Negative Keywords: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices

Negative Keyword Tips, Tricks, & Best Practices
August 25, 2010
Tom Demers
Director of Marketing

Agenda
Why Negative Keywords?
What are negative keywords?
How do you use them within your AdWords account?
Five Steps to Building a Killer Negative Keyword List
Q and A

Why Negative Keywords?
Within your AdWords account, you are likely wasting money without even knowing it; effective use of negatives will allow you to:
Cut Costs
Improve Quality Score (Cut Soft Costs by Eliminating Impressions)
Improve Your Overall AdWords ROI

What Are Negative Keywords?
Negative keywords are terms you don’t want your ads to show for.

Why Do you Need Negative Keywords?
The Keyword “Used Bar Equipment” on Various Matching Types
(Learn about the new Modified Broad Match Option: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2010/08/18/modified-broad-match)
Intended Keyword –Possible Opportunity (Could Be Good or Bad) –Irrelevant Query

How Do You Use Negative Keywords?
Step One: Go to Campaigns -> Keywords & Select an Ad Group

Step Two: Scroll Down & Add Keywords (to designate a keyword as negative, use the minus sign, as below).

Step Three: Scroll to the bottom of the keyword tab and review your negatives at the Ad Group & Campaign levels:

Negative Keyword Levers:
Where in Your Account
Ad Group (All Keywords Inherit Negative)
Campaign (All Ad Groups Inherit Negative)
Negative Keyword Match Types
Exact Match Negative -[negative keyword] – Just the exact phrase (negative keyword, but not keyword negative or keyword or negative)
Phrase Match Negative -“negative keyword” – Just the term negative keyword with modifiers (negative keyword tool but not keyword negative or keyword or negative)
Broad Match (Standard) Negative –negative keyword – Will exclude any term that includes both negative and keyword but not synonyms, plurals, or the single terms

Five Steps to a Killer Negative Keyword List
Proactive Negative Keyword Research
Use Your Keyword Research as NEGATIVE Keyword Research
Find Keywords Related to Your Negatives
Consult General Negative Keyword Lists
Mine Your Own Data
4. Look at organic (SEO) search query data
5. Look at pay-per click search query reports
BONUS TIP: Garbage begets garbage

Step 1 - Keyword Suggestions = Negative Keyword Suggestions

Step 1 - Keyword Suggestions = Negative Keyword Suggestions
Negative keyword research means using multiple sources too!

Step 2 – Related Negative Keyword Research
Run a Search for Your Negative Keyword Candidates:

Think that’s too far removed from your original keyword? (http://blog.ppcproz.com/2009/01/adwords-broad-keywords-bloopers.html)

Get Ideas of What Google Thinks is Related with the Wonder Wheel (More Search Tools > Wonder Wheel):

Get a list of negative keyword suggestions from our free tool…

The tool then offers related negative keyword suggestions…

Step 3 – Consult General Negative Keyword Lists
Some General Negative Keyword Lists Can Give You Some Great Negative Keyword Ideas:
http://www.komarketingassociates.com/blog/200-plus-negative-keywords-to-consider-for-b2b-ppc/
http://www.engineready.com/sem-resources/sem-newsletter/a-free-resource-to-negative-nirvana.php
http://www.wordstream.com/negative-keywords/

Step 4: Mine Your Organic Search Traffic
Pull a report for traffic sources > Keywords > Non Paid

Next, set up an advanced filter:
Metrics > visits > less than or equal to 1:
(Quick Tip: Add an additional filter to exclude keyword: “)

Sort by time on site:

Schedule the report to get new ideas weekly!

Step 5: Mine Your PPC Search Query Data
Negative Keyword Research Through Query Mining

Really want to see something scary?

Look at your data all time, sort by cost, and look for zeros/low numbers in the conversion column:

BONUS TIP: Garbage Begets Garbage
Think about keywords and queries in terms of “negative keyword associations” (tokenizing):
tiki bar (this is obviously irrelevant: set as negative)
tikithatch bar (this phrase is already a negative because of tiki, maybe thatch is OK)
thatch umbrella (ach! I should have set it as a negative when I saw it with tiki!)
Find terms that appear frequently with irrelevant terms.

Conclusion: Be Both Proactive & Reactive
Be Proactive: Cut Waste BEFORE it Happens!
Constantly Mine Your Own Data! How People React to Your Content, Your AdWords Account, Your Product or Service is Your Most Valuable Information!

Negative Keyword Resources
Negative Keyword White Paper: http://www.wordstream.com/negative-keyword-white-paper
Free Negative Keyword Tool: http://www.wordstream.com/negative-keywords/
WordStream for PPC Free Trial: http://www.wordstream.com/ppc-free-trial

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Negative Keywords: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices

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Negative Keywords: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices — Presentation Transcript