How to Generate Negative Keywords?

Negative keywords help PPC campaigns avoid irrelevant searches, reduce wasted spend, and improve lead quality. In this blog, you will learn how to generate negative keywords, where to find them, and how to use them without accidentally blocking useful traffic.

Start With Your Search Terms Report

The best place to generate negative keywords is your search terms report. This shows the real searches people used before seeing or clicking your ads.

Look for terms that show poor intent. These might include searches for jobs, free resources, templates, courses, definitions, DIY help, unrelated locations, or products and services you do not offer.

This report is useful because it is based on real campaign data. Instead of guessing what to exclude, you can see exactly where your budget is being wasted and make better decisions from there.

Use Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools can help you find negative keywords before your campaigns go live. Tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and other PPC platforms can show related searches around your target terms.

When reviewing keyword ideas, look for both opportunities and exclusions. For example, if you offer paid marketing services, searches including “free”, “training”, “salary”, or “jobs” may not match your goals.

This step helps prevent obvious waste early. It is much better to block irrelevant themes before launch than pay to discover them later.

Review Your Sales and Enquiry Data

Your own sales data can reveal strong negative keyword ideas. If your team keeps receiving poor-fit enquiries, look for patterns in what those people ask for.

For example, they may be outside your service area, looking for a cheaper option, asking for services you do not provide, or searching for employment rather than buying support. Those patterns can become negative in your campaigns.

This is where PPC becomes more connected to the real business. You are not just filtering searches. You are improving the quality of enquiries that reach your team.

Analyse Your Website and Offer

You can also generate negative keywords by looking closely at what your business does and does not offer. Make a list of services, products, locations, prices, audiences, and use cases that are not relevant.

For example, if you only offer professional services, you may want to exclude “DIY”, “tutorial”, or “course”. If you only serve certain locations, you may want to exclude areas outside your service range.

This helps prevent mismatched traffic. The clearer you are about what you do not want, the easier it is to focus your budget on searches that matter.

Check Competitor and Industry Searches

Competitor and industry research can also help you find exclusions. Search around your main keywords and look at related searches, autocomplete suggestions, and common modifiers.

Some searches may look relevant at first but attract the wrong audience. For example, someone searching for “PPC jobs” or “SEO course” is not looking to hire a marketing agency.

These terms can become useful negative keywords if they appear often or waste budget. The aim is not to block every informational search, but to remove the ones that clearly do not support your campaign goal.

Group and Prioritise Your List

Once you have a list, organise it properly. Group exclusions by theme, such as jobs, free resources, education, unrelated products, wrong locations, low intent, or competitor terms.

Not every term needs to be added immediately. Prioritise the ones most likely to waste budget or bring poor-quality leads.

Also choose the right match type. Broad match exclusions can block more traffic, while phrase and exact match give more control. Be careful with broad terms, as they can accidentally block useful searches.

Keep Updating the List

Generating negative keywords is not a one-time task. Search behaviour changes, campaigns evolve, and new irrelevant terms appear over time.

Review search terms regularly, especially after launching new campaigns or using broader keyword match types. Add new exclusions when you see clear patterns of wasted spend or poor lead quality.

The goal is balance. You want to reduce irrelevant traffic without narrowing your campaigns so much that good prospects never see your ads.

Make Your PPC Campaigns Cleaner

Learning how to generate negative keywords helps make PPC campaigns more focused, efficient, and commercially useful. Search term reports, keyword tools, sales data, website analysis, and industry research can all reveal what to exclude.

In the end, negative keywords help protect your budget and improve the quality of traffic reaching your website. Explore more from Seek Marketing Partners or get in touch if you want help building smarter paid campaigns that waste less spend and attract better-fit leads.