The Role of Negative Keywords in Optimizing Pay Per Click Campaigns Sydney

These keywords are the search terms that you filter out and exclude from your pay per click campaign in Sydney for different reasons. When a keyword is identified as a negative keyword for a particular PPC ad, your ad will not appear in searches where the negative keywords are included. As a result, irrelevant traffic can be filtered out so that your PPC ads only reach the interested target audience.

For instance, if you sell premium women’s shoes, you would want to include "women’s shoes" as a targeted keyword. However, you might want to add "cheap" as a negative keyword to avoid attracting bargain hunters who are unlikely to convert into paying customers.

One of the primary advantages of using negative keywords is that they enhance the relevance of your ads. If your ads appear for broad search terms that are not related to your ad’s purpose, users who are actually looking for the service that our ad offers are unlikely to see your ad. In order to direct your ad to the target audience searching for the products or services your ad caters to, you need to add negative keywords that exclude irrelevant search terms. This can also lead to higher click through rates and improve your Quality Score on platforms like Google Ads.

Without negative keywords, the number of wasted impressions and clicks increases as well, hurting the overall performance of your ad.

You can also save ad spending when users not interested in your products or services don’t click on your ad due to the inclusion of an effective negative keyword strategy.

01. Analyse Search Query Reports

One of the most effective ways to identify negative keywords is to review your search query reports. These reports provide insights into the actual terms users are entering when they see your ads. By examining these queries, you can pinpoint irrelevant terms that are triggering your ads but not leading to conversions​.

02. Use Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools, such as Google Ads Keyword Planner and SEMrush, can help you identify potential negative keywords. These tools provide data on related search terms and their performance metrics, allowing you to filter out terms that don’t align with your business goals​.

03. Consider Common Misspellings and Variations

Sometimes, users search for your products using common misspellings or variations of your keywords. If these terms attract unwanted clicks, adding them as negative keywords can prevent your ads from showing in these instances.

When implementing negative keywords, it is important to update the negative keyword list regularly since your business’s product portfolio as well as the target audience changes over time.

It’s advisable to use broad and phrase match types to encompass variations or any related terms when adding negative keywords.

When monitoring campaign performance, if there is a sudden drop in CTR or an increase in irrelevant clicks, it is time to revisit the negative keyword strategy.

Every click counts when it comes to PPC marketing in Sydney. Understanding how negative keywords can be used to improve the performance of PPC ads in your performance marketing campaign is one of the best ways to optimise your digital marketing efforts for profit based outputs.

Since negative keywords have a positive impact on the engagement rates and conversion rates of a pay per click campaign, digital marketing experts at AT Digital will continuously optimise your negative keyword list for you when running your PPC marketing campaign. Click here to start your PPC marketing campaign now.