The negative keyword audit most accounts are overdue for
Negative keywords are not optional. They are a fundamental control mechanism. Without them, your ads show for queries you would never have approved - and you pay for every single click.
Every Google Ads account I have ever audited was underspending on negative keywords. It does not matter whether the account was run by a beginner or a seasoned agency. Negative keyword management is consistently the most neglected part of paid search optimisation.
Why negatives matter more than ever
Broad match and smart campaigns have expanded the range of queries that can trigger your ads. That flexibility is useful when it is working well. But it also means irrelevant queries get through more often. Without a solid negative keyword structure, you are funding traffic that has no realistic chance of converting.
Start with your search term report
Pull your search term report for the last 90 days. Filter for zero conversions. Sort by cost, highest first. Work through the expensive non-converting queries one by one. For each one, decide whether it is irrelevant to your business, whether it is a different intent to what you are targeting, or whether it is just not converting for a different reason. The first two categories become negatives. The third stays in the report as a performance issue to investigate separately.
Do not bulk-add every non-converting query as a negative. That is too blunt. A query with 5 clicks and 0 conversions is not necessarily irrelevant - it may just need more data. Focus on volume and relevance first.
Build a negative keyword list you can reuse
Shared negative keyword lists in Google Ads let you apply a set of negatives across multiple campaigns at once. Build a master list of consistently irrelevant terms for your business - competitor brand names you want to exclude, informational queries that never convert for your product category, irrelevant geographic modifiers. Apply this list to new campaigns as a baseline before they go live.
Negatives at different match types
Exact negative keywords only exclude that precise term. Phrase negatives exclude any query containing that phrase. Broad negatives exclude queries Google thinks relate to the term. Be careful with broad negatives at account level - they can accidentally exclude terms you want. I use exact and phrase negatives most of the time. Broad negatives only for categories I am confident I never want traffic from.
How often to review
Weekly for new campaigns in the first 60 days. Monthly after that for established campaigns. Quarterly for a deeper review of your shared lists. It is not a one-time job. Search behaviour changes, your product range changes, and Google's matching behaviour changes. Your negative keyword list should reflect all of that.
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