Adwords: Reduce Click Costs Using Negative Keywords

Negative Keywords stop your adverts from being shown by filtering out unwanted or irrelevant searches. This means that whilst the number of impressions (times the advert is shown) is reduced, your advert is being shown for searches which are more relevant to your business or service.

This improves your Click Through Rate (number of times your advert is clicked divided by the number of times your advert is shown) because more relevant and less irrelevant searches are showing your advert. This also improves your ad rank which is what Google uses to position your advert among other adverts on that page. It does this by improving the quality score of your keywords when you have a better click through rate, allowing your advert to have a higher position for less cost.

It is normally broad match keywords which cause your advert to show for irrelevant searches. Broad match searches mean each word of your keyword could appear anywhere in a users search in any order.

A simple check which helps your click through rate.

• In your adwords account, go to any of your adgroups.
• Click the keyword tab
• Find the drop down "See search terms..."
• Click this and choose All

The resulting list will show you all the terms searched that makes your advert appear. If any are irrelevant to your advert click the checkbox next to them. Then click the "Add as negative keyword" button. This will prevent your adverts showing for these terms and will result in an improved click through rate.
Rinse and repeat for each adgroup.

You can add a negative keyword directly to your adgroup by putting a minus (-) sign in front of the keyword when you add to your keyword list.

Related Information:
Quality Score