Using Negative Keywords To Increase CTR

One overlooked aspect of setting up a campaign is using negative keywords. If you're not using negatives keywords you are most likely paying for unwanted or untargetted clicks.

Having negative keywords in your adgroups or campaigns can also increase your CTR exponentially since you are getting rid of some of those unwanted impressions. When you set a negative keyword you are telling Google not to show your ad for certain keywords.

Some negative keywords you might want to use are listed below along with the searchers who you want to elliminate.

1. To hide your ads from freeloaders:

• -free
• -crack
• -torrent
• -keygen
• -p2p

2. Hide your ads from researchers:

• -picture
• -wikipedia
• -jpeg
• -image
• -pics
• -video
• -youtube

3. Hide your ad from other marketers:

• -forum
• -forums
• -affiliate or "affiliate program"
• -blogs

You might also want to hide your ad from being displayed on the broad term although Google is up on its game and would usually stay very relevant. For example if you're advertising 'Chow Mutt German shepherd dog food' you could take out the broad term 'dog food' by using the negative keyword for the exact phrase -[dog food].

Also its a good idea to go to the keyword tool and do a search for your base keyword. Any irrelevant words used with your base keyword could be used as a negative.

Check your hosting logs too. You'll probably find some there too.

Add your keywords to the campaign if you aren't going to use them at all or add them to the adgroup if you'd like to use them in another adgroup but not that one. You'll see your impressions dropping way down and because you'll only have relevant searches even if you get the same amount of clicks you normally get then you'll have a better ctr which will give you a better quality score and as a result lower cpc.