150+ B2B Negative Keywords

It’s easy enough to pick the keywords that you do want to appear for on Google, but have you thought about the ones you need to make sure to not appear for?

When somebody is shopping around for a product or service online, the searches they type into Google will evolve over time as their level of knowledge increases, a.k.a. the buying cycle. The important part of this is to focus your campaign budget on those customers who are ready to buy!

To help facilitate this, Google offers a Negative Keyword function in AdWords. This allows you to ensure that you don’t show your advertisements to any user typing in one of your negative keywords. For example, say you are an advertiser selling men’s shoes online. You want the great traffic generated by the keyword “shoes” by itself, but you obviously don’t want to be paying for clicks from people typing in “ladies shoes” or “kids shoes.” You can simply add the words “ladies” and “kids” to your negative keyword list, and the risk of this happening disappears!

It’s so easy to get lost in focusing on what your business does do, that it’s sometimes hard to think from the opposite perspective about what you don’t offer. With this in mind, we’ve compiled a large list of commonly used negative keywords to consider adding to your AdWords campaign.

Please keep in mind that the following list is by no means exhaustive, and also that many of these keywords will not be relevant to your campaign, and could in fact have a negative impact on your campaign if not properly implemented. Remember, if in doubt, contact a search engine marketing consultant at SponsoredLinX and ask!

Avoid Job Seekers!

Make sure you’re not paying for clicks from people seeking employment. This is the most notorious budget-consumer!

career
careers
employment
hiring
intern
interns
internship
internships
job
jobs
recruiter
recruiting
resume
resumes
salaries
salary

Reference Keywords

These keywords are really not likely to be typed by somebody who’s ready to buy:

about
definition
diagram
example
examples
history
map
maps
sample
samples
what are
what is

Research Keywords

Don’t pay for window shoppers! People typing these keywords are likely to be in the very early stages of the buying cycle, and probably not likely to make an immediate purchase.

association
associations
book
books
case studies
case study
guide
guides
journal
journals
magazine
magazines
metrics
news
research
review
reviews
statistics
stats
success stories
success story
tutorial
tutorials
white paper
white papers

You’re not running a school! (Or are you…?)

Make sure you aren’t displaying ads to people searching for education.

class
classes
college
colleges
course
courses
education
school
schools
training
universities
university

No Bargains

If you’ve noticed that your campaign is generating a lot of low quality enquiries, the kind that are calling around for 3-5 quotes, and you already know that you’re not the cheapest in town, don’t focus on this niche! Avoid low-budget and bargain shoppers by including the following negative keywords.

bargain
cheap
clearance
close out
close outs
closeout
closeouts
discount
discounted
free
inexpensive

Avoiding Price Shoppers

Similarly, if you don’t want to appeal to the market demographic who shop purely on price instead of quality, the following negatives will hide your ads from the more budget conscious.

price
prices
pricing
quote
quotes

Avoiding Tim the Tool Man

Particularly if you sell something which is also commonly done as a home project, like backyard sheds or quilts, minimising clicks from people looking for instructions or tips & tricks is important.

craft
crafts
create
creating
hand made
handmade
home
homemade
how to
make
making
do it yourself
diy
how-to

Selling Commercial Software

Software! If you sell commercial or business grade (read: expensive) software, it’s extremely important to filter out the people looking for personal or free downloads.

burn
burner
cd
code
community
desktop
developer
developers
disk
download (if you don’t have one)
downloads (if you don’t have any)
dvd
error
file
files
forum
free
freeware
game
games
gnu
hack
hacks
libraries
library
open source
public domain
retail
retail
retailer
retailers
shareware
shortcut
shortcuts
template
templates
tip
tips
video
windows

Manufacturing & Industrial

This list of words is very broad, but it does serve as a great place to think about building your campaign negative list.

antique
consumer
export
exporter
exporters
hobby
import
importer
importers
measurement
model
models
regulations
rent
rental
repair
repairs
retail
retailer
retailers
rules
safety
specifications
specs
standards
store
toy
toys
used
vintage

Product Materials
If you sell something that comes in different material variations, such as aluminium sheeting, but you don’t sell steel sheeting, these are good ones to make sure you filter out the wrong traffic.

aluminum
ceramic
cotton
fabric
glass
gold
iron
leather
metal
nylon
paper
plastic
rubber
silver
stainless steel
steel
stone
vinyl
wood

Do you have any other commonly used negative keywords? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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