Negative Keyword Starter List template.

What's inside — the exact file

This is the complete template, not a sample. The rows are worked examples — replace them with your data (and delete them before any platform import).

What this template is for

The fastest ROAS improvement in most accounts isn't a better ad — it's not paying for garbage clicks. This is a thirty-term negative keyword starter list covering the waste patterns nearly every B2B account bleeds on: job seekers, freebie hunters, DIY researchers, students, and navigational traffic looking for someone else's login page.

Each row carries the keyword, a recommended match type, its category, and — the column that makes it a teaching document — why it's there. Review before applying: a few rows cut real traffic for some businesses (a training company wants 'course' searches; almost nobody else does).

How to use it, step by step

1. Review every row against your business. Thirty terms, two minutes each. 'Free' is poison for most B2B and essential for freemium; 'jobs' is waste unless you're recruiting via search. Delete rows that describe your actual customers.
2. Create a shared negative keyword list. In Google Ads under Tools → Shared library, build one list and apply it across campaigns — negatives managed per-campaign drift out of sync within a month.
3. Respect the match types. Phrase negatives block any search containing the phrase; exact negatives block only that search. The pre-filled match types are deliberate — broadening them can block traffic you want.
4. Mine your search terms report monthly. This list blocks the predictable waste. Your own search terms report reveals the unpredictable kind — add what you find to the shared list, and the list compounds in value.
5. Watch for over-blocking after applying. Check impression volume on core campaigns for a week. A sudden drop means a negative is catching intended traffic — the why column tells you which candidate to suspect.

What each column means

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying all thirty blind — at least a few rows describe someone's real customers; make sure they're not yours.
• Using broad-match negatives casually: negative broad blocks searches containing all the words in any order, which is stricter than most people expect and quieter about it.
• Setting negatives once and never mining search terms — the starter list is a floor, not a strategy.
• Forgetting Performance Max needs its own exclusion handling — as of July 2026, campaign-level negative support varies by campaign type; verify where your list actually applies.

Questions, answered

How much waste do negatives actually cut?

It varies too much to quote a universal number honestly — but the mechanism is certain: every blocked junk click is budget redirected to intended searches. In audit after audit, the search terms report of an unmanaged account is where the budget leak is visible line by line.

Phrase vs. exact negatives — quick rule?

Phrase blocks any search containing the phrase ('free crm' blocks 'best free crm tools'). Exact blocks only the exact search. Use phrase for waste patterns, exact for surgical blocks where the word is sometimes legitimate.

Do negative keywords work on Performance Max?

Support has been expanding — as of July 2026, campaign-level negative keywords are available for PMax, with account-level negatives as the blanket layer. Apply your shared list at the account level so PMax respects the same hygiene.

This is a Market Disrupt worksheet, not a vendor file. Import-format templates follow each platform's documented layout as of July 2026 — platforms evolve, so validate against current documentation before a large import.