Negative Keyword Match Types in Google Ads: The 2026 Guide

What are negative keywords in Google Ads?

A negative keyword is a word or phrase you add to Google Ads so your ad won't show when someone's search contains it. Google's definition: negative keywords "let you exclude search terms from your campaigns and help you focus on only the keywords that matter to your customers."

Keywords decide which searches your ad can show for. Negative keywords decide which ones it can't. You need both, because modern keyword matching is broad. A broad match keyword "will match all the searches of equivalent phrase and exact match keywords, plus additional related searches", in Google's words, and AI Max widens that further. Every widening brings in searches you don't want to pay for.

Google's own example is an optometrist who sells eyeglasses adding "wine glasses" and "drinking glasses" as negatives. Ours, from running ads for a Singapore care home, is "nursing home jobs": a search with real volume, the right words, and zero chance of becoming a resident.

How do the three negative keyword match types work?

Each negative keyword match type has its own symbol when you add it:

Negative match type	How you add it	Blocks a search that...
Negative broad match	nursing home jobs	contains all the words, in any order
Negative phrase match	"nursing home jobs"	contains the words in the same order, with anything before or after
Negative exact match	[nursing home jobs]	is exactly those words, in that order, with nothing extra

Here's what each one does to five real-looking searches:

Negative broad match

This is the default: type the words with no symbols. Your ad won't show "if the search contains all your negative keyword terms, even if the terms are in a different order". It can still show if the search contains only some of them. A one-word negative broad match keyword, such as jobs, blocks every search containing that word, which is why single words are the workhorse of most negative keyword lists.

Negative phrase match

Put the words in quotation marks. Your ad won't show if the search contains "the exact keyword terms in the same order", with or without extra words around them. Use it when the order changes the meaning: a negative phrase match "free trial" blocks "free trial gym singapore" but not "trial of a free consultation".

Negative exact match

Put the words in square brackets. Your ad won't show only if the search is exactly those words with nothing added. It's the narrowest type: use it to block one specific search while keeping its longer, more useful versions. A clinic might add [dentist] as a negative exact match to stop paying for the vaguest search, while keeping "dentist orchard road open sunday".

What do negative keywords not do?

Four rules from Google that catch people out:

1. No close variants. "Negative keywords won't match to close variants or other expansions." Google's example: excluding flowers blocks "red flowers" but not "red flower". You need to add singular and plural forms, and synonyms, yourself.
2. Casing and misspellings are handled. Google says negative keywords "automatically account for casing and misspellings", so you don't need [Dentist] and [dentist].
3. Only the first 16 words count. If your negative word is the 17th word of a long search, the ad can still show.
4. Some symbols are ignored. You can use ampersands (&), accents (á) and asterisks (*). Periods are ignored, "site:" is stripped out, and a minus sign in front of a word makes Google ignore that word. "Socks & shoes" and "socks and shoes" are different negatives.

Where can you add negative keywords?

Level	Applies to	Limit
Ad group	One ad group	Counts towards the campaign's limit
Campaign	Every ad group in one campaign	10,000 negative keywords per campaign
Negative keyword list	Every campaign you apply it to	20 lists per account, 5,000 keywords each
Account level	All Search and Shopping inventory, including Performance Max	1,000 negative keywords
Display and Video	Those campaigns	1,000 considered; all treated as broad match

Use the level that matches the reason:

• Account level for words that are never right for the business: "jobs", "career", "salary", "free" for most service businesses, and competitor names if you've decided not to bid on them.
• Negative keyword lists for themes shared by several campaigns: a "Not our services" list for a clinic, or an "Other countries" list for a business that only serves Singapore.
• Campaign level to stop campaigns competing with each other. If you run a brand campaign, add your brand name as a negative to the non-brand campaigns so each search goes to the campaign meant for it.
• Ad group level to steer searches to the right ad group: add [teeth whitening] as a negative exact match in the general dental ad group so the search lands in the whitening ad group with the whitening ad.

How do negative keywords work in Performance Max and AI Max?

Performance Max used to be the hard case: each campaign could take only 100 negative keywords. In March 2025 Google raised the limit to 10,000 per campaign, and Google's help page now lets you add them by campaign or through an existing negative keyword list. Two rules: Performance Max negatives apply to Search and Shopping inventory only, and account-level negatives apply to Performance Max automatically. Google also shows an estimate of the impact before you add a negative to a Performance Max campaign.

