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How to add keywords that won't trigger my ads (Negative keywords)

Negative keywords are specific words or phrases that help prevent your ad from showing to customers who are unlikely to click your ad. They help filter out irrelevant traffic and, in turn, help increase click-through rate (CTR), ad position, and cost per click (CPC).

Use negative keywords to help prevent your ad from appearing in response to certain search queries or other input. You can add negative keywords at the campaign and ad group level, or create a shared negative keyword list to use across campaigns. Each negative keyword can contain up to 100 characters. Learn more in this article about negative keywords.

To add negative keywords at the campaign or ad group levelexpando image
  1. From the main menu on the far left, click All campaigns.
  2. From the page menu, click Keywords.
  3. Click Negative Keywords.
  4. Click Campaign or Ad group.
  5. Click Add negative keywords.
  6. Select the appropriate campaign or ad group, then add your negative keywords as appropriate.
  1. Click Campaigns located at the top of the page.
  2. Click the Keywords tab.
  3. Select View: Negative keywords.
  4. Click Campaign or Ad group.
  5. Click Add negative keywords.
  6. Select the appropriate campaign or ad group, then add your negative keywords as appropriate.
Notes
  • When adding negative keywords using the above directions do not use a hyphen ( - ) to indicate that the keyword is negative. You can use brackets ( [] ) to indicate exact match negative keywords and quotation marks ( "" ) to indicate phrase match negative keywords.
  • If a campaign has multiple ad groups with different language settings, Microsoft Advertising adds the negative keywords only to ad groups that have the same language setting as the account.
To add search terms as negative keywordsexpando image
  1. From the main menu on the far left, click All campaigns.
  2. From the page menu, click Keywords.
  3. Click Search Terms.
  4. In the table of search terms, select the box of one or more search terms and then click Add as negative keywords.
  1. Click Campaigns located at the top of the page.
  2. Click the Keywords tab.
  3. Under the tabs, select Search terms.
  4. In the table of search terms, select the box of one or more search terms and then click Add as negative keywords.
To edit or delete negative keywords at the campaign or ad group levelexpando image
  1. From the main menu on the far left, click All campaigns.
  2. From the page menu, click Keywords.
  3. Click Negative Keywords.
  4. Click Campaign or Ad group.
  5. Select the row or rows you want to edit or delete.
  6. From the table toolbar, click Edit.
  7. Click Delete or Edit selected rows. If editing, make your changes and click Save.
  1. Click Campaigns located at the top of the page.
  2. Click the Keywords tab.
  3. Select View: Negative keywords.
  4. Click Campaign or Ad group.
  5. Select the row or rows you want to edit or delete.
  6. Click Edit.
  7. Click Delete or Edit selected rows. If editing, make your changes and click Save.
Note

When you edit negative keywords in bulk, Microsoft Advertising uses the account language setting.

To use a shared negative keyword listexpando image

First you must create a negative keyword list and add your negative keywords. After this is done, you can add the list to one or more campaigns.

Step 1: Create a negative keyword listexpando image
  1. Click Shared Library in the left navigation pane and click Create or edit your negative keyword lists (or from the global menu at the top of the page, click Tools > Shared Library > Negative keyword lists).
  2. Click Create negative keyword list.
  3. Give your list a name, and enter your negative keywords, one per line. You can enter up to 500 negative keywords per list.
  4. Click Save.
Step 2: Add a negative keyword list to one or more campaignsexpando image
  1. Click Shared Library in the left navigation pane and then click Campaign negative keywords in the left navigation pane (or from the global menu at the top of the page, click Tools > Shared Library > Negative keyword lists).
  2. Select the checkbox next to the list you want to add to one or more campaigns.
  3. Click Add to campaigns.
  4. Click the arrow button (>>) next to the campaigns that you want to associate with this negative keyword list.
  5. Click Save.
To edit or delete a shared negative keyword listexpando image
  1. Click Shared Library in the left navigation pane and then click Create or edit your negative keyword lists (or from the global menu at the top of the page, click Tools > Shared Library > Negative keyword lists).
  2. Click Create or edit your negative keyword lists.
  3. To delete the list, select the checkbox next to the list you want delete, click Edit, then click Delete.
  4. To edit the list, click the list name, then add or delete additional negative keywords as needed.
To remove a shared negative keyword list from a campaignexpando image
  1. Click Shared Library in the left navigation pane and then click Create or edit your negative keyword lists (or from the global menu at the top of the page, click Tools > Shared Library > Negative keyword lists).
  2. Click Create or edit your negative keyword lists.
  3. Click the list name, then add or delete additional negative keywords as needed.
  4. Select the checkbox next to the campaign you want to disassociate with this list.
  5. Click Remove.

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