Negative keywords don't seem to be working?

Do I not understand how they work?

[limitup]

I thought the concept of negative keywords was pretty straightforward, but it doesn't seem to work that way.

Our ads are showing for terms like "red widgets for kids" even though we have the word kids listed as a negative keyword at the campaign level. Why would this be?

[poster_boy]

Are the keywords containing "kids" on Broad Match?

[toddb]

does broad match override negatives?

[limitup]

No I don't have any broad match keywords at all in my entire account. Only phrase and exact matches.

[poster_boy]

does broad match override negatives?

Don't mean to take this thread off-topic, but yes - expanded broad match can do this. Your broad-matched 'spectacular widget' keyword may still get traffic even if you have 'spectacular' as a negative keyword. Google may match it to queries of 'astonishing widgets' or the like.

To the OP - I'm sorry, I'm not aware of why this would occur with Phrase or Exact match... it can't be expanded matching:

From Adwords Help:

Expanded matching only applies to your broad-matched keywords. This feature doesn't affect keywords you've specified as phrase matches (keywords surrounded by double quotation marks) or exact matches (keywords surrounded by [] brackets).

[toddb]

poster boy thanks for that. i did not know that.

[eWhisper]

I would also make sure you don't have a keyword in another campaign that is causing your ad to show.

If you use the ad diagnostic tool, it will show you which ads are eligible to show for a particular query.

[limitup]

Doh. Turns out it was an affiliate of ours promoting our site. They basically copied one of our own in-house ads so I didn't even notice that it wasn't our ad. lol

Thanks for the replies...

[RonnieG]

[quote]Don't mean to take this thread off-topic, but yes - expanded broad match can do this. Your broad-matched 'spectacular widget' keyword may still get traffic even if you have 'spectacular' as a negative keyword. Google may match it to queries of 'astonishing widgets' or the like.{/quote]
Sorry poster_boy, but my own experience is that negative keywords do effectively block the intended word, even with expanded broad match in play. The problem is usually that consumers will misspell a word that is supposed to be a negative, and if they do, their misspelled word does not exactly match the negative keyword. Negative keywords seem to be exact match only. I have had to include many common misspellings in my negative word lists, as well as synonyms that G may like, but I don't want, even with broad match.

[mike_ppc]

Anyway, to make it simple : if you have "widget" in broad match and you add -widget (negative), you will still get traffic for that keyword.

[poster_boy]

Sorry poster_boy, but my own experience is that negative keywords do effectively block the intended word, even with expanded broad match in play. The problem is usually that consumers will misspell a word that is supposed to be a negative, and if they do, their misspelled word does not exactly match the negative keyword. Negative keywords seem to be exact match only.

I think we've experienced the same issue. Evidenced by this statement:

I have had to include ... synonyms that G may like, but I don't want, even with broad match.

The moral of the story is... if you have a keyword that you do not want seeing the light of day - including a negative keyword of a word in that keyword will not ensure that keyword will not get exposure. The safest bet is to delete the keywords in question.

[RonnieG]

The safest bet is to delete the keywords in question.

Not an option, since these keywords are the "guts" of my entire campaign. Detailed examination of web logs for expanded broad match phrases that G send to the site, and constant expansion of negative word lists, has been the only solution. As to negative keywords not blocking effectively, my experience is not the same as yours. I have "cloned" new client campaigns from existing ones, including negative keywords, and the new ads don't show if the new keywords in the adgroups include words that are in the cloned campaign negative keywords list. I have to delete the negative campaign keywords for the ads to work, than put the deleted negative keywords into whatever other adgroups in the same campaign still need to have them.

[poster_boy]

My point to the OP is that additional efforts are needed to prevent certain keywords from showing - outside of including a word from the keyword as a negative keyword. Reasons include - misspellings, Google expanded match synonyms, and more.

Details aside, your efforts to prevent unwanted queries from matching to your keywords support that this is the case.