Digital Prosperity Blog

Why Use Negative Keywords In Google AdWords? - JDR Group

Written by Will Williamson | 26-May-2017 16:21:22

Google AdWords is a powerful tool for advertising your brand online. But with the success of Google as the go-to search engine, the prices that popular keywords sell for have risen significantly. In addition to a much higher CPC, the number of people around the world who use Google's search engine has exploded.

When you put together an AdWords campaign it is imperative that you know what negative keywords are and how they fit into your strategy. Making sure that your campaign has a strong negative keyword list will ensure that you don’t lose money on wasted clicks from people who aren’t really interested. This means that the clicks you do get will have a higher chance of converting to your product or service.

How Do Negative Keywords Work?

AdWords works by using keywords to match a user's search to the list of keywords you select for your campaign. What most people overlook is the possible overlap of meanings for many popular words, and this can lead to paying for clicks from users that have no interest in what you offer. When you include a list of negative keywords, it will automatically exclude your adverts from a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that features one or more of them. This comes in handy if you are having a spring special on footwear, and don't want people who are looking for industrial springs to see your advert. 

Why Negative Keywords Matter

Not only do popular keywords open your campaign up to wasted clicks, today they create the risk of serious financial loss. People don't think about clicking on a link in a Google SERP, and this means that if you opt to use a popular key word, you could pay a fortune for a few interested clicks. Today, super-hot keywords can cost more than £5 per click, so making sure that you exclude them is vital to getting the best ROI from your AdWords campaign. In addition to saving you from a huge AdWords bill, excluding vague or highly competitive keywords will help people who are genuinely interested in your company to find you. This means a lower CPC, and a higher conversion rate. 

Getting Your Campaign Set Up Right

AdWords is a deceptively simple premise that requires expertise to get it working correctly. If you are just starting out in the Google ad space, or you feel like you could be getting more out of your advertising budget, have a chat with one of our JDR marketing specialists. We can advise you on the best way to approach an AdWords campaign, with software to track what works.

Google allows you to see what keywords lead to a high conversion rate, and which ones are just money down the drain. If you aren't taking advantage of your ability to fine tune an AdWords campaign, your company is losing out on a very powerful development tool. Your negative keyword list can also be a huge benefit when it comes to designing other marketing campaigns, and we can show you how to take advantage of those synergies.