Search term junk: negative keyword discipline
Skip weekly search term cleanup and budget goes to waste.
If search terms reports sit unopened for weeks, budget flows to irrelevant queries like 'free', 'jobs' or 'what is'. Negative keyword discipline is the cheapest CPA control in Google Ads. Search network management ties report reading to a weekly rhythm.
Weekly search term rhythm
Monday: prior 7 days search terms, min 50 clicks or spend >500 TRY. Add irrelevant queries to campaign or shared negative list.
Exact vs phrase negative: phrase for broad problems, exact for single outliers. Account-level list without hitting brand campaigns.
- Weekly search terms export
- Shared negative list
- Split by campaign type
- Search terms insights
Match type strategy
New account: phrase and exact heavy. Broad only when Smart Bidding is mature and negative list 200+ terms.
Broad match modifier is gone — broad needs brand exclusion lists.
Brand vs non-brand split
Competitor names are targets in brand campaigns; strategic choice in non-brand. See competitor brand bidding.
Add your brand as negative in non-brand to route to brand campaign — lower CPC.
Local and language filter
Antalya businesses negate 'Istanbul', 'Ankara' queries or geo-exclude.
Irrelevant English queries negated in Turkish campaigns; language-split in multilingual accounts.
Automation and scripts
Google Ads Scripts email low CTR or zero-conversion queries. Ngram analysis finds repeating root words.
Auto-negative carefully — wrong negatives lose sales. Add human approval gate.
Performance measurement
Compare impression share and CPA before/after negatives. Monthly negative count and blocked spend estimate.
Read with high CPC; same hygiene package.
Negative keyword cleanup drops CPA without bid hikes.
Run search hygiene weekly with our paid ads management. Contact us.
