Negative Keywords for Contractors: Exclude Carefully, Review Regularly

A negative keyword list should reflect what your business offers and what each campaign is intended to achieve. Copying a universal list can exclude relevant demand as well as unwanted searches. Begin with actual search-term evidence and a clear definition of a qualified inquiry.

Review the available search terms

The search terms report provides information about searches that triggered ads. It does not expose every query: Google omits some low-activity searches for privacy. Search terms insights can aggregate those queries without revealing the individual wording.

Choose a reporting period that makes sense for your campaign and conversion delay. Review spend, impressions, clicks, recorded conversions, and lead quality together. A search with no conversion in a small sample is not proof that it can never produce a customer. Record why an exclusion fits the business before applying it.

Check candidate exclusions against real offers

Consider these hypothetical examples as review prompts, not an upload-ready list:

• Employment: A service campaign may exclude a specific technician-job query. Check whether the account also runs recruitment campaigns before making the exclusion account-wide.
• Education: A query about an exam-preparation course may be outside scope. A broad exclusion for “school” could also affect a contractor seeking school maintenance work.
• Price: Do not automatically exclude “free” if the business offers free estimates. Assess discount and financing queries against actual offers.
• Parts: “Buy” can appear in a search for a new system with installation. Separate parts-only demand from equipment-and-service demand.
• Research: “How to choose a plumber” expresses a different need from a repair tutorial. Do not treat all “how to” searches as identical.
• Service scope: Exclude an unavailable service at the appropriate campaign scope, after checking whether another campaign offers it.

Choose the negative match type deliberately

Negative matching rules differ from positive keyword matching. In Search, negative broad match blocks a query containing all the specified terms in any order. Negative phrase match requires those terms in order, with additional words allowed. Negative exact match blocks those terms in order without extra words.

For example, the negative exact keyword [plumber jobs] does not by itself exclude “plumber jobs near me.” Choose the intended coverage rather than assuming every match type has the same effect.

Google says negatives do not expand to synonyms or singular/plural forms; add those separately when appropriate. Its current guidance says casing and misspellings are handled automatically. Display and Video exclusions work differently, so do not apply Search matching assumptions to every campaign type.

Separate account exclusions from shared campaign lists

Account-level negative keywords are managed under Admin, Account settings, Negative keywords. They apply automatically to eligible search and shopping inventory in relevant campaigns. Reserve them for exclusions appropriate across that scope.

A shared campaign negative keyword list applies to the campaigns attached to it. Updating that list updates those linked campaigns. Creating a shared list does not make it an automatic account-wide exclusion.

Keep a change record and review the result

1. Save the candidate query, business reason, intended scope, and match type.
2. Check the proposed exclusion against valuable searches and active offers.
3. Apply the narrowest scope that accomplishes the intended exclusion.
4. Record the date and review delivery, qualified inquiries, and relevant search coverage afterward.
5. Revisit exclusions when services, offers, or campaign objectives change.

A weekly review can be a useful starting routine; adjust it to spend and activity. Do not promise a fixed savings percentage or attribute every performance change to the exclusions. The objective is to reduce demonstrably irrelevant demand while protecting searches the business wants to serve.