Negative keyword lists — how granular are you actually going?

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ShadowROI

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I've been building out shared negative keyword lists across accounts for years and I'm starting to wonder if I'm overdoing it or underdoing it.

Current setup: one master list of obvious garbage (free, jobs, salary, DIY, etc.), then category-specific lists by niche. Applied at campaign level mostly.

The problem I keep running into, adding too many negatives tanks volume, especially now that Google's match types are so loose. But being too lenient and you're paying for irrelevant clicks all day.

How do you structure your negative keyword strategy? Do you have a standard list you use across all accounts or build fresh for each client? How often are you actually reviewing search term reports and adding negatives?

Also, anyone using scripts to automate negative keyword additions? Curious what triggers you set. I've looked at a few but worried about auto-adding something that accidentally blocks legit traffic.
 
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Master list for obvious garbage, client specific lists built weekly from search term reports, and never fully automate negatives without a converting terms whitelist.
 
from my experience, too many negatives can kill volume. i add cautiously and mostly use broad match negatives for obvious junk only.
 
My negative keyword lists are much smaller than they were a few years ago.
With broader matching behavior, I've found that over-filtering can hurt performance just as much as under-filtering.
I still review search terms regularly, but I'm more selective about additions.
 
I usually start with the obvious negatives and then keep adding more based on search term data. It helps cut out irrelevant clicks while still bringing in quality traffic.
 
Automating it isn't a good idea because some negative keywords can directly affect your main keywords and reduce your traffic. I recommend paying as much attention to negative keywords as you do to your main keywords.
 
We actually built a positive keyword list before and used a script to clean out the massive amount of garbage search terms daily, but we ended up turning it off because it required more energy than it was worth. To be fair, this situation is a bit nuanced for us because our main competitor is one of the biggest click-fraud scammers in our region.
 
i keep a basic global list for junk but build niche ones fresh for each client, automated scripts usually mess up traffic so i prefer manual weekly reviews.
 
Honestly I build fresh lists for every client based on their specific niche and never trust automation scripts because they block legitimate traffic too easily.
 
Focus on your main keyword rather than negative keywords. Match types are a topic many people overlook, but they're known to consume 90% of your budget.
 
I keep a small master negative list for obvious junk terms, then build niche specific negatives from real search terms. I still check reports weekly, auto scripts can help but I dont let them add negatives without manual review.
 
I use a shared list for obvious exclusions like jobs, free, and support queries. Everything else gets added based on the client's actual search behavior.
 
master list is fine but do weekly search terms review manually bro, scripts are risky coz close variants can block your actual buyer keywords.
 
i usually stick to a solid master list for trash traffic and then check search terms weekly manually, scripts are too risky now with google's loose close variants imo.
 
Campaign-level lists are basic. You need Ad Group level intent sculpting.

Your master list approach is fine for filtering out broke traffic (free, DIY, etc.), but relying on campaign-level negatives means you are completely ignoring internal cannibalization.

The biggest waste of money with Google's current loose match types isn't just irrelevant traffic; it is the wrong ad group capturing the traffic because the intent overlapped.
 
I review search terms regularly, but I try not to add negatives too quickly. Sometimes a keyword looks bad at first and ends up converting later.
 
I keep a light master negative list for obvious junk, then build niche-specific negatives per account and mainly add more from search term reports weekly, because going too granular upfront usually kills volume more than it helps.
 
the ad group cannibalization point above is underrated, ive seen it cost more than irrelevant clicks ever did

concrete example, ran two ad groups for a client, one for "[service] pricing" and one for "[service] cost", broad match overlap meant google kept routing both queries into whichever ad group had the higher bid, not the more relevant one. ctr looked fine in reports so nobody noticed for months. the way i catch this now is pulling the search terms report and grouping by which ad group actually served each term, if the same term keeps bouncing between ad groups thats your signal, not the search term itself
 
We used to have massive negative lists across accounts but honestly started seeing volume issues. Now I keep a core list for obvious junk terms and then add niche-specific negatives as data comes in. Search term reviews are usually weekly on active campaigns. I wouldnt trust fully automated negative additions either, one bad rule can block profitable traffic and you might not notice for weeks.
 
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