Negative Keyword Formatter
Paste the irrelevant search terms you want to block and get a clean, deduplicated negative keyword list — wrapped in the match type you choose and ready to paste into Google Ads or Editor.
Negatives are where wasted spend goes to die
Every account that runs phrase or broad match is, whether the owner realises it or not, matching searches no one ever intended to target. Someone searching "free spreadsheet template" triggers the ad for paid software; "marketing jobs" triggers the ad for a marketing tool. Without negatives, you pay for every one of those clicks, and they almost never convert. A disciplined negative list is the single highest-leverage habit in paid search: spend ten minutes a week in your search terms report, flag the queries that should never have matched, and add them here as negatives. The compounding effect over a quarter is often the difference between a profitable account and one that quietly bleeds budget.
Match type matters as much on negatives as positives
It's tempting to add every negative as broad match to block as much as possible, but that's how advertisers accidentally suppress traffic they wanted. Negative broad blocks any search containing all your words, so a careless negative can knock out a converting query that happens to share a word. Use negative phrase and exact for surgical blocks where you only want to exclude a specific term or wording, and reserve negative broad for words that are unambiguously bad in any context, like "free" or "torrent." One more quirk worth remembering: negative keywords don't match close variants, so if you block "job" you may still need to add "jobs" separately.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a negative keyword?
A negative keyword stops your ad from showing on searches that contain that word or phrase. If you sell premium software, adding 'free' as a negative prevents you paying for clicks from people looking for a free version. Negatives are how you carve away the searches you never want to match.
Do negative keywords use match types?
Yes, but they behave a little differently from positive keywords. Negative broad blocks searches containing all the words in any order; negative phrase blocks searches containing the exact phrase; negative exact blocks only the exact term. Negative match types also don't match close variants like plurals or misspellings, so you may need to add those explicitly.
Where do I find terms to add as negatives?
Your search terms report is the gold mine. Review it regularly and flag any query that triggered your ad but is irrelevant or won't convert — competitor names, 'jobs', 'free', 'cheap', the wrong product. Paste those flagged terms here, choose a match type, and drop the cleaned list straight into a campaign or shared negative list.