Account level negative keywords allow advertisers to exclude specific search terms from every campaign in a Google Ads account, including Performance Max. By applying these exclusions, you prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant queries or brand terms that do not align with your current strategy. This feature provides a consistent layer of defense across all campaign types, ensuring that your automated bidding models focus on the most qualified traffic while maintaining overall spend efficiency.
Why is account level control necessary for Performance Max?
Performance Max campaigns rely heavily on automated bidding and audience signals to find conversions. While this automation is designed to improve performance, it sometimes targets search terms that are not relevant to your business goals. Without a mechanism to block specific queries, you might see your budget spent on low-quality traffic that fails to convert. Account level negative keywords act as a global filter that stops these unwanted impressions before they happen, giving you a baseline of control over the automated systems.
In a typical account, you might find that your ads appear for competitor names or non-converting informational searches. If you have multiple campaigns running, managing these exclusions individually can become labor-intensive. By setting these keywords at the account level, you ensure that the exclusion applies immediately across all campaigns, including those using Smart Bidding. This creates a standardized environment where your ads only serve for searches that meet your defined criteria for intent and relevance.
How to set up account level negative keywords
To apply these exclusions, you must navigate to the Account Settings menu in your Google Ads dashboard. From the left-hand navigation pane, select Settings, then click on Account settings. Within this section, look for the Negative keywords option. This interface allows you to add specific words or phrases that you want to block entirely. Once saved, Google Ads processes these exclusions and prevents your campaigns from serving ads on those specific search terms.
What are the common use cases for negative keyword lists?
Most advertisers use this feature to manage brand protection or to exclude internal traffic. For example, if you manage a Shopify store selling home appliances, you might want to exclude terms related to repair services if you only sell new products. By using a negative keyword list, you can manage these terms in one place and apply them to the entire account. This ensures that any new campaign you launch will automatically inherit these protections, reducing the risk of accidental overspend on irrelevant traffic.
- Exclude competitor brand names that drain your budget without providing conversions.
- Block search terms related to free services if you only offer premium paid solutions.
- Filter out job search terms if you are not currently hiring for specific roles.
- Remove internal company terms or branded search queries that you want to manage through separate, manual search campaigns.
How Alien Road applies negative keywords
At Alien Road, we follow a structured process to maintain account health through consistent exclusion management. In a typical engagement, we conduct an audit of search term reports across the entire account before implementing any new campaign structure. We identify high-frequency, low-intent queries that appear across multiple campaign types and add these to a shared negative keyword list at the account level. This ensures that the automated systems powering Performance Max are not wasting impressions on keywords that have historically failed to produce meaningful results for our clients.
Our team monitors these lists on a monthly basis to ensure they remain current with market shifts. For example, if a client changes their product line, we update the account level exclusions to reflect those changes immediately. This keeps the account clean and focused on high-conversion paths. By centralizing this process, we reduce the time spent on manual optimization while maintaining high standards for traffic quality across all platforms managed within the Google Ads environment.
Performance Max vs. Search Campaigns: A comparison
| Feature | Performance Max | Search Campaign |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword Control | Account Level Only | Campaign/Ad Group |
| Matching Logic | Automated Intent | Manual Match Types |
| Exclusion Speed | Immediate (Account) | Immediate (Campaign) |
Can negative keywords stop all irrelevant traffic?
While account level negative keywords are a strong tool, they are not a complete solution for managing traffic. Performance Max campaigns still use a wide array of signals beyond just text-based search queries, such as user location, interest categories, and past browsing behavior. Negative keywords only filter out specific search terms, so they will not prevent your ads from showing based on audience segments or other non-keyword-based criteria. It is essential to combine these exclusions with other optimization tactics.
For instance, you might use audience signals to direct your campaigns toward high-value users, even if they search for broad terms. You should also regularly review your placement reports to exclude specific websites or mobile apps that perform poorly. By layering different types of exclusions, you build a more reliable defense against wasted ad spend. Remember that the goal is to guide the algorithm toward better outcomes, not to micromanage every single impression that the system generates.
Where to start this week
Start by reviewing your search term report from the last 30 days. Identify any themes that consistently lead to clicks but result in zero conversions or high bounce rates. Create a new negative keyword list in your shared library and add these terms. Apply this list to your account level settings to ensure all campaigns, including Performance Max, are immediately updated. Check your account performance after one week to see if there is an improvement in your conversion rates and average cost per conversion.
- Export search query data for the last 90 days to find patterns.
- Categorize irrelevant terms into themes like competitors, freebie seekers, and internal traffic.
- Create a dedicated negative keyword list in the Shared Library.
- Apply the list to the entire account through the Account settings section.
- Set a calendar reminder to review search terms once a month for new exclusions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do account level negative keywords apply to all campaign types?
Yes, once you add a negative keyword at the account level, it applies to all campaigns in that specific account. This includes Performance Max, Search, Shopping, and Display campaigns. It is a global setting designed to ensure that specific terms you deem irrelevant are never targeted by your ads, providing a unified exclusion strategy that covers your entire advertising footprint.
Can I remove negative keywords later?
Yes, you can remove or edit your account level negative keywords at any time. Simply navigate back to the Account settings menu, locate your negative keyword list, and remove the specific terms that you no longer wish to block. The changes will be applied to your account shortly after you save your updates, allowing your campaigns to bid on those search terms again.
How many negative keywords can I add at the account level?
Google Ads allows for a significant number of negative keywords at the account level. While there is a limit per list, you can create multiple lists and apply them as needed. For most businesses, the current limits are more than sufficient to cover all necessary brand protection and irrelevant term exclusions without running into capacity issues in a typical account setup.
Will negative keywords hurt my Performance Max performance?
Using negative keywords correctly will not hurt your performance; instead, it usually improves it by preventing wasted spend on traffic that does not convert. However, you should avoid adding too many broad negative keywords, as this might restrict the reach of your campaign unnecessarily. Always focus on excluding terms that are clearly irrelevant or detrimental to your specific business goals.
How do I check if a keyword is already excluded?
You can check your existing exclusions by visiting the Shared Library in your Google Ads dashboard. Click on the Negative keyword lists section to see all active lists and the specific keywords included in each. This view makes it easy to verify your current settings and identify which terms are blocked at the account level before adding new ones.
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