In brief: A negative keyword prevents an ad from appearing for selected terms or their variants, depending on the match type. It helps limit irrelevant traffic and protect the budget.
How I use Negative keywords in practice
I do not assess a Negative keyword in isolation based on platform performance. I check the continuity between the message, landing page, form and what happens to the contact next. I start with a small test of different arguments, not dozens of cosmetic variations of the same ad.
What to watch out for
The channel changes more quickly than the principle of decision-making. With Negative keywords, I therefore do not build a process around one trick or the exact interface of a tool. More important are ownership of the data, quality of the message, exclusion of unsuitable audiences and the ability to verify the result.
Questions for decision-making
- Whom do we want to reach, and whom do we want to exclude?
- Which hypothesis about the offer or message are we testing?
- What happens after the first response, and who owns that step?
- Are we measuring customer quality, or only activity in the channel?