A lot of companies are dubious of using Google AdWords as there is a misconception that it is very expensive; the truth is if your AdWords account is managed correctly, it will be very lucrative in terms of conversion from clicks to sales. One of the best tools available to aid in the management of your AdWords account is the introduction of Negative Keywords.
The main reason why AdWords accounts can be expensive is that your advert is appearing for unrelated searches and therefore being clicked on, which costs you money, only to find that your website does not contain the desired information and the user going back to the original search results. An example of this is a website selling gold jewellery. As a result, your advert will appear for the search terms ‘what is gold?’, which is not relevant to the information on your website and may cause costly clicks.
The Negative Keyword tool on Google Adwords will allow you to highlight those terms which you do not want to be shown for. This means that the searches that your advert appears for will be relevant to the content and purpose of our site, resulting in a higher conversion rate of clicks to sales.
Working out the types of keywords and search terms that are negative for your specific site is unfortunately a process of trial and error. At the beginning of any campaign, there will be wasted clicks until you have enough data to compare and realise what your negative keywords are. This is why it is important that your AdWords account is monitored and managed effectively.
To get you started however, we have compiled a list of common negative keywords that you may wish to consider for your AdWords account. For example, the majority of ecommerce websites will consider any search term beginning with ‘history of’ to be negative and will not want to be shown for this. E.g. the jewellery shop mentioned previously would not want to be shown for ‘history of gold’.
Common Negative Keywords
about
association
associations
bargain
book
books
burn
burner
career
careers
case studies
case study
cd
cheap
class
classes
clearance
close out
close outs
closeout
closeouts
code
college
colleges
community
course
courses
craigslist
definition
desktop
developer
developers
diagram
discount
discounted
disk
download
downloads
dvd
ebay
education
employment
error
example
examples
facebook
file
files
forum
free
free
freeware
game
game
games
gnu
guide
guides
hack
hacks
hiring
history
home
homemade
inexpensive
intern
interns
internship
internships
job
jobs
journal
journals
libraries
library
liquidation
lyrics
magazine
magazines
map
maps
metrics
microsoft
news
odd lots
open source
overstock
public domain
recruiter
recruiting
remainder
remainders
research
resume
resumes
retail
retailer
retailers
review
reviews
salaries
salary
sample
samples
school
schools
shareware
shortcut
shortcuts
statistics
stats
success stories
success story
template
templates
tip
tips
training
tutorial
tutorials
universities
university
video
what are
what is
white paper
white papers
windows
This is a relatively extensive list and not all of the terms will be relevant to your specific site, but it provides a brilliant starting point. Using some of these negative keywords from the outset will save you money as you will not show for them, therefore will not cost you with non-relevant clicks.
Remember that if you want to appear in search results organically (FREE) then you need SEO.
If you need any further advice or AdWords management, contact us today.
