Right now I have them listed individually at the end of the keyword list. (-badword) Is that incorrect? Do the negitive words have to be on each line for each keyword? That would be so much work, so I hope not (doesn't seem like Google's savvy way)
I keep getting CTR warnings, so I am really appreciate that y'all are around and can help faster than finding out from Google a day later. It can get "expensive" fast. Thanks for any help!
EG
Correct "widgets -free"
Incorrect "widgets"
"-free"
Make sure you are also using your [ ] and " ".
more work? You need to do some programming. That's what the right mouse button is for. (copy copy copy copy copy)
negitives can be stacked on same line though right?
widgets -free -photos -sample
is okay?
time to fire up notepad I guess, lol
widgets
-widgets free
-widgets cheap
-widgets photos
-widgets samples
etc.
right?
whew, thanks
Last time i tried to add negative keywords and added them on the the same line e.g. widgets -free , Google came back and told me they had to be on separate lines.
So the correct method is you have to add a few lines for each keyword with a "-" at the beggining right? e.g.
widgets
widgets blue
-widgets free
-widgets cheap
-widgets blue free
-widgets blue cheap
etc?
so just
-free
on a line by itself does nothing right?
If so, its a lot of work as we have around 30 terms for each campaign and that means each term now has to have another line with a full list of all our 20 negative keywords..
e.g.
widgets blue red
-widgets free cheap green example sample blah blah blah2 blah 3
So just checking before i commit myself this to work...
this is correct, bad words BEFORE the good word only one per line:
-free widgets
-sample widgets
-trial widgets
if you had only that in the keyword box, you will get
searchs for anything with widgets EXCEPT with the word
free, sample or trial in the search phrase
DO NOT add just the plain word widgets on a line
because that overrides all of the above and you will
get any and all searches for widgets
adding just
-free
on a blank line doesn't do a darn thing
because that just tells Google to NOT show your
add if someone enters the word free in any kind of search
the WORST MISTAKE you can make apparently is to
flip around the negitive word:
-widgets free <----- DON'T DO THIS
because you will get shown for all searches for
the word free , except for when the phrase has
widgets in it! LOL
widget
-free
will return an ad for any string containing "widget" except if it also includes free. Of course I had to double check because you sounded so sure that I doubted myself for a minute. The method I describe above is correct.
You should read the google adwords faq for examples.
I do something like the following in my Awords campaigns and it works:
widgets
-red
Basically any phrase with widgets gets shown except any word combination with "red" in it.
I had a very simple keyword list
word1
word2
word3
and then
-free
and when I went into google to test it (after waiting a minute for it to update) and searched for "free word1"
my ad WAS shown
then I went back and changed the
-free
to
-free word1
and sure enough the ad did NOT show for "free word1"
but it did show for just "word1"
Try it yourself and see, again I could easily be wrong, all I know is that multiple tests now prove to me the ad is showing the way I want it to and my wasted impressions are gone (whew)
after waiting a minute for it to update
This could be your problem
I usually wait a lot longer than that, the time it takes for the changes to take effect varies a lot - don't ask me why.
If you think about it, Google treats each new line with any keyword listing as an independant listing for that ad.
word1
word2
word3
do NOT affect each other, they are independant
So then by itself
-free
should NOT affect any previous lines, only itself
which is why I think its working for me now with
word1
-free word1
-trial word1
When I had this, it did NOT work
word1
-free
-trial
the ad was STILL shown in searches for "word1 free"
(no matter how long I waited for an update)
make up some fake words into a fresh campaign and
experiment yourself, I am too nervous to tinker further
since its all working now
just did a test on mine by actually qurying google.
for a campaign with..
keyword1 keyword2
-free
keyword1 keyword2
came up with my ad
keyword1 keyword2 free
brought up all the competing ads same as before EXCEPT mine wasnt there...
Could there be a complexity here like running diff campagins with shared keywords, or the use of "" and []. We stopped using quotes and brackets as once you go for 3 or 4 keywords like us, they dont help much in our case in reducing off topic impressions and clicks.
So it seems for the moment, will leave my campaigns as is
kw1 kw2
kw1 kw3
-free
-babes
-pics
seeing as they seem to show for all times the keywords in one line are used together in a query, unless any of the 3 neg kws at the bottom are also used in the query.
How are you tracking Adwords hits? Are you sure, bu using a tracking extension or something like that, that you are only counting adowrds hits, and not normal google hits as well?
Given what you are saying, and the fact I am inclined to believe you have much more experience at this than me, perhaps I am the "victim" of the delay as google updates the ad display. It just spooked me badly because the search word was far too popular and even while I scrambled to add the negitive keywords, 500+ more impressions came in.
The delay will throw adword newbies (like me) for sure. In another example: I deleted a keyword after it only had 30 impressions, then when it refreshed, there were 100 more impressions on that word so it was held against the CTR. I guess its just the downside of Google being so huge - great exposure but you gotta pay close attention when getting started because bad things can happen very, very fast.
Do you think that there is an added delay in statistic feedback when the ad is allowed to syndicate vs. being only in the main Google search engine? I am thinking its a good suggestion for adword newbies to NOT allow the ad to sydicate until they get some real-world stats (especially since you only need a 0.5% CTR on non-syndication) Google might consider making the ad DEFAULT to non-syndication and then advise the advertiser 48 hours later to consider it.
I really appreciate the discussion, webmasterworld rocks!
I have used:
widget
-free
since Spring 2001 (original AdWords) and the above must work because I increased the clickthrough from 0.1/0.2% to over 4% by adding negatives after examining log files.
sorry for the mis-information.
It even tells you that the keyword is a negative word.
So you have your list of keywords and then you have the negatives. But obviously in exact match [ ] it doesn't matter because the search term will only be shown when someone types in the keyword exactly.
It is far easier to use a tracking tool to see the search strings that are being used and then eliminate the ones that are not converting rather than just thinking that some of the generic ones (like free) will be the ones to use as negative keywords.
However the lag time on statistics was definitely a problem and Google actually admitted/apologized to me and gave me a partial refund! That was impressive, I didn't even ask for it. Can't beat that for great attitude.
Where do I put the minus if its gotta be in 2 lines like this thread says?
I really did try to find the answer... please help.
Just realize that once you save this, you can't just
go test your ad right away, it will STILL show for the
next 10-90 minutes for those words, which will throw
you off and you'll think you did something wrong when
you have not. Good luck with your campaign!
-aV-
I'm still not sure how to do it though...
Is this correct:
keyword ** max.cost ** target URL
-free
-demo
keyword phrase ** max.cost ** target URL
-free
-demo
etc.
?
Some more advice after doing this for 2 weeks now, break up your words into logical groups and create seperate campaigns for each group so you can evaluate how each set is doing (before it gets shut down for low ctr)
You may even want to disable syndication for one campaign or another if you are not sure at first how its going to do so you don't get overrun by "wasted" impresions too quickly. Non-syndication only has to have 0.5% click through (because its only shown on "real" google and not the partners like AOLsearch, earthlink search, etc)
Good luck! -aV-
**************
1) Advert group #1
blue widgets
red widgets
yellow widgets
-free
2) Advert group #2
pink widgets
orange widgets
purple widgets
-discounted
-discount
-low price
***********
OK: You advert #1 will display if someone types in "blue widgets" but not "free blue widgets". It will also appear if a search for "low price red widgets" is entered.
On the other hand, "free pink widgets" will show your advert #2. But, "low price pink widgets" will not show any advert.
The negative wordlist applies to the WHOLE group. If you need different negative words, you need to set up different advert groups or different campains (where you get a nice new empty box for entering the keywords).
Thanks and happy New Year!
