The world of search engine optimisation is complicated enough as it is. But a few fine nuances and advanced techniques make things even more challenging. Have you ever heard of negative keywords? Though so many website and business owners have absolutely no idea what these are. Negative keywords play a crucial role in Google Ads campaign management.
What are negative keywords?
First things first, let’s get a better idea about what Google Ads negative keywords are.
A negative keyword is a phrase that prevents Google Ads from being triggered for certain keywords. If you sell ebooks, for example, you may want to add the word “free” to the list of negative keywords. This way, your ad isn’t going to be triggered when people look for terms like “free ebooks”.
Through the use of a carefully planned SEO keywords list, you can do even better targeting and make sure that only the right crowd is seeing your message.
The Most Common Negative Keyword Mistakes
Experienced practitioners in the Google Ads universe make full use of SEO keyword lists. These boost conversions while also enabling advertisers to save some money by having the ad shown to a very specific group of people.
Lack of experience, however, could contribute to a number of rather common Google Ads mistakes:
1. Having no negative keywords at all: Meaning that the ad will be shown each time someone uses a keyword phrase you’re targeting. Needless to say, your ad will show up for numerous irrelevant searches, decreasing the effectiveness of the campaign.
2. Thinking that broad matching works in the case of negative keywords: Broad matching works for positive Google Ads keywords but this isn’t the case for negative phrases. An exact match will be needed, which is why so many inexperienced PPC campaigners fail at creating an adequate SEO keywords list.
3. Having the same negative and positive keywords: Yes, it could happen. When planning a campaign that features a large number of keywords. It’s possible to include the same phrase in both lists.
Plan Your Campaign Carefully (And Get Some Help!)
There’s more to Google Ads campaigns than meet the eyes. So many inexperienced marketers choose a couple of keywords that they’d like to target and believe that the job is done.
Google searches allow for incredible targeting, as long as you’re willing to do thorough testing and some campaign tweaking. A well-built list of SEO keywords can help you eliminate the individuals that have some interest in the topic but aren’t your prospects.
If you don’t have the experience, you’ll be throwing a lot of money out the window. Getting an experienced team to manage your Google Ads campaign will make a lot more sense. Boost the effectiveness of your campaign and ultimately – save you money.
