Negative keywords for Google Ads: match types, levels and Performance Max

Negative keywords for Google Ads tell Google not to show your ad when a search contains a given word or phrase. You add them at the ad group, campaign, shared list or account level, choose a negative match type (broad, phrase or exact), and since 2025 you can add them directly to Performance Max campaigns too. This guide covers how negative matching works, where to add negatives, what Performance Max supports today, and a starter list for B2B accounts.

How do negative keyword match types work?

Negative match types behave differently from positive keywords. The most important difference: negative keywords do not match close variants or other expansions. Excluding the broad match negative flowers does not block “red flower”. Add singular and plural forms and synonyms yourself.

Negative match type	Syntax	Blocks the ad when the search…	Negative `running shoes` blocks	Does not block
Negative broad (default)	`running shoes`	contains all the words, in any order	“blue running shoes”, “shoes for running”	“running shoe”, “running socks”
Negative phrase	`"running shoes"`	contains the words in that order, extra words allowed	“red running shoes”	“shoes for running”
Negative exact	`[running shoes]`	is exactly those words in that order, nothing extra	“running shoes”	“running shoes sale”

Two edge cases from Google’s documentation:

If a search is longer than 16 words, a negative that appears only after the 16th word may not block it.
In Display and Video campaigns, negatives work differently: Google treats a set of negatives as an excluded topic rather than exact word matches, so pages on that topic can be excluded even without the words, and excluded terms may occasionally still appear where your ad runs.

Which negative match type should you use?

Negative exact for one specific bad query you saw in the search terms report, when other searches containing the same words are fine.
Negative phrase for a bad multi-word modifier, such as "open source" when you only sell a commercial product.
Negative broad for a single word that is off-intent in any context, such as jobs or salary.

The broader the negative, the more future searches it removes, including good ones you have not seen yet. Start narrow.

Where can you add negative keywords in Google Ads?

Level	Applies to	Limit	Use it for
Ad group	One Search ad group	Counts toward account targeting limits	Steering queries between ad groups (sculpting)
Campaign	One campaign, including Performance Max	10,000 per campaign	Campaign-specific exclusions
Shared negative keyword list	Every campaign the list is applied to	20 lists per account, 5,000 keywords each	Reusable themes: jobs, education, competitors
Account level	All eligible Search and Shopping inventory in Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns	1,000 per account	Terms you never want anywhere: brand-unsafe words, “free”, “jobs”

Limits come from Google’s account limits and negative keyword help pages and can change, so check them before building a very large list.

How to add negative keywords in Google Ads

Campaign or ad group level

In the Campaigns menu, open Keywords, then the Negative keywords tab.
Click the plus button.
Choose whether to add to a campaign or an ad group, and select it.
Enter the negatives one per line, using the match type syntax from the table above.
Optionally tick the option to save them to a new or existing negative keyword list.
Save.

Shared negative keyword list

Create the list from Campaigns > Keywords > Negative keywords: click the plus button, pick a campaign, paste the keywords, and save them to a new list. Name it by theme (for example “Neg - jobs and careers”).
To apply it to more campaigns, open the Tools menu, go to Exclusion lists, select the Negative keyword lists tab, tick the list and choose Apply to campaigns.
For a single campaign, use its Negative keywords tab and choose an existing negative keyword list.

Shared lists are the right default. When you find a new bad theme, one edit fixes every campaign.

Account level

Open Admin > Account settings.
Expand Negative keywords.
Add up to 1,000 keywords, one per line, with the match type you want.
Save.

Account-level negatives apply automatically to Search and Shopping inventory across Search, Performance Max, App, Shopping, Smart and Local campaigns. They do not cover Display or YouTube placements; for those, use excluded content keywords in the content suitability settings, which apply to campaigns running on YouTube or the Display Network.

In bulk

Google Ads Editor lets you paste hundreds of negatives with campaign and ad group columns, which is faster than the web interface for clean-ups.

Can you add negative keywords to Performance Max?

Yes. The state as of October 2026:

Account-level negatives apply to Performance Max Search and Shopping inventory. This was the first route available.
Campaign-level negative keywords for Performance Max rolled out to all advertisers in early 2025. The initial cap was 100 per campaign; in March 2025 Google raised it to 10,000 per campaign, the same as Search.
Negative keyword lists can be applied to Performance Max campaigns. Google announced campaign-level negative keyword lists for Performance Max in August 2025.
Brand exclusions remain a separate Performance Max setting for blocking brand queries, applied through brand lists.

How to add negative keywords to Performance Max

In the Campaigns menu, go to Keywords, then the Negative keywords tab.
Click the plus button and select your Performance Max campaign.
Enter keywords one per line, or select an existing negative keyword list.
Save.

Google also offers an estimate tool to preview the reach impact of specific negatives on a Performance Max campaign before you apply them.

What Performance Max negatives do not do

They only block Search and Shopping inventory. Google is explicit: “Performance Max negative keywords are applicable to Search and Shopping inventory only.” To keep a theme off YouTube and Display, add excluded content keywords too.
They are campaign-level, not asset group-level. You cannot steer queries between asset groups with negatives the way you can between Search ad groups.
They do not fix overlap with Search by themselves. Exact match Search keywords already win identical queries; see Performance Max vs Search for the full precedence rules.

Starter negative keyword list for B2B

Use this as a starting point, not a paste-and-forget list. Remove anything that describes your buyer. A training company must not negative course; an open source vendor must not negative open source.

Theme	Negatives (broad unless shown)	Why
Jobs and careers	jobs, job, careers, career, hiring, salary, salaries, internship, resume, “job description”, glassdoor, indeed	Job seekers, not buyers
Education	course, courses, tutorial, tutorials, certification, “for beginners”, udemy, coursera, pdf, “lecture notes”	Learners and students
Free and DIY	free, “free download”, crack, torrent, template	Low purchase intent (keep `template` if you sell templates)
Definitions	“what is”, meaning, definition, wikipedia, example, examples	Research intent; keep if you run top-of-funnel content
Existing customer support	login, “log in”, “sign in”, support, “customer service”, “phone number”, “cancel subscription”	Existing users of your or competitor products
Consumer	cheap, “for home”, “for kids”, “for students”, personal	Wrong segment for enterprise B2B
Community	reddit, quora, forum, youtube	Research behavior, rarely converts on search ads
Locations you do not serve	country or city names outside your market	Cheaper than relying on location settings alone
Competitors	each competitor brand you choose not to bid on	Keep them out of non-competitor campaigns

Put each theme in its own shared list so you can apply or remove themes per campaign. Add the plural and singular forms you see in your search terms report, since negatives ignore close variants.

How do you avoid negative keyword mistakes?

Check for conflicts. A negative that matches one of your own keywords stops that keyword from serving. Google flags many conflicts, but review your lists after any big change.
Do not negate converting terms on clicks alone. In long sales cycles, a term with no conversions after a week may still produce pipeline. Use a window that covers your conversion lag.
Do not over-use account-level negatives. They hit every eligible campaign. Keep them for words that are wrong everywhere.
Revisit lists quarterly. Products, markets and competitors change; old negatives can quietly block new demand.
Remember Display and YouTube. Search negatives do nothing for placements; use content exclusions there.

Where negatives fit in a review routine

Negatives come out of the search terms report, and they are only as good as how often you read it. GTM Hacker’s paid ads reviews check search terms in a weekly review of each tracked campaign and propose negative keywords as changes for a person to approve; low-risk additions can be set to auto-approve per campaign, and spend-affecting changes always wait for you. For a quick self-check of the whole account, use the free Google Ads audit.