negative keywords list built that way. Treat every term as a candidate to check against your own keywords, not a list to paste in blind.
| Theme | Example terms | Match type | Where to apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment | jobs, job, careers, career, salary, salaries, hiring, vacancy, vacancies, internship, resume, interview questions | Phrase | Shared list on every Search campaign |
| Education and certification | course, courses, certification, tutorial, degree, exam, syllabus, training | Phrase | Shared list, minus “training” if you sell onboarding or training |
| Free and DIY | free, template, templates, open source, download, crack | Phrase | Campaign level, so a trial campaign can keep “free” |
| Definitions and research | what is, meaning, definition, examples, pdf | Phrase | Bottom-funnel campaigns only |
| Wrong-size buyer | personal, for students, home, freelancer | Phrase | Campaign level |
| Support and login | login, sign in, customer service, phone number | Phrase | Competitor-name campaigns |
Why phrase match does most of the work
This is our judgment, not Google’s: phrase is the right default for these themes. For a single word such as jobs or free, broad and phrase behave the same: either one blocks any search containing the word. The difference shows on two-word negatives: negative phrase match on “open source” blocks only that pair in that order, while broad would also block a search like “source of truth for open banking”. Use broad when two words signal the wrong intent in either order. Keep exact for the rare search you want gone while keeping its longer versions.
Support and login searches on competitor campaigns
If you bid on competitor names, a share of those clicks are the competitor’s own customers looking for a login page or a phone number. Negatives for those terms keep the campaign on people comparing alternatives. The trademark and policy side of bidding on a rival’s name is a separate question, covered in our piece on bidding on competitor brand names.
A Kenyan example: a payments company that does not lend
Regulated fintechs have a second reason to keep a tight list: searches for a product they do not offer. Picture a Kenyan payments company that is not a lender, running broad match on payment terms. Searches such as “loan app”, “instant loan” or the Swahili “mkopo” can reach it, cost a click each, and land a borrower on a page that cannot help them.
Illustrative negatives for that account: loan, loans, mkopo, borrow, “credit limit”, “loan app”. This is an illustration, not data from any real account. Whether a product may be advertised at all is a policy question rather than a negatives question; for what Google and Meta allow, see Digital Lenders in Kenya: What Google and Meta Allow.
Adding negative keywords: ad group, campaign, shared list or account
Where you are adding negative keywords decides how far they reach. Google offers four levels:
| Level | What it covers | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Ad group | One ad group | Stopping two of your own ad groups competing for the same search |
| Campaign | One campaign | Terms that are wrong for one campaign but fine for another, such as “free” outside a trial campaign |
| Shared negative keyword list | Every campaign you apply it to | Themes that are wrong everywhere: employment, education |
| Account level | Search and Shopping inventory across the account | A short list of terms no ad should ever show for |
The limits, as Google states them on 28 October 2026:
- Shared lists: up to 20 per account, with up to 5,000 negatives in each. One list can be applied to up to 1,000 campaigns at a time (Add negative keywords to campaigns).
- Account-level negative keywords: one list of up to 1,000, applied automatically to Search and Shopping inventory in Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns (About account-level negative keywords).
- Display and Video: every negative is treated as broad, a maximum of 1,000 is considered, and they are less precise than on Search.
For most B2B accounts the working setup is one shared employment-and-education list on every Search campaign, campaign-level negatives for the exceptions, and a short account-level list for terms no ad should ever trigger. It is also the starting structure behind the approach on our SaaS PPC service page.
Performance Max negative keywords
Performance Max takes negatives too, at campaign level or through the account-level list. Performance Max negative keywords apply to Search and Shopping inventory only (Negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns). For YouTube and Display inventory, account settings carry a separate list of excluded content keywords.
A weekly routine for Google Ads negative keywords
The search terms report is where the list grows. It shows the real searches that triggered your ads; turn on the Keyword column to see which of your keywords matched each one, and read the Match type column to see how loosely (About the search terms report). Two things about it change how you use it.
- It never shows everything. Google leaves out search terms without enough query activity, for privacy reasons. You will never see every job-seeker search, which is why themes beat one-off rows.
- Adding from the report defaults to exact match. Tick a search, choose Add as negative keyword, and Google adds it as negative exact unless you change the symbols (Get negative keyword ideas using the search terms report). That blocks “payroll software jobs” and lets “payroll software jobs nairobi” straight through.
The routine
- Once a week, open Search terms for the last seven days, sorted by cost.
- For each irrelevant search, find the word that makes it irrelevant: “jobs”, not the whole search.
- Add that word as a phrase negative at the right level: the shared list if it is wrong everywhere, the campaign if not.
- Add its singular, plural and obvious synonyms yourself.
- Check it does not overlap a keyword you bid on.
- Once a month, scan your lists for negatives that now block searches you want.
Do not overdo it. Google’s own Help page warns that too many negatives can mean your ads reach fewer customers. If you bid on pipeline stages rather than form fills, judge a search by whether it ever becomes a qualified lead, not by whether it looks odd. Our guide to Google Ads for SaaS covers feeding those stages back through offline conversion tracking.
FAQ: Google Ads negative keywords
What are negative keywords?
Negative keywords are terms you add to an ad group, campaign, shared list or account so your ads do not show on searches that contain them. Google describes them as a way to exclude search terms and focus on the keywords that matter to your customers.
Do negative keywords match close variants?
No. Google states that negatives will not match close variants or other expansions, so you add plurals, singulars and synonyms yourself. Casing and misspellings are handled automatically.
How many negative keywords can I add?
Up to 20 shared lists per account with up to 5,000 negatives in each, plus one account-level list of up to 1,000. For Display and Video campaigns a maximum of 1,000 is considered. These are Google’s figures as checked on 28 October 2026.
Can you add negative keywords to Performance Max?
Yes, at campaign level or through the account-level list. Performance Max negative keywords apply to Search and Shopping inventory only, not to YouTube or Display placements.
Should I use broad or phrase match negatives?
For single words, broad and phrase behave the same. For two-word themes, phrase is the safer default: it blocks the pair in the order written, where broad also blocks searches that contain both words anywhere. Use broad when two words signal the wrong intent in either order, and exact only for one search you want gone while keeping its longer versions.
Google Ads negative keywords: what to do next
Open your search terms report for the last 30 days, sort by cost, and add up what went to employment, education and free searches. That number is the case for a shared list, and the themes above are its first draft. Google Ads negative keywords need the weekly routine after the first cleanup, or the list goes stale.
If you want a second pair of eyes, the paid account and compliance review in our Acquisition Audit sits alongside SEO and tracking, and every Audit is quoted to scope after a short fit call. To see what a cleaner account could buy, run your numbers through the Google Ads cost calculator.
