Negative keywords are a godsend to all who manage PPC accounts – they’re an efficient way to ensure that your ads don’t come up for totally irrelevant search queries.
For example, did you know that “PPC” as well as being a cost effective advertising technique is also a type of gun? True story. PPC agencies who are running their own online advertising would then add terms like gun, guns and shooting as negative keywords to their campaigns to make sure that no gun-toting, ammo lovers come their way in search of tips on how to hit a bullseye in target practice.
So how do you go about finding negative keywords?
There’s a ton of ways to do this research – from popping your keywords into the ever-popular Google AdWords Keyword Tool to using a thesaurus. Keri Morgret of SEOmoz wrote a great in depth post covering a whole host of ways to build your negative keyword lists that you should read for more ideas.
Or you could cheat.
There’s a whole host of negative keyword lists freely available online and they provide a great starting point for any online advertiser, this one by Komarketing Associates is my favourite. But I haven’t seen one yet that covers one important area: entertainment.
There are all manner of weird, wonderful and sometimes mundane terms that turn up as band names, in songs, as movie titles.
Just think of the poor door suppliers of the world, without a good negative keyword list, not only could their ads show up on searches for the band The Doors, but also songs like “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan and movies like “Sliding Doors” starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
While ideally you should do thorough research to weed out these searches, not everyone has time for that. So, I’ve created negative keywords lists of music, tv and film related keywords that you can use to help you avoid appearing for irrelevant searches:
[slidingnote hint=”Click me!” title=”Music” type=”closeable” type=”snaccordian closeable” group=”1″]
album
albums
amp
amps
artist
artiste
artistic
artists
audio
band
bands
bass
bass guitar
bass guitars
chord
chords
concert
concerts
cover
covers
D J
date
dates
deejay
DJ
download
downloads
drummer
drummers
drums
electric guitar
electric guitars
gallery
gig
gigs
grammies
grammy
group
groups
grunge
guitar
guitarist
guitarists
guitars
itunes
keyboard
keyboards
last fm
lick
licks
lyric
lyrics
mobo
mobos
mp 3
mp3
mtv
music
piano
player
players
radio
rapper
rappers
record
recording
records
riff
riffs
rock
rock group
rock groups
singer
singers
single
singles
solo
solos
song
songs
songstress
songwriter
spotify
stadium
station
stations
studio
studios
tab
tabs
theatre
theatres
ticket
tickets
tour
tours
track
tracks
turn table
turn tables
turntable
turntables
venue
venues
video
videos
vocal
vocals[/slidingnote]
[slidingnote hint=”Click me!” title=”Musical Styles” type=”closeable” type=”snaccordian closeable” group=”1″]
2 step
2 tone
8 bit
acid house
acid jazz
acid rock
afro beat
alt rock
ambient
art rock
barber shop
barbershop
beat
beats
beebop
bhangra
black metal
blues
break beat
break core
breaks
brit pop
cajun
calypso
celtic
chamber
chill out
chillout
christian
classic
classical
country
country & western
country and western
country n western
cow punk
dance
dark step
death metal
deep soul
delta blues
disco
dream pop
drum
drum & bass
drum and bass
drum n bass
dub
dub step
dubstep
easy listening
electro
electronic rock
emo
exotica
flamenco
folk
freak beat
funk
fusion jazz
gabba
gamelan
gangster rap
garage
glam
glam rock
gogo
gothic
hardcore
hip hop
house
indie
jazz
lounge
metal
new metal
new wave
nintendocore
northern soul
nu jazz
nu metal
nu wave
opera
pop
post-rock
power pop
prog
psychadelic
psychobilly
punk
r n b
r&b
ragga
rap
reggae
rhythm and blues
rock n roll
roots rock
salsa
ska
skiffle
soul
surf
swamp blues
synth
trance
trip hop
turntablism
two step
two tone
uk garage
unblack metal
world music[/slidingnote]
[slidingnote hint=”Click me!” title=”Film & TV” type=”closeable” type=”snaccordian closeable” group=”1″]
acting
actor
actors
actress
actresses
award
awards
bafta
baftas
BBFC
broadcast
channel
channels
cinema
cinemas
critic
criticism
critics
director
directors
emmies
emmy
epic
episode
episodes
festival
festivals
film
film 4
films
golden globe
golden globes
golden raspberry
host
hosts
imdb
listing
listings
lovefilm
motion picture
motion pictures
movie
movies
netflix
oscar
oscars
plot
premiere
premieres
presenter
presenters
producer
producers
program
programme
quote
quotes
rating
razzie
razzies
schedule
script
scripts
series
show
shows
spoiler
spoilers
sundance
subtitle
subtitles
synopsis
television
time
times
title
titles
trailer
trailers
trivia
tv
UK film council
writer
writers[/slidingnote]
[slidingnote hint=”Click me!” title=”Film & TV Genres” type=”closeable” type=”snaccordian closeable” group=”1″]
action
adventure
animated
animation
art film
black comedy
buddy movie
caper
challenge
children’s
comedy
comic book
coming of age
courtroom drama
crime
detective
documentary
drama
family
fantasy
film noir
gangster
ghost
heist
historical
horror
love
musical
myth
paranormal
quiz
reality
rom com
romance
sci fi
science fiction
scripted reality
silent
sitcom
supern action
adventure
animated
animation
art film
black comedy
buddy movie
caper
challenge
children’s
comedy
comic book
coming of age
courtroom drama
crime
detective
documentary
drama
family
fantasy
film noir
gangster
ghost
heist
historical
horror
love
musical
myth
paranormal
quiz
reality
rom com
romance
sci fi
science fiction
scripted reality
silent
sitcom
supernatural
talkies
thriller
tragedy
western[/slidingnote]
Have I missed anything obvious? If so, let me know in the comments below.
How to Use Your Negative Keyword Lists
AdWords makes it easy to add standard negative keywords to all campaigns – simply click on the Campaigns tab then select the Shared Library from the menu on the right. Navigate to the Campaign Negative Keywords and click Add negative keyword list:
Name the keyword list something sensible – e.g. “Entertainment” – and copy and paste all the appropriate keywords from the lists above then hit save.
NB: Don’t forget that this is a generic negative keyword list – always ensure that none of the terms are relevant to what you do before you add them as negative keywords, or you could inadvertently stop your ads from showing to the right people.
Now that your list is set up, you’ll need to add it to all the campaigns that you want to exclude the terms from. Select the list you want to add to campaigns, then click Apply to campaigns. Click on all the campaigns you want to add the list to and hit save.
It’s as easy as that!
Using standard negative keyword lists can help to reduce the number of irrelevant queries that your ads appear for, helping to increase your ROI. If you aren’t already using them, now’s the time to start.
Looking for a digital marketing agency that can help you with PPC? Get in touch with us, we’re always happy to have a chat!
