PPC Negative Keywords

Google PPC is a great way to generate instant traffic to your landing page.

Too many rookie AdWords advertisers fail to understand the importance of "Negative keywords".

Negative keywords are words and phrases where if appearing as part of the user's search query, will get your ad excluded from the search results.

Why is this important?

Imagine you are promoting "blue widgets". Your goal is to target users who are actively searching to "buy blue widgets".

Without negative keywords, anyone looking for "free blue widgets", "blue widgets manual", "blue widgets replacement" will see your ad, click on it, end up costing you money but probably not convert to a paying customer.

Google's keyword tool includes a tab to help you find negative keywords. But don't stop there.

I would urge you take the time to develop your own list of negative keywords and continue adding to this list on a regular basis, based on the search queries that don't convert.

Remember the keywords you buy on Google don't tell the whole story.

Always consult your analytics software to see what users are really searching for when they land on your site.

To get you started, here's a seed list of negative keywords we use with new PPC accounts. Review this list and make sure nothing here takes away from your target audience.