Image: Scott Webb on Unsplash
Google announced this week that account-level negative keywords were now being rolled out globally. The feature was first announced last year and has been in testing for some months.
Advertisers can use negative keywords to prevent their ads appearing for irrelevant terms or alongside unsuitable content. Having the account-level feature means you will be able to create a single account-level list and have the negative keywords applied across all Search and Shopping campaigns and the Search and Shopping portion of Performance Max for brand safety.
Source: Twitter
It will be a time-saver for advertisers running multiple campaigns, as it removes the need to add negative keywords separately to each individual campaign. Any changes made will be applied across all relevant campaigns.
“When you create your account-level list of negative keywords, it will automatically apply to all search and shopping inventory in relevant campaign types. These include all search and shopping inventory in Search, Performance Max, Shopping, Smart Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns.”
Excluding terms through the use of negative keywords helps your ads reach the most relevant audience, that is people interested in your products and services, and so can result in better conversion rates.
Google gives the following example:
“You own a sporting goods store and you sell workout clothes. In this case, you can create a list of negative keywords for query intent that includes terms such as 'dress trousers' or 'blouses'.”
Negative keywords can help save on ad spend by stopping your ads from showing to irrelevant audiences who aren’t interested in your offering. It also gives advertisers more control over where their ads appear.
See Google’s announcement for more details about managing account-level negative keywords.
