Negative keywords
Negative keywords prevent ads from serving on specified searches. They are the primary steering mechanism in a broad-match, Smart Bidding account.
As match types loosened, the center of query control moved from picking keywords to excluding them. A disciplined negative practice — shared exclusion lists for universal junk (jobs, free, DIY), campaign-level negatives for cross-campaign routing, and a recurring search-terms review — is what separates broad match that scales from broad match that burns.
Negatives are also the traffic cop between campaigns: branding negatives keep prospecting campaigns off brand queries, and product-line negatives stop two campaigns from bidding against each other.
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