Open Negative Keyword Movement

[shorebreak]

One of the world's top 50 paid search advertisers said that if they made their negative keyword list available to the AdWords masses - and assuming advertisers implemented that negative keyword list or the portion thereof relevant to them - paid search industry revenues would go down 15-20% overnight.

[mustan9]

They'd likely sneak in their paid keywords so competitors wouldn't be bidding on them. :)

[exmoorbeast]

so what is their account CTR. If it's less than 5%, then my gut tells me they are off the boil.

Very interesting point though. I would hazard a guess that the number would be in single digits.

The industry is that broad and diverse now, and there is no single player that spends *that* much.

[buckworks]

If advertisers got better at using negative keywords I don't think that paid search industry revenues would go down, in fact I think quite the opposite.

If I as an advertiser can find more ways to improve the targeting of my campaigns and make the spend more productive, I'm likely to increase my spending, not reduce it.

[exmoorbeast]

yeah that's the point for sure. is there a movement?

I saw a list for sale with 3000 negatives and I was rather un impressed with that number. We've got more than that and we think we are rather bad. You can also Google for the worlds largest negative list from 2006 and that's free, although it's not a one size fits all deal.

Notwithstanding that, it's a very neat idea, so I am happy to send you my email address and you can forward them on shorebreak! ;-)

[RhinoFish]

google's new interface makes it much easier to now grow you custom tailored list of negs!

[exmoorbeast]

Thanks Rhino Fish

I came out of retirement this month, and you have just made my day with a ststement like that.

Do you spend a long time getting negatives then? Does it really help push up the ctr?

It would be great if Google would let you know what people searched for that didn't click your add. Or do they already do this? Is this where they get their negative suggestions from?

Thanks again

[RhinoFish]

No (cuz it doesn't take long).
Yes.
Yes.
Not really - there's the automated suggestions, which is a nice tool. then there's you looking through the new tab to see what searches have triggered your ad.

read about both the neg keyword tool, and how to pluck negs from the records of searches, here:
[adwords.google.com...]

hint, do both.

[pavlovapete]

Interesting idea.

Of course if advertisers worked collectively then collective bargaining power (and resulting shifts in pricing) would follow.

Lots of examples of this happening throughout human history.

I recall looking at the bid gaps in Yahoo's old interface and thinking along a similar line.

However it is probably against the TOS.