Many businesses rush into Adwords without fully understanding what is required to maximise their return be it for a direct response campaign or simply to promote their brand.
Easily overlooked are "Negative Keywords" which when used correctly can provide substantial boosts in ad position and at the same time reduce the campaigns cost per click (CPC). So what exactly are negative keywords.
Negative keywords are words or phrases that are used so that your ad is prevented from appearing when a user searches for or uses that negative keyword in a search query. Your ad will not appear when a negative keyword that you have identified and included as a negative keyword is used in a users search.
Now you might be thinking "well how does that work" and "what does that mean".
Lets say you sell books, but only books about automobiles. You have all makes and models so there is a huge selection. From your keyword research you have identified common search terms based on the various makes and models of vehicles.
You also notice that there are large volumes of searches for vehicles but many of those include specific automotive terms, like: gearbox, windscreen, brakes, engines, clothing etc. An search query example would be: 'Honda Accord gearbox replacement'. Your ad is being triggered due to the keywords Honda Accord, because that is one of the book make and model that you stock.
However, you don't sell gearboxes so the negative keyword 'gearbox' should be included in your negative keyword list along with other irrelevant negative keywords. You only sell books so you don't want your ads appearing for terms like: automotive parts, dealerships, clothing etc. I'm sure you get the idea now.
The effect of using negative keywords is that it will reduce your impression metrics, because some of those searches were simply not relevant anyway. Thats a good thing. It will increase your click through rate, because your keywords are now much more tightly focused and relevant. The flow on effect is that the click through rate will improve your Quality Score and help to lower the cost per click and improve you ad position.
To include a negative keyword, add a minus sign (-) before the keyword or phrase you want to exclude.
For example, for the broad matched keyword Honda Accord and negative keyword -gearbox your ad will not appear for the search query 'Honda Accord gearbox' but will appear for 'Honda Accord'.
If your campaign is focused on conversion goals then this is a must have.
For more Google Adwords info
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