Negative keywords explained: exact vs phrase, and why the wrong choice blocks real customers

Negative keywords are the cheapest improvement available in Google Ads, and also the easiest way to do real damage to an account in under a minute. Both facts come from the same place: they are permissions being taken away, and how widely you take them away depends entirely on the match type.

What a negative keyword actually does

A negative keyword tells Google not to show your ad when someone searches a particular thing. There is no bid, no cost and no partial effect, the ad simply does not enter the auction.

You can add them at account level, campaign level or ad group level. Campaign level is usually the right home: it is specific enough to be reviewable later, and broad enough to be useful.

The three negative match types

Exact match negatives

Written in square brackets, an exact negative blocks only that exact search. Adding [cleaning jobs] stops "cleaning jobs" and nothing else, "cleaning jobs norwich" still gets through. That sounds weak. It is actually the point: it is precise, predictable and safe.

Phrase match negatives

Written in quotation marks, a phrase negative blocks every search containing those words in that order. "cleaning jobs" blocks "cleaning jobs near me", "part time cleaning jobs norwich" and anything else with that sequence in it.

Broad match negatives

Written with no punctuation, these block searches containing all of the words in any order. Powerful, and the least predictable of the three.

A simple rule that avoids nearly all of it

1. 1Default to exact match negatives. They only ever do what they say.
2. 2Only use a phrase negative when the words themselves are wrong for your business in every possible context, words like jobs, salary, free, DIY, tutorial, or a service you genuinely do not offer.
3. 3Before adding a phrase negative, search your own search terms report for that phrase and read what it would have blocked over the last 90 days. If any of it converted, don't add it.
4. 4Never phrase-negative a word that appears in your own keywords. That check alone prevents the classic disaster.

Where to add them

Account-level negative lists are convenient for the universal stuff, jobs, salary, free, and any service you don't offer at all. Campaign-level negatives are right for anything that depends on context, such as one campaign for repairs and another for installation where each wants to exclude the other's terms.

Ad group level is for fine sculpting between closely related ad groups. Use it sparingly, because negatives scattered across dozens of ad groups become very hard to audit a year later.

Reviewing what you've already blocked

If you've inherited an account, the negative lists are worth an hour of your time. Look for phrase and broad negatives containing words that appear in your live keywords, anything blocked years ago for a service you now offer, and lists copied between accounts that never fitted this one.

AdKing treats this as a safety rule rather than a preference: recommended negatives are added as exact match, the wording is checked against your live keywords and against searches that have converted, and anything protective is withheld rather than shown as an option. If a pushed change ever comes back from Google wider than the one that was approved, it is reversed automatically.