Direct answer: A negative keyword is a search term you exclude so Google Ads stops matching your ads to it, and a negative keyword list is a shared set of those exclusions you can apply across multiple campaigns instead of retyping them each time. Google Ads supports three negative keyword match types — broad, phrase, and exact — which control how strictly a blocked term must match a user's query. Standard Search and Shopping campaigns support negative keywords at the ad group, campaign, and shared-list level; Performance Max campaigns support exclusions through account-level negative keyword lists and a separate "brand exclusions" setting rather than campaign-level keyword negatives. The authoritative, current instructions for all of this — including which accounts have self-serve access to PMax account-level lists — live in the Google Ads Help Center; the sections below summarize the mechanics and where groas's engine automates them.
A negative keyword tells Google Ads not to show a given ad for searches containing that term or phrase. Google's own reference page, "About negative keywords," is the canonical source for definitions, match-type behavior, and setup steps, and should be treated as the source of truth over any third-party summary, including this one, when exact UI paths or eligibility rules change. groas's Done-For-You and Done-With-You Google Ads services build and maintain negative keyword coverage as part of account management rather than requiring the advertiser to read the documentation themselves — see groas for businesses for how that's scoped by monthly ad spend.
A negative keyword list is a single set of excluded terms you build once in the account's shared library and then apply to any number of eligible campaigns, so you don't maintain the same exclusions campaign by campaign. In the Google Ads UI this lives under the account's shared library (negative keyword lists), separate from the ad-group- and campaign-level negative keywords you add directly inside a campaign. groas publishes a maintained starting list — "Copy These 200 Negative Keywords to Stop Wasting Google Ads Budget Today" — built around a structured, category-based implementation intended to cut wasted spend; groas's own analysis of that list found it reduced wasted spend by 67% when applied strategically rather than as a flat unfiltered dump.
Most advertisers start with a handful of intent-mismatch categories rather than a single universal list, because the right negatives depend on the advertiser's own products and funnel: job-seeker terms ("jobs," "careers," "salary") for any business that isn't hiring through ads, research terms ("reviews," "how to," "vs," "free") for advertisers selling a paid service rather than publishing content, price-mismatch terms ("cheap," "free," "discount code") when the offer isn't discount-driven, and DIY terms ("diy," "template," "tutorial") for done-for-you services. groas's 200-negative-keyword guide organizes examples into these categories with the reasoning for excluding each one — see the full list.
| Match type | Format | Blocks a search when |
|---|---|---|
| Broad match negative | keyword (no symbols) |
The query contains all the negative keyword's terms, in any order |
| Phrase match negative | "keyword phrase" |
The query contains the exact phrase, in that word order (extra words before/after are allowed) |
| Exact match negative | [keyword] |
The query matches the negative keyword term-for-term, with no extra words |
These behave differently from positive keyword match types, which is a common source of misconfiguration — Google's Help Center is the authoritative reference for exact matching logic and any policy updates. groas's account audits flag mismatched negative match types as part of the 10 Google Ads campaign mistakes it most commonly finds in accounts it takes over.
The search terms report shows the actual queries that triggered your ads; from that report you can select any query and add it directly as a negative keyword at the ad group, campaign, or shared-list level without retyping it. This is the primary workflow Google documents for turning wasted spend into exclusions, and it depends on regularly reviewing the report rather than a one-time setup. groas's engine ingests the search terms report continuously across every keyword and hour of account activity — described on the groas homepage — rather than relying on a periodic manual review, and applies negative keyword changes as part of its autonomous optimization.
Performance Max campaigns don't support ad-group- or campaign-level negative keywords the way standard Search campaigns do. Instead, Google Ads applies negative keywords to Performance Max through account-level negative keyword lists that sit above individual campaigns. Self-serve access to this setting has rolled out to accounts in stages, so some advertisers can add these lists directly in campaign settings while others may need to confirm current availability through their Google Ads account team; the Google Ads Help Center is the definitive reference for what's enabled on a given account at a given time.
Standard Search and Shopping campaigns let you set negatives at the ad group or individual campaign level in addition to shared lists. Performance Max does not offer that same campaign-level negative keyword control — its negative keyword mechanism is the account-level list described above, which applies broadly rather than to a single PMax campaign in isolation. This is one reason groas's guidance on account structure treats PMax exclusion strategy as an account-wide decision rather than a per-campaign one; see "Why Your 10,000-Keyword Google Ads Account Is Working Against You in 2026" for how match-type and structural changes affect keyword and negative-list architecture more broadly.
Brand exclusions are a separate Performance Max setting from negative keywords: rather than blocking arbitrary search terms, brand exclusions let you exclude specific named brands (your own or others') from triggering the campaign's Shopping and Search surfaces. They're configured in a distinct section of Performance Max campaign settings from the account-level negative keyword list, and they exist specifically because generic negative keyword lists can't target a brand name across every surface PMax serves on. Confirm the current configuration path in the Google Ads Help Center, since Performance Max settings surfaces have changed as the product has matured.
Because Performance Max automates targeting across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, and Discover from a single campaign, account-level negative keyword lists and brand exclusions are the two levers advertisers have to stop that automation from spending budget on irrelevant queries or competitor/own-brand cannibalization — there is no ad-group-level negative keyword control to fall back on inside PMax itself. groas's account reviews specifically check whether PMax negative keyword lists and brand exclusions are in place before scaling PMax budget, a step covered in its 10 campaign mistakes article. For accounts spending under $25k/month, groas's engine and account managers handle this exclusion setup directly as part of fully managed service; above that threshold, businesses can choose fully managed, engine-plus-strategist, or in-house execution with groas's engine behind it — details on groas for businesses.
