Building Your Negative Keywords List - Three Progressive Strategies for Google AdWords

Here are three methods to get your negative keywords for pay-per-click programs such as Google AdWords. Some of these methods can be done at the start, others take time based on Google serving your ad to the wrong prospects, unfortunately, and you have to weed them out. 1. Throw the Obvious Ones in off the Top of Your Head It is definitely good to input account-wide and/or adgroup wide keywords right off the bat. You probably want to go ahead and put in "Free" as a negative keyword, unless you do offer something free and make your money on the follow up products/services. 2. Get Negatives from Your Keyword Research While doing your keyword research, your negative keywords should show themselves pretty readily. Use Yahoo's (Overture) Keyword tool. When you see keyword phrases with high search volume that are not relevant to your offering but still have your keyword as a part of the phrase, add the modifying parts as negative keywords. 3. Find what Users Actually Typed In Through Analytics Keep an eye on your analytics. If you are bidding on some very generic one and two word terms, you want to know what people are "really typing in" that triggered your ad. So you need to dig deep into your Google Analytics or some other robust analytics program. Don't trust that Google only showed your ad when someone typed in exactly what you are bidding on. Whatever analytics program you are using, it is imperative that you find the full search query that triggered your ad and caused the click. Use Google AdWords' Search Query Performance. Your want to know what that person typed in when Google decided to show your ad and he/she clicked it. This is where you will build your negative keyword list from over time. This will be the most important thing you do in order to block out negative keywords over time. Negative keywords will help optimize your campaigns and ad value to every click. Over time you will only receive traffic that is truly relevant from those searching for your product/service offering. Good Luck!