Glossary · search-ads
What is Negative keyword?
A negative keyword tells Google Ads which searches must never trigger your ad. If you sell new furniture, adding 'used', 'second hand' and 'olx' as negatives stops you paying for people who were never going to buy from you. Negatives use their own match types, and they behave more literally than normal keywords: a negative does not automatically block plurals or misspellings, so you add the variants yourself. Negatives can sit at ad group, campaign or account level, and a shared negative list saves re-entering the same words across campaigns. Building the list is an ongoing job, done by reading the search terms report every week, not a one-time setup step.
What does Negative keyword mean for a business in Pakistan?
Searches in Pakistan mix English, Urdu and Roman Urdu, so useful negatives come in all three: 'free', 'muft', 'jobs', 'naukri', 'course', 'pdf', 'olx', 'karachi'. Service businesses in the twin cities also bleed money on job seekers, because 'electrician Islamabad' attracts electricians looking for work as well as homeowners looking for one.
A worked example
A hypothetical AC repair company in Rawalpindi spends PKR 40,000 in a month. The search terms report shows PKR 6,200 of it went on 'AC technician job', 'AC repair course' and 'used AC price'. Adding 'job', 'course', 'training' and 'used' as negatives stops that leak from the next day onward.
Terms that go with this one
These come up in the same conversations and are worth reading together.
- Keyword match typesmatch typeMatch types decide how closely a person's search has to resemble your keyword before your ad can show. Google Ads has three. Exact match, written in…
- Search terms reportsearch terms reportThe search terms report lists the actual words people typed before they saw and clicked your Google ad — as opposed to the keywords you chose to bid…
- KeywordkeywordA keyword is the actual phrase a person types into a search box — one word or eight, it does not matter, the word keyword just means the query. It…
- Search intentsearch intentSearch intent is what the person actually wants when they type a phrase — information, a specific site, a comparison, or to buy right now. Two…
- Ad spendad spend / ishtihaar ka kharchaAd spend is the money that goes to the platform itself — Meta, TikTok or Google — in exchange for showing your ads. It is not the same thing as an…
Negative keyword — quick answers
What does Negative keyword mean?
A negative keyword tells Google Ads which searches must never trigger your ad. If you sell new furniture, adding 'used', 'second hand' and 'olx' as negatives stops you paying for people who were never going to buy from you.
Negative keyword ko Urdu mein kya kehte hain?
منفی کی ورڈ — though in practice almost everyone in Pakistan says "negative keyword". Searches in Pakistan mix English, Urdu and Roman Urdu, so useful negatives come in all three: 'free', 'muft', 'jobs', 'naukri', 'course', 'pdf', 'olx', 'karachi'.
Why does Negative keyword matter for a business in Pakistan?
Searches in Pakistan mix English, Urdu and Roman Urdu, so useful negatives come in all three: 'free', 'muft', 'jobs', 'naukri', 'course', 'pdf', 'olx', 'karachi'. Service businesses in the twin cities also bleed money on job seekers, because 'electrician Islamabad' attracts electricians looking for work as well as homeowners looking for one.
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