Industry-specific negative keyword lists for Google Ads campaigns. Each list is organized by category and match type, with guidance on when to use phrase vs. exact match. All lists connect directly to the free Negative Keyword Tool.
Apply these lists automatically. Paste your search terms and sort them instantly.
Open free toolBlock free, DIY, wholesale, job seeker, and secondhand searches from your product and shopping campaigns.
View ecommerce negative keywords →Prevent law school, pro bono, DIY legal, and career searches from consuming your $50–$200/click law firm budget.
View legal negative keywords →Separate buyer, seller, renter, and investor audiences. Prevent cross-intent traffic between campaign types.
View real estate negative keywords →Medical, B2B, automotive, home services, and more negative keyword lists are in development.
Get notified →Negative keywords prevent your Google Ads from showing for searches that aren't relevant to your business. When someone searches for a term that matches one of your negative keywords, your ad is automatically excluded from that auction, protecting your budget from clicks that will never convert.
Without negative keywords, broad match and phrase match keywords can trigger ads for queries far outside your target audience. A law firm campaign targeting "personal injury lawyer" might also show for "personal injury lawyer salary," "personal injury law school," or "personal injury lawyer malpractice cases," searches from people who will never become clients. Negative keywords block those queries before they waste spend.
The lists on this page provide a starting point for each industry: common irrelevant query themes that experienced PPC managers exclude from day one. They are organized by category so you can apply the ones relevant to your specific campaigns.
Each industry page groups negative keywords by theme (careers, DIY, free, competitors, etc.) and indicates the recommended match type. Phrase match works for broad exclusion categories. Exact match works for specific queries you want to block precisely without over-excluding adjacent terms. Copy the list and paste it into Google Ads under Keywords > Negative keywords at the campaign level.
For faster application, use the free Negative Keyword Tool. Paste your search term report and it automatically identifies which terms to add as negatives. This is especially useful for accounts that have been running for a few months and have accumulated search term data to mine.
Apply campaign-level negatives for themes that should never appear in any ad group. Use ad group level negatives to prevent keyword cannibalization. For example, block "cheap" in your premium product ad group while allowing it in your budget product ad group.
In Google Ads, navigate to the Keywords section in the left menu and click the Negative keywords tab. You can add negatives directly to a campaign or ad group, or add them to a shared negative keyword list under Shared Library and apply that list to multiple campaigns at once. Shared lists are the most efficient method for large accounts. Update the list once and it applies everywhere.
Match type formatting matters: exact match negatives use brackets [term] and phrase match negatives use quotes "term". Note that negative keywords do not use close variant matching. An exact match negative for "running shoes" only blocks that exact query, not "running shoe" (singular).
After adding a starter list at launch, review your Search Terms report weekly for the first 4-6 weeks to catch additional irrelevant queries. Most budget protection from negative keywords comes from ongoing maintenance, not just the initial setup.