A Guide to Negative Keywords for Google Shopping Ads

What are Google Shopping negative keywords?

Negative keywords are a tool that prevents your ads from appearing in front of people who search for content related to those specific terms. You can choose to create negative keywords at the campaign level or at the ad group level.

For example, if you sell high-end luxury watches, then add relevant negative keywords such as “cheap” or “affordable” to ensure that your ads do not appear when someone searches for cheap watches.

Why adding negative keywords is necessary

Google Shopping does not rely on traditional keywords. It analyzes product titles and descriptions to determine which keywords a product is related to. However, this approach may result in irrelevant keywords being triggered, which can increase the cost of your ads. In addition, if your ads appear but are not clicked, Google may reduce their display frequency.

Find the details of negative keywords in Google Shopping ads

Universal negative keywords
Some keywords are irrelevant to your products and apply to most advertisers. For example, in an online retail store, you can consider using campaign-level negative keywords,
such as:
Cheap
Trial
Voucher
Review
Free
Discount
Find the search term report
This report provides you with a list of terms that users searched for, as well as data metrics such as the number of impressions triggered by these terms, the number of times users clicked on ads, and the number of actual purchase conversions. With this report, you can determine which terms are actually not helping you increase sales or are not a good match for your products.

How to view the search term report:
Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Navigate to the “Insights & Reports” section in the left column and click “Search terms” in the page menu. You will see all the information for the search terms. You can change the data metrics of the search term report by clicking the column icon.
To save the data, click the three dots icon and select “Download”.

Find underperforming search terms

When you examine the terms that users search for, look for keywords that may be less relevant to your product or perform poorly.

For example, some terms may cost a lot but not generate sales, or appear a lot but no one clicks. If a term is not generating revenue for you, you want to consider adding it to your negative keyword list.

Create a negative keyword list

Step 1: Once you have compiled your negative keyword list in advance, click on the tool image at the top of the Google Ads screen. Then, select “Negative keyword list” from the “Shared library” section.

Step 2: Now, click on the blue plus sign, give your new list a name, and then enter your pre-sorted list of negative terms (make sure to use the correct matching method).

Step 3: If you want to add negatives to an existing campaign, first go to that campaign, go to the Keywords section, then to Negative Keywords.

Step 4: Select “Use negative keyword list”, then select the list and click Save.

FAQ Why can’t I add negative keywords to my Google Shopping campaign?

If you can’t add negative keywords to your Google Shopping campaign:
Check that you have the necessary editing permissions.
If your Google Ads account is suspended or restricted, you may not be able to make negative keyword changes.
Sometimes technical glitches may occur, so try refreshing your browser.

Is there a limit to the number of negative keywords that can be used in Shopping ads?
Each list can contain up to 5,000 negative keywords, and you can create up to 20 different lists in your account and use them in multiple campaigns at the same time.