New feature: Campaign negative keywords

What benefits does this bring

[Robsp]

Just saw a new feature when I logged into adwords, the ability to ad negative keywords at the campaign level.

I do not see the use at this point but I may be missing the point here. Let's hear it from the other members of this excellent forum...

[Shak]

nice :)

looks like a few peoples wishes were granted.

cheers AWA, we love ya....

Shak

Enter words manually...
Use this format: -keyword

... or use Clean Sweep.
Do your negative keywords appear in more than one Ad Group? Remove them from the Ad Group level, and add them at the campaign level.

[internetguy]

Sometimes you need broad keywords, for example, "selling widgets", and you don't want your ads to appear when certain other keywords are added, such as "free". In the past, if you have multiple adgroups in one campaign, you would have to do "-free" in each adgroup. Now, with this feature, you can do it at one shot for the whole campaign. I like it!

[your_store]

cheers AWA, we love ya

I'll second that. Now I don't have to remember to add my 50 or so global negatives to every single Ad Group. Too bad I'm going to spend my day tidying up my negatives now.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Glad you like it! ;)

I can't take any credit though. One of my favorite things to do here is to pass on what I have heard regarding desired features. Many folks here at AdWords are copied on your ideas each week.

And although every requested feature won't be included, please let me assure you that your thoughts are heard and taken seriously.

When one of those requested features makes 'prime time', I'm delighted too.

AWA

[cline]

And the winner is:

PCInk
[webmasterworld.com...]
msg #:7 4:10 am on Oct 29, 2003

"Global negative keyword list"

[PCInk]

Well, thank you!

Hey, AWA, what's the prize for this competition? ;)

[eWhisper]

Excellent feature. This is very useful for dynamic keywords where each month there seems to be a new topic associated with and more negative keywords to add -- what a great time saving feature.

[ddogg]

This is an AWESOME feature. I use the same negative words for all of my ad groups. This will save a lot of time and ensure I don't accidently miss some ad groups. Plus it will reduce the number of keywords I am using, freeing room for actual keywords.

Good work Google.

[webdiversity]

We've never been big fans of negative keywords, and adding a scattergun feature like this can only be good news for those that work hard at adwords.

Now if only we could get content syndication as an opt-in that would be great.

[eWhisper]

webdiversity,

Why have you never been a big fan of negative keywords? If properly utilized, I can only think of good reasons to use them.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Hey, AWA, what's the prize for this competition? ;)

Uhhhmm, well, OH! You get the knowledge that your requested feature appears front and center in 150,000+ AdWords accounts. And even more valuable perhaps, the accolades of your peers on WebmasterWorld!

;)

AWA

[webdiversity]

eWhisper, you are right, if properly utilized they are. I said we weren't big fans, I didn't say we don't use them......sparingly.

Typically what we've seen is broad matched keyword with 50 negatives, when one exact match might have done the same thing.

Every negative at ad group level would be validated against every keyword, now it will be at campaign level, I think many people will be cutting too deep into their potential by using them too agressively, we prefer to use tracking tools to actually see what our phrase matched searchers were looking for without any restriction and then add in exact matches or negatives if it's positive or negative results we see, but...... sparingly.

Not unlike excluded keywords in Overture and the great report that I imagine nobody uses, but that's a story for another forum!

[vanderbolt]

Does anyone or AWA know if there is a limit to the number of negative kw that one can use at the campaign level? Any downside in using a large number of negative kws?

[eWhisper]

A negative KW is treated like a KW for the max allowed.

Here is the post from AWA which covers it in detail, message 2. [webmasterworld.com...]

[PCInk]

webdiversity - it depends on what you are advertising, of course. For example, let's say you sell alarm clocks (I'm bored of widgets!). You may start your negative keyword list something like: -hate (eg I hate alarm clocks), -free, -faulty, -fault, -problem, -problems, -broke, -broken, -damage, -damaged, -destroy, -destroyed, -fuse, -fuses, -spare, -spares, -part, -parts, -switch, -switches, -display, -screen, -return (eg return alarm clock to shop), -manufaturer, -authorised (if you are not an authorised dealer), -authorized, -cable, -batteries, -battery.

And that's just for starters! You don't want people coming to your site, when they have bought a damaged clock from somewhere else - or maybe you do, but you don't want to have to pay for it!

I'm disappointed I get nothing from Google. I'm not sure I can go on....all that time on AdWords! Hey, does anyone else remember when it was pay per impression? I do - and that's when negative keywords were extremely important - you could burn through you budget in seconds if you messed up!

[logiclamp]

Anyone think the new negative keywords feature has made an impact on their current keyword campaigns?

In other words, have you seen significant changes in conversion rates since the new feature went up?