Google Ads Negative Keyword List: 500+ Terms by Industry

Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches. Without a strong negative keyword list, you are paying for clicks from people who will never become customers — job seekers, students doing research, competitors clicking your ads, and people looking for something completely different than what you sell.

The impact is massive. The average Google Ads account wastes 20-40% of its budget on irrelevant search terms. For a business spending $5,000/month, that is $1,000-$2,000 wasted every month. Adding the right negative keywords can cut this waste within days.

This guide provides ready-to-use negative keyword lists organized by industry. Copy the relevant lists into your Google Ads account, customize for your specific business, and start saving immediately. For a deeper strategy guide, see our post on building a negative keyword strategy.

These terms are almost never relevant for commercial advertisers. Add them at the account level as phrase match negatives:

Job & Career Terms

job, jobs, career, careers, hiring, salary, salaries, resume, interview, internship, internships, volunteer, employment, recruiter, recruiting, glassdoor, indeed, linkedin, work from home, remote job, part time job, full time job

Education & Research Terms

free, definition, define, what is, meaning, example, examples, template, templates, sample, pdf, download, thesis, essay, dissertation, coursera, udemy, tutorial, course, class, certification, Wikipedia, reddit, quora, forum

Competitor & Brand Confusion

login, log in, sign in, signin, password, reset password, customer service, phone number, support, contact, complaint, refund, cancel, cancellation

Low-Intent Modifiers

cheap, cheapest, free, discount, coupon, deal, used, scam, review, reviews, vs, versus, comparison, alternative, alternatives, meme, funny, joke

Important: Review the "free" and "cheap" terms before adding. If you offer a free tier or competitive pricing, some of these may be relevant. Customize based on your business model.

E-commerce advertisers face unique irrelevant traffic sources. Add these alongside the universal list:

DIY & Informational

how to make, how to build, DIY, homemade, handmade, recipe, instructions, plans, blueprint, pattern, sewing pattern, crochet pattern, woodworking plans

Rental & Temporary

rent, rental, lease, borrow, lend, secondhand, second hand, thrift, consignment, pawn, trade in, swap, exchange

Wrong Intent

repair, fix, broken, parts, replacement part, manual, warranty, recall, return policy, sizing chart, care instructions, washing instructions

Non-Commercial Modifiers

wholesale, bulk, manufacturer, factory, supplier, dropship, dropshipping, white label, private label, reseller, affiliate, clearance, liquidation, closeout, overstock, B2B

For e-commerce specifically, also add negative keywords for product categories you do not sell. If you sell women's shoes but not men's, add "mens" and "men's" as negatives to all shoe campaigns.

SaaS companies often attract clicks from people looking for free alternatives, open-source solutions, or self-hosted options. Add these negatives:

Open Source & Free Alternatives

open source, open-source, free software, free tool, free alternative, freeware, self hosted, self-hosted, on premise, on-premise, community edition, free tier only, cracked, pirated, crack, keygen, serial key, activation code

Technical & Developer

github, stackoverflow, stack overflow, code example, source code, API documentation, SDK, library, npm package, pip install, documentation, docs, changelog, release notes, bug report, issue tracker

Non-Buyer Intent

interview question, case study, whitepaper, research paper, market size, market share, revenue, funding, IPO, acquisition, news, stock price, glassdoor, salary, who founded, history of

Wrong Product Category

hardware, physical, plugin, extension, addon, add-on, WordPress plugin, Shopify app, Chrome extension, spreadsheet, Excel, Google Sheet

SaaS companies should also maintain competitor-specific negatives. If someone searches "Optmyzr login" they are an existing Optmyzr customer, not a prospect. Add competitor brand + "login" and "support" as negatives.

Local businesses need to filter out non-local and non-transactional traffic:

Geographic Negatives

Add cities, states, and regions where you do not operate as negative keywords. If you are a plumber in Austin, add "Dallas", "Houston", "San Antonio" etc. as negatives. Also add "near me" variants for services you do not offer.

DIY & Self-Service

how to, DIY, do it yourself, tutorial, guide, instructions, fix it myself, self repair, self install, YouTube, video

Non-Customer Intent

franchise, franchise cost, start a business, license, certification, training, school, class, become a, how to become, salary, hourly rate, cost to start, business plan, insurance requirements

Service-Specific

For service businesses, add negatives for services you do not offer. A residential plumber should add "commercial", "industrial", "municipal". A family dentist should add "cosmetic", "orthodontist", or "oral surgeon" if those are not offered.

Healthcare advertisers must be especially careful about irrelevant traffic due to high CPCs:

Information-Only Searches

symptoms, causes, signs, diagnosis, prognosis, stages, life expectancy, survival rate, is it contagious, home remedy, home remedies, natural cure, natural treatment, herbal, holistic, alternative medicine

Professional & Education

medical school, nursing school, residency, fellowship, board certification, CME, continuing education, journal article, clinical trial, study, research, pubmed, NIH

Insurance & Cost Research

insurance, covered by insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, cost without insurance, financial assistance, charity care, pro bono, sliding scale, free clinic, low income

Healthcare is one of the most expensive verticals in Google Ads, with average CPCs above $5-10. Every irrelevant click hurts significantly. A thorough Google Ads audit for healthcare accounts often finds 30-50% wasted spend on informational queries.

Real estate advertisers attract heavy research traffic. Filter out non-buyers:

Rental & Non-Purchase

rent, rental, lease, apartment, apartments, roommate, sublet, sublease, room for rent, shared housing, temporary housing, Airbnb, short term rental, vacation rental

Research & Data

crime rate, school rating, school district ranking, demographics, population, census, property tax rate, HOA fees, average home price, market forecast, bubble, crash, when to buy, when to sell

Professional Searches

real estate license, how to become a realtor, real estate exam, real estate school, commission rate, MLS access, brokerage, join a team, recruiting, real estate career

Non-Local Modifiers

Add zip codes, neighborhoods, and areas outside your service area. If you sell homes in North Austin, add South Austin neighborhoods as negatives to avoid wasted spend.

There are three ways to add negative keywords, each appropriate for different situations:

• Account-level (shared list) — Best for universal negatives that apply to all campaigns. Create a shared negative keyword list in the Shared Library and apply it to all campaigns. This is the most efficient approach for the universal list above.
• Campaign-level — Best for terms that are relevant to some campaigns but not others. For example, if you have separate campaigns for "running shoes" and "dress shoes," add "running" as a campaign-level negative on the dress shoes campaign.
• Ad group-level — Best for fine-tuning within a campaign. Use sparingly, as too many ad group-level negatives create a maintenance headache.

Match type matters. Negative keywords support broad, phrase, and exact match — but they work differently than regular keywords. Negative broad match blocks searches containing all terms (in any order). Negative phrase match blocks searches containing the exact phrase. Use phrase match for most negatives, exact match for specific terms you want to block precisely.

Maintaining negative keyword lists is an ongoing process, not a one-time task. New irrelevant search terms appear every week as search behavior evolves. AdWhiz automates this in two ways:

• Audit-driven recommendations — Every AdWhiz audit includes a negative keyword analysis that surfaces search terms consuming budget without converting. You can review and add them in one click.
• AI-powered search term analysis — Through the MCP integration, you can ask Claude to analyze your search terms report and add negative keywords in a single conversation. Say "Review my search terms for the last 30 days and add irrelevant terms as negatives," and it handles the analysis and execution.

The combination of a solid baseline list (from this guide) plus ongoing automated monitoring (from AdWhiz) creates a defense system that continuously reduces wasted spend. Check your subscription options to get started with automated negative keyword management.