• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. Digital Marketing
        3. Paid Search Marketing
        4. Adwords negative keywords / keyword lists conflicting?

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        Adwords negative keywords / keyword lists conflicting?

        Paid Search Marketing
        4
        7
        3109
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • hellemans
          hellemans last edited by

          Does any of you had any experience on large 5k+ shared negative keyword lists impacting normal campaign negative keywords in Adwords even if they are not selected on these campaigns?

          And a second question; does anyone know how selected negative keyword lists can be removed from a campaign? I seem to be able to add them but not to remove them...

          Cheers!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • hellemans
            hellemans last edited by

            Thanks for all responses.

            Here is an official Google reply on negative keyword types:

            Negative exact would only not show when the exact term is the entire query. Negative phrase would not show anytime the term showed anywhere in the query in that order. Negative would not show anytime the entire term showed anywhere in the search query in any order.

            Say you had the keyword "blue mercedes car" on broad match. Here's how the different versions of the negative keyword "fast blue" would affect this ad.

            1. -fast blue (Negative)
              POSSIBLE SEARCHES:
              blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
              blue fast mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOW
              mercedes fast car - WOULD SHOW
              car blue mercedes fast - WOULD NOT SHOW
              fast blue - WOULD NOT SHOW
              blue fast - WOULD NOT SHOW
              fast blue mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOW

            2. -"fast blue" (Negative Phrase)
              POSSIBLE SEARCHES:
              blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
              blue fast mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
              mercedes fast car - WOULD SHOW
              car blue mercedes fast - WOULD SHOW
              fast blue - WOULD NOT SHOW
              blue fast - WOULD SHOW
              fast blue mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOW

            3. -[fast blue] (Negative Exact)
              POSSIBLE SEARCHES:
              blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
              blue fast mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
              mercedes fast car - WOULD SHOW
              car blue mercedes fast - WOULD SHOW
              fast blue - WOULD NOT SHOW
              blue fast - WOULD SHOW
              fast blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOW

            Note that we do not expand to synonyms, singular or plural, and other variations as in the case of expanded broad match. So, the negative keyword "Air" wouldn't block the term "Airbnb" since it is one word, but would block the phrase "Air Mattress" because it contains the word "Air".

            I hope this helps 😉

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • JasmineA
              JasmineA last edited by

              I'm not familiar with any way that a shared library will be able to affect campaigns that it's not assigned to.

              To remove them from campaigns, click on the name of the negative KW list, then scroll to the bottom and remove the campaigns you don't want. It's a little hidden from the normal way but it will still work! 🙂

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • sachin-sv
                sachin-sv last edited by

                Remember the following points while adding the negative keywords in your campaigns :

                • Negative broad keywords won’t match on synonyms or similar words like they can for regular keywords.
                • Negative keywords, even on broad match, won’t match on close variations or plurals.
                • For single-word negative keywords, there is no difference between broad and phrase match.
                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • Ray-pp
                  Ray-pp last edited by

                  The broad match may not necessarily cover the phrase match. With negative keywords, synonyms and plural versions of the keyword can still show up when a user searches with the term.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • hellemans
                    hellemans last edited by

                    I agree, but wouldn't it make sense if you have a broad match negative keyword on a campaign level and the same on a shared list bus as a negative phrase match. The broad match would have covered the phrase match...

                    What are the thoughts on that?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • Ray-pp
                      Ray-pp last edited by

                      Hi hellemans,

                      Make sure that your shared negative keyword list is not conflicting with your campaign level negative keyword list at the shared library level.

                      You can add a list of negative keywords at the campaign level or through the Shared Library - the SL is where your conflict may be happening.

                      To remove a negative keyword from your campaign, you'll need to manage it at the campaign level.

                      Campaign > Keyword > Scroll to the bottom of the campaign > Add/Remove negative keywords at the ad group/campaign level

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • 1 / 1
                      • First post
                        Last post

                      Browse Questions

                      Explore more categories

                      • Moz Tools

                        Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                      • SEO Tactics

                        Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                      • Community

                        Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                      • Digital Marketing

                        Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                      • Research & Trends

                        Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                      • Support

                        Connect on product support and feature requests.

                      • See all categories

                      Related Questions

                      • Vallerinspects

                        Keyword & negative keyword overlap

                        negitive keywords google paid ads

                        So I just read your blog on quality score and after reading the negative keyword section I'm a little confused and I need clarification. In that paragraph you mentioned about not overlapping your negative keywords with your active keywords and you used an example of dog food and dog bed. So my question is, if you put the word dog bed into the negative keyword list isn't the word dog the over lap word? Would you ad not show because the word dog is in the active keyword list?

                        Paid Search Marketing | | Vallerinspects
                        0
                      • DmitriiK

                        Special Characters in Negative Keywords in Ads

                        Howdy, fellow mozzers, I came across this weird suggestion in my Bing account (screenshot link: https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/tt/NDY3OTc5NF8xNDgyMzY4OA) It almost that the dollar sign in the negative keyword is acting like a wildcard character, or being disregarded completely. I did some tests, it seems that in Google Ads that is not happening. Does anyone have an idea if this is normal behavior? I have never seen this before.

                        Paid Search Marketing | | DmitriiK
                        0
                      • ahirai

                        Will pausing my AdWords PPC campaigns impact my organic rankings?

