If you are running an AdWords keyword campaign, using keyword types other than exact match and you’re not using negative keywords, you need to read this. If you are familiar with negative keywords you might find this blog post useful because I will explain how to identify new negative keywords that you never thought of.
What are negative keywords? They are your means of filtering out unwanted searches and impressions. For example, if you offer email software which is not free, you could setup a negative keyword -free so that anyone searching for free email software would not see your ads.
Why should you use negative keywords? The above example is an obvious reason why negative keywords are a good idea. It is also true that you could clearly state in your ads that your software is not free, however that does not stop anyone from clicking on your ads. This is why it is best to filter out any searches that you definitely find irrelevant to your campaign.
So how do you find negative keywords? While you are performing your initial keyword research, you should also have negative keywords on your mind. As you find keywords that fit your campaign, keep an eye out for keywords that do not fit, and consider adding them as negative keywords. For example, if you were doing keyword research for email software, you might run across keywords like email software for mac or email software for osx. If your software does not run on a mac, you would possibly want to add -mac and -osx as negative keywords.
Advanced negative keyword searching: Don’t think that the search for negative keywords is over. You need to always be on the lookout for negative keywords. Here are some great methods for finding new negative keywords:
1) AdWords search query report:
You can find this report under the Reports section of your AdWords account. A search query report will show you the keyword searches that are triggering your ads. If you have never seen this report before, don’t be alarmed. You will notice that many keywords that you’re currently not bidding on are in fact triggering the display of your ads. This is because you are either using phrase or broad match terms in your campaigns. This is why you need to constantly be on the lookout for new negative keywords.
You and Google have a similar agenda here. You each want more clicks. Yet you want more clicks because you want targeted traffic, while Google want more clicks because, well you know why. Google call their approach expanded broad match. Taking our example of the email software, you might bid on the term email software and not on the term email client software or windows email software. Expanded broad match will help identify those additional terms that might be useful.
Keep in mind that expanded broad match does not necessarily mean more. It could mean less. Google might go from your keyword email software to just email or just software. This is why, it is important to always be on the lookout for negative keywords. You could use these negative keywords -[email] or -[software] which will stop your ads from displaying for those specific searches.
2) Your raw web logs:
As you may have noticed, the AdWords search query report is useful but seems to leave out some data. This can be seen by the rows which say “other unique queries”. If you want to see what all those other unique queries are, have a look at your raw web logs. With many web log analysis tools you can setup filters to show you traffic having a particular URL parameter. Every AdWords ad in my campaigns use some form of URL tracking. For example, ?source=adwords This way I can group all that traffic in one report so that I can extract the keywords that are actually being searched on. This method is by far the most accurate form of negative keyword research that is available. You will be amazed at the traffic that Google actually sends you. Don’t just think negative keywords. This approach can be useful for finding new keywords that you are not currently bidding on.
3) The AdWords keyword tool:
You can find this under the Tools section of your AdWords account. Just enter your words or phrases into the search box and click on the Get keyword ideas button. Then once Google return some results, choose “Negative” from the drop-down menu under the match type column.
4) Google suggests:
This tool has been around for a long time but was recently made available to everyone on the home page of Google. Just start typing your keyword into Google and you should see a list of potential searches. Are some of those keywords relevant or irrelevant? You know what to do.
