Negative Keyword Cleanup
Stop your budget leaking into searches that never buy.
Broad and phrase match keywords pull in queries you never chose, and even exact match now matches close variants. We turn what we find into negatives placed at the level where they actually block the waste.
- No contracts, ever
- $0 setup fee
- 30-day guarantee, pay only if satisfied
What we set up
Negatives placed where they actually stop the leak.
Ad group and campaign level negatives
The most specific, obvious mismatches get blocked right at the ad group so they never touch that group again, while broader off topic terms get blocked once at the campaign level. This two-tier approach keeps a fix in one ad group from accidentally blocking a term that is genuinely relevant somewhere else in the same campaign.
A shared negative list for account-wide junk
Terms like job seekers, free, or DIY searches that have nothing to do with what you sell get added to a shared negative keyword list, so every current and future campaign inherits the block automatically.
Match type chosen deliberately
Broad match negative blocks any query containing all the words in any order, phrase match negative blocks that word order specifically, and exact match negative blocks just that query and its close variants. We pick the type that fits each term.
A Performance Max check
Negative keyword support inside Performance Max has changed over time and is limited compared to Search, so we check what your account currently allows there rather than assuming it works the same way as a Search campaign.
How this job is scoped
Access we need
We need edit level access to the account itself, since pulling the search terms history and adding negatives directly is faster than routing every single change through someone else first.
What gets delivered
Negative keywords added at the level we agreed on, a shared negative list built or updated, and a short note listing what got blocked and why, so it is reviewable later.
The acceptance test
We pull the search terms report again after a wait long enough for new data to build, and show the specific queries we blocked no longer triggering spend against your ads.
What is out of scope
This job adds exclusions based on what has already shown up. Ongoing weekly monitoring of new search terms as they appear is covered separately under a search terms audit engagement. We also never remove an existing negative without checking with you first, since a term that looked irrelevant once can turn into a real customer later.
How the cleanup runs
01
Pull and review the search terms
We pull the search terms report across a wide enough window to see real patterns, not one noisy day, and sort what is clearly off target from what is a borderline call.
02
You see the list before we add anything
Anything ambiguous, a term that might occasionally be a real customer, gets flagged to you rather than silently blocked, so we do not cut off a legitimate lead by mistake.
03
Add and confirm
Negatives go in at the agreed level, and we check back after enough new data has come in to confirm the blocked terms have actually stopped appearing against your spend.
Negative keyword cleanup FAQ
Broad and phrase match are built to find related searches, not just your exact keyword, and they will occasionally reach further than intended. Even exact match now includes close variants like plural forms or minor misspellings, which widens things a little further.
It should cut traffic that was never going to convert, which is the point. Total spend usually drops or shifts toward the queries that were already performing, since the budget stops being split with the mismatched clicks.
Yes, it is a standard feature in the account. The work here is going through the actual search terms carefully and picking the right match type and level, which is easy to get wrong in a hurry.
Not exactly the same as Search. Performance Max has had more limited negative keyword controls, and Google has changed how that works over time, so we check what your account currently supports before relying on it.
Cost depends on how much search term history is worth a real review. Whether you send account access or export the report yourself, we work from whatever you can share. The cleanup takes shape as a proposal, and it typically lands within a business day, at no cost to you.
Find out what your budget is actually paying for.
Send account access or a recent search terms export, whichever is easier on your end. We will sort through it and map out exactly what should be excluded and where. The cleanup plan typically comes back in one business day, and there is no fee attached to reading it.