Negative exact vs negative phrase
Sponsored Products offers two negative keyword match types, and negative product targeting for ASINs.
| Type | Blocks | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Negative exact | That search, and close variants like plurals | One search that does not convert |
| Negative phrase | Any search containing the phrase | A whole idea