The Negative Keyword Strategy That Feels Wrong but Works!
In most accounts, negatives are treated like a maintenance chore, not a strategic weapon. You cut obvious waste, leave everything else running, and hope the winners scale themselves. But in competitive niches, that approach often leaves you burning budget on “borderline” traffic — clicks that look fine in a spreadsheet but underperform in the real world.
The Counterintuitive Approach
Instead of just blocking the obviously bad queries, this strategy takes a more aggressive, almost uncomfortable stance:
- Find the search terms that barely meet your target CPA or ROAS, even if they’re technically profitable.
- Use match type-specific negatives to cut them — not because they’re “bad,” but because they dilute budget away from your top performers.
- Funnel spend into the queries, audiences, and match types that deliver your best returns, even if it reduces total clicks and conversions in the short term.
The result: lower overall traffic, but significantly better efficiency and profitability.
Why It Works
- Auction Competition is Uneven — In many niches, the top 20% of queries bring in 80% of the profit. By removing mid-tier performers, you can dominate that profitable segment without competing for less valuable auctions.
- Budget Concentration — Instead of spreading budget across “OK” traffic, you concentrate on your winners and increase impression share where it matters most.
- Quality Score Gains — Higher CTR and conversion rates on remaining keywords can improve Quality Scores, lowering CPCs and boosting ad rank.
Step-by-Step Process
Step 1: Pull a Performance Segment Report
Export keyword or search term data segmented by:
- Conversions
- Cost/conv. (or ROAS)
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Impression share
Step 2: Identify Borderline Performers
Sort by cost/conv. and flag anything that:
- Is above your ideal CPA but below your cutoff for “bad”
- Brings in some conversions but at low ROAS
Step 3: Segment by Match Type
Use negative keywords with exact match or phrase match to surgically cut the borderline traffic without killing the good stuff.
Step 4: Monitor Winners
Track how budget shifts after adding these negatives. Look for:
- Increased impression share on top performers
- Lower average CPA
- Higher ROAS
Example
In a lead gen account with a $50 CPA target, I had a cluster of keywords converting at $48–$55. Technically fine — but when I removed the $50–$55 group, the budget reallocated to $35–$40 keywords. The net effect: same number of leads, but a 22% drop in cost per lead within two weeks.
When Not to Use This Strategy
- Brand Awareness Campaigns — Cutting mid-performers can shrink reach too much.
- Low Data Volume Accounts — Without enough clicks/conversions, you might cut too aggressively and starve the campaign.
- Seasonal / Trend Traffic — Some borderline keywords spike in value at specific times.
Wrapping It Up
Negative keywords aren’t just a cleanup tool — they can be a growth lever when you use them to double down on what works best.
Yes, it feels wrong to cut keywords that are “okay,” but in competitive markets, “okay” is often the enemy of “great.”
By tightening your targeting and reallocating budget to top performers, you can squeeze more profit out of the same spend and keep your campaigns lean, sharp, and competitive.
