Library·SOP·Paid
Exclude searches for things your business does not offer while protecting searches that could bring useful customers.
Last reviewed: · Editorial review
Clarity, structure and references reviewed in this version. This is not a test in a live account.
Exclude searches for things your business does not offer while protecting searches that could bring useful customers.
This SOP covers:
This does not cover:
Make your own copy of the Search terms review worksheet. Use Setup for the campaign and review dates, Review for your decisions and saved changes, and Example for the fictional worked case.
Open Google Ads. Use the account selector to open the intended customer account, then open Campaigns and select the Search campaign you will review. In Setup, enter Account name, Customer ID, and Campaign. The Customer ID is the account's identifying number.
Open the business website. In Setup, write Offers to attract, Offers not available, Locations served, and Decision owner. Compare the page with the campaign's purpose and ask the person responsible for the offer to resolve any uncertainty.
List the products or services this campaign should attract, what the business definitely does not offer, and the locations it serves. For a luggage store, a useful boundary might be “sell new bags; no repairs; deliver nationwide.”
Write the name of the person who can confirm unclear offers in Decision owner. Put unanswered questions in Open questions; use Investigate for affected searches until that person answers.
Use the Google Ads date selector to choose the period requested for this review. If no period was supplied, use the last completed calendar month as a starting review period. Click Apply and enter the exact dates in Setup > Review period.
Under Campaigns, open Insights and reports > Search terms. Keep the selected campaign and period. A search term is what someone typed; a keyword is a rule you chose that can make your ad eligible for that search.
Open Columns and use the Modify columns panel. Include Search term, Ad group, Keyword, Clicks, Cost, and Conversions. Include Campaign when it is offered; in a report scoped to one campaign, confirm the exact campaign name in the report header matches Setup > Campaign. Click Apply. An ad group holds related keywords and ads inside a campaign. Cost tells you which unsuitable searches have consumed more money; conversions are the results Google Ads counted.
Download the table using its Download button. Add the visible rows to Review in your worksheet copy: fill Search term, Ad group, Keyword, Clicks, Cost, and Conversions. Keep the original download with your review so you can return to the source.
Work through each Review row. Choose Keep, Exclude, or Investigate in Decision and explain your choice in Reason. Use the offer boundaries, not one conversion number, to decide.
Choose Keep when the phrase could reasonably describe someone seeking the campaign's offer. Fictional example: “free delivery carry on luggage” is useful when the shop sells bags with free delivery. A relevant term with no conversions is not automatically irrelevant.
Choose Exclude when the person is clearly looking for something the campaign should not offer. For example, “luggage repair near me” is unsuitable for a shop that confirmed it provides no repairs. Write that business reason, rather than just “no conversions.”
Choose Investigate when the phrase or offer boundary is unclear. For example, “cheap suitcase” might fit a budget range or might not. In Next action / owner, write the question and Decision owner's name; keep the search eligible while waiting.
Review Exclude rows with the highest cost first so you address the largest clear mismatch first. Compare the actual cost among unsuitable terms; do not let a costly but relevant search jump into the exclusion list. Finish all visible rows, adding worksheet rows when needed.
For each Exclude row, enter Negative keyword and Negative match type using the rules below. A negative keyword makes a matching search ineligible for your ad; its match type controls how widely the block applies.
Start with the whole unsuitable search as Exact, in square brackets: [luggage repair near me]. This blocks those words in that order without extra words. It is the safest starting choice when you have evidence for one specific query.
Use Phrase, in quotation marks, only when the same clearly unsuitable intent should be blocked with extra words: "luggage repair". Broad, written without brackets or quotes, blocks searches containing all its words in any order. Choose broad only if every such combination is unsuitable. Do not shorten the example to luggage: that would block customers looking to buy bags.
Check whether separate singular, plural or synonym forms also appear among the unsuitable rows. Evaluate those forms individually; a negative is not a general block on the same meaning. For example, "luggage repair" does not automatically exclude “luggage repairs.”
In Review > Level, choose Ad group when the term is wrong only for its recorded group. Choose Campaign only when it is unsuitable for every group in this campaign. In Target, record the exact campaign or ad-group name.
Check the other groups' offers before choosing Campaign. For example, “backpack” may be wrong for a suitcase group but useful for another group selling backpacks. An ad-group negative does not guarantee the search will move to that other group.
Add your scope reason to Reason, such as “Campaign sells only new bags and no group offers repairs,” or “Only wrong for Suitcases; Backpacks still sells this.”
Open Audiences, keywords, and content > Keywords for the selected campaign. Compare proposed blocks with the positive keywords (the rules that attract searches), existing Negative keywords, and any negative lists already applied to this campaign. In Review > Conflict check, record the checks below.
Inspect existing campaign and ad-group negatives and applied lists. If the intended term, match type and level already exist, write Already excluded in Saved status and avoid adding a duplicate. A different match type may have different reach, so compare what it actually blocks.
Write at least one useful search from the same offer in Useful search to protect. Apply your chosen match rule to it and the affected positive keywords. If the new negative would block useful demand, use a narrower exact negative, a narrower level, or change the decision to Investigate. For example, a broad free negative would block “free delivery carry on luggage.”
Write what you checked and the result in Conflict check. For example: “No existing exact repair query; campaign offers no repairs; [luggage repair near me] does not block buy carry on luggage.”
Before saving, obtain the decision owner’s approval for the exact proposed list, match types and targets. Keep an export of the existing negatives with the review. If the plan changes after approval, confirm the changed entries before applying them; record each new entry so rollback affects only this review’s additions.
In Review, choose the new Exclude entries you still intend to add. Work in groups with the same Level and Target. In Google Ads, open Audiences, keywords, and content > Keywords > Negative keywords, then click +.
Add the reviewed exclusions to their planned target.
Choose Campaign or Ad group in the target-level selector. Check the campaign or ad-group name shown below it against Review > Target. Google may already fill the selected campaign or group; select the intended target if the shown name differs. Use the same level and target for this batch.
Enter each Negative keyword from Review on its own line. Include square brackets for Exact, quotation marks for Phrase, and no enclosing symbols for Broad. For example, enter [luggage repair near me] to block that full query.
Check the wording, match type, level and target against Review, then click Save. Repeat for the next batch with a different target.
Open Keywords > Negative keywords for the same campaign. Find each new exclusion and read its text, Match type, Level, and affected campaign or ad group. Compare these with Review. Enter Saved and the date in Saved status only when all four match.
If a newly added exclusion has the wrong wording, match type or target, select that exact entry’s checkbox in Negative keywords, then choose Edit > Remove. Confirm removal if prompted. Reopen the table to check that entry is gone and the other exclusions remain. Record Removed, the date and reason in Saved status; correct the worksheet plan before adding a replacement.
In Setup, enter Visible rows reviewed, New exclusions saved, Questions outstanding, and Next review date. Check that each Exclude row is Saved, Already excluded, or Removed with a reason; each Investigate row names its question and owner. Arrange the next review around the campaign's regular review schedule.
Plan the next review now. Confirm Setup > Next review date matches the campaign's regular review schedule and each remaining question in Review > Next action / owner names the person who will answer it. At that later review, check newly appearing irrelevant wording, useful queries affected by too-wide rules, and outstanding answers. These later checks are regular maintenance. This review is complete once its decisions, saved changes and follow-up plan are recorded; a later report alone does not prove that a change caused better performance.