                        Over 95% of my revenue comes from organic search; less than 5% comes from AdWords PPC (all other sources account for about 1-2%). My ROI on AdWords is roughly zero. It's negative if you include opportunity costs. My question is: if I pause all of my AdWords campaigns, is there ANY chance that my organic rankings (and organic click-through rates) will suffer? This is really two questions. First, could Google retaliate to my reduced ad spending by dropping my rankings? Second, will searchers think differently about my organic link if they don't also see the accompanying paid link on the SERP?

                        Paid Search Marketing | | ahirai
                        2
                      • EvansHunt

                        Google URL Builder / Campaign Tracking on two Different Domain using the Same Analytics Code

                        Hey Everyone, I think I know the answer to this but I'd like to get some confirmation. I currently have a landing page at "www.xyz.com", it's a separate domain in which only the landing page exists and not a vanity URL which redirects. However, the navigation and all the links on  "www.xyz.com" actually link out to "www.abc.com". The domain / landing page  "xyz" has the same analytics tracking code as domain "www.abc.com". My question is this, if I use Google URL builder to create custom URL's to track for each ad that I'm running in Adwords, will this data show up in the analytics of "abc" even though it's a separate domain because it has the same analytics code? In other words, does campaign data show only if the domain and the google analytics code line up, or does the domain not matter and as long as you have the same analytics code (despite two separate domains) that campaign data (built through Google URL builder) will show? My hunch and best guess it that as long as the analytics code is the same (regardless of a separate domain) that the data in campaign will show with the custom URL's I build. I'm aware that I can test this and I will but I'd like to get an idea from the community first to make things easier. Anybody have experience with this? Answers greatly appreciated! Thanks!

                        Paid Search Marketing | | EvansHunt
                        0
                      • DoMiSoL

                        AdWords quality score of landing pages and subdomains popularity

                        Hello, I have an AdWords account whose landing pages point to (i.e.) http://www.domain.com/landing01.php I've  been using this account for ages, it has a good score and history, so I want to keep it. The first question is: may I use landing pages on different subdomains within the same AdWords account (and in the same root domain)? I.E. (http://cheese.domain.com/landing01.php and http://wine.domain.com/landing02.php) 2nd question: the www subdomain has good subdomain metrics (authority /trust and, generally, links) while the "cheese" subdomain has not (no backlinks at all). Do I get any benefit in Adwords (like quality score or other) if I publish my landing pages under a subdomain with better subdomain metrics (or number of links)? Or should I just go with http://cheese.domain.com even it has no authority at all? Thank you, DoMiSoL Rossini

                        Paid Search Marketing | | DoMiSoL
                        0
                      • Instabill

                        How Can I Target Certain Countries in Google AdWords without Excluding Other Countries?

                        So, here is the situation: Our company works with merchants worldwide (with the exception of those who live in excluded high-risk countries--mostly in Africa), but most of our Google AdWords leads come from Indian merchants. My CEO wants our campaigns to convert leads from other countries (i.e., the UK, Germany, US, Canada, Australia, etc.), but I have no idea how to do that without excluding India. However, my CEO does not want to exclude India from our AdWords campaigns as the leads are profitable. We simply want more diversity with out leads in terms of geographic location. I am sure there are resources on the Web about how to do this, but I am not an Adwords expert and am unsure of what phrases to search to find the answers. Direct advice or helpful links are much appreciated. Regards,
                        Meghan

                        Paid Search Marketing | | Instabill
                        0
                      • YESdesign

                        What is a good CTR for a Google AdWords Remarketing banner campaign?

                        Hello there, given that in the banners we offer a promotion with "some bonus if you sign up", what is from your experience a good CTR for a Google AdWords Remarketing banner campaign? Many thanks to everyone that answers. YESdesign

                        Paid Search Marketing | | YESdesign
                        0
                      • klkirby

                        Keyword Domains for PPC

                        I have a client who wants to buy a lot of long domains with keywords in them, for example, thesandiegopetstore.com (this is fictional) and then set up a PPC landing page for each. They think that when someone types in "san diego pet store" that their domain will be listed high and then they will get a lot of traffic. My concern is that they will own a lot of domains for their company and I thought Google is getting pretty adamant about companies not having a lot of domains, and I thought that keyword domains are not as effective as they used to be -- that branding is more important now. Also, I think the domains they've picked target very competitive keywords and that perhaps they will get a lot unqualified traffic and will still have to pay for the clicks. What do you think? What is the best way to set up PPC landing pages?

                        Paid Search Marketing | | klkirby
                        0

                      Get started with Moz Pro!

                      Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                      Start my free trial
                      Products
                      • Moz Pro
                      • Moz Local
                      • Moz API
                      • Moz Data
                      • STAT
                      • Product Updates
                      Moz Solutions
                      • SMB Solutions
                      • Agency Solutions
                      • Enterprise Solutions
                      • Digital Marketers
                      Free SEO Tools
                      • Domain Authority Checker
                      • Link Explorer
                      • Keyword Explorer
                      • Competitive Research
                      • Brand Authority Checker
                      • Local Citation Checker
                      • MozBar Extension
                      • MozCast
                      Resources
                      • Blog
                      • SEO Learning Center
                      • Help Hub
                      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                      • How-to Guides
                      • Moz Academy
                      • API Docs
                      About Moz
                      • About
                      • Team
                      • Careers
                      • Contact
                      Why Moz
                      • Case Studies
                      • Testimonials
                      Get Involved
                      • Become an Affiliate
                      • MozCon
                      • Webinars
                      • Practical Marketer Series
                      • MozPod
                      Connect with us

                      Contact the Help team

                      Join our newsletter
                      Moz logo
                      © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                      • Accessibility
                      • Terms of Use
                      • Privacy

                      Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.