*Average amount saved from accounts WISLR has analyzed. Percentage will vary by industry.
Article Summary
Negative keywords are one of the most powerful and under-utilized pieces of data you can add to your search advertising account. They help prevent wasteful ad spend among highly competitive and costly search terms. WISLR estimates that paid search advertisers waste 25% of their ad spend on bad clicks, impressions and clicks that could have been prevented by a proactive negative keyword list. In this article we:
Explain the benefits of using negative keywords in your search marketing account.
Share 10 negative keywords that everyone who advertises professional services should be using.
Give setup tips when adding negative keywords to your account.
10 Negative Keywords
free | jobs |
salary | hiring |
careers | school |
degree | course |
association | council |
The raw data included 200,000 keywords that were used to search for professional services in the U.S. The final list are the keywords commonly used across all service categories sampled.
What are negative keywords? Why bother with them?
Negative keywords are one of the most powerful and under-utilized pieces of data you can add to your search advertising account. The keywords can stop unqualified search terms from triggering your ads. Every professional services business conducting paid search marketing should be using them, but very few do, and those that do use them need to apply them better.
There are many search terms that people use that are simply not relevant to your business, but your ads continue to show for your search query because the search engines put the responsibility of sorting good queries from bad on the account holder.
These Keywords Can Stop Wasteful Clicks in Paid Search
Finding and managing negative keywords is time consuming. One method to compile this data is filtering through your search terms report at least once a week. A faster method is using the ready-to-go list from WISLR that you can add to your account today.
WISLR Premium Members have full-access to the list. For those who aren't members yet, here's (10) of the best negative keywords to help your campaigns prevent wasteful clicks on your ads:
free
jobs
salary
hiring
careers
school
degree
course
association
council
These negative keywords add value to your campaigns because they remove your ads from receiving impressions from potential clients who are unlikely to work with you. They're looking for something else, but they stumble on your ad, click, and you pay the price. When you're paying for search traffic, do you ever see yourself wanting visitors who search for:
free [accountant]
[tax attorney] jobs
[information technology] salary
[dentist] hiring
[insurance] careers
[mortgage broker] school
degree [asset management]
[bail bonds] course
[plumbing] association
[tax professional] council
Get the full list of 220 negative keywords for professional services.
Tips for Negative Keyword Setup
Create a unique list named "Negative Keywords from WISLR" for easy management.
Good negative keywords are one to two words long, to block the most low quality impressions possible.
Set the match to Phrase, instead of Broad or Exact, so you have some targeting with your search term matching.
Monitor your notifications for keyword conflicts and examine each one to determine if the negative keyword is necessary.
You can have up to 100,000 negative keywords per account. Don't just stop with WISLR's ideas. Keep building your lists for maximum protection of your ad spend.
We Offer Hands-On Help If Needed
If you need or want the help of a Paid Search Strategist, WISLR has you covered. We have a flat-rate service for this need specifically. Head over to our Negative Keyword Services page, book the time, and we'll get it sorted for you.