AI Max for Search matches your ads to searches beyond your keywords. Google's answer to whether it respects negatives is a plain "Yes. Negative keywords will be respected even with AI Max turned on." That makes a well-kept negative keyword list one of the few direct controls you have over where AI Max spends.

How do you find negative keywords?

From the search terms report: Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms. It shows the actual searches that triggered your ads, with their clicks, cost and conversions. Two things to know:

• Not every search is listed. Google omits search terms that don't have enough query activity, "in order to keep with our standards on data privacy". Search terms insights groups those into themes, so check both.
• The match type column shows which keyword caught each search, which tells you whether a broad match keyword is wandering.

Go through the last 30 days and sort by cost. For each search that can't become a customer, add the word that makes it wrong as a negative, not the whole search. "Nursing home jobs singapore" needs jobs (and job), not the full search, or tomorrow's "elderly care jobs" gets through.

Before you go live with a new account, build a starter negative keyword list from what you already know won't buy. For most of our clients that includes job searches (jobs, career, hiring, salary, internship), DIY and education searches (how to, course, diy, template), and anything free when the service isn't.

What mistakes cost money?

Other mistakes we see in audits:

• Negatives only in exact match. Each one blocks one search, and the next variation gets through. Prefer the single word that disqualifies the search.
• Forgetting the plural. Because negatives don't match close variants, "job" and "jobs" are two negatives.
• Too many negatives. Google's own caution: "If you use too many negative keywords, your ads might reach fewer customers." Exclude searches that can't buy, not searches that buy less often.
• Never reviewing. The searches change every month. A list built at launch and never touched is out of date by the second month.

What difference does it make?

For Red Crowns Senior Living, a senior-living provider in Singapore, cost per lead fell from S$20.25 in Q1 2021 to S$4.31 in Q4 2022 across 2,380 leads. Weekly negative keywords were one of three changes, alongside bidding on "nursing home admission" rather than "nursing home cost" and tracking every enquiry route (the case study). We can't credit the negatives alone. What we can say is that a care home's search terms report fills with job seekers and people looking for free care, and every one of those clicks is paid for.

Negative keywords are part of the weekly work in our Google Ads management, together with bid strategies and conversion tracking. For the rest of that weekly routine, see our guide to PPC management.

Frequently asked questions

What are the three negative keyword match types?

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Negative broad match (the default) blocks searches containing all your words in any order. Negative phrase match, in quotation marks, blocks searches containing the words in the same order. Negative exact match, in square brackets, blocks only that exact search.

Do negative keywords match plurals and close variants?

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No. Negative keywords don't match close variants, so add singular and plural forms and synonyms separately. Google does handle casing and misspellings.

How many negative keywords can you add in Google Ads?

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Up to 10,000 per campaign, 20 negative keyword lists per account with 5,000 keywords each, and 1,000 account-level negatives. Display and Video campaigns consider up to 1,000.

Can you add negative keywords to Performance Max?

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Yes. Since March 2025 you can add up to 10,000 negatives per Performance Max campaign, or apply a negative keyword list. They apply to Search and Shopping inventory only, and account-level negatives apply automatically.

Does AI Max respect negative keywords?

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Yes. Google says negative keywords are respected even with AI Max turned on.

How often should you add negative keywords?

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Weekly for active accounts: review the search terms report, sort by cost, and add the words that make a search wrong. Build a starter list before launch.

Sources

• Google Ads Help: About negative keywords
• Google Ads Help: Add negative keywords to campaigns and About negative keyword lists
• Google Ads Help: Negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns
• Google Ads Help: About your Google Ads account limits
• Google Ads Help: About keyword matching options
• Google Ads Help: About the search terms report
• Google Ads Help: AI Max for Search campaigns FAQ
• PPC Land: Google raises negative keywords limit to 10,000 for Performance Max campaigns, 11 March 2025
• Khepri Digital: Red Crowns Senior Living Google Ads account (Q1 2021 to Q4 2022)

Rewritten in October 2026. The first version of this article was published in January 2024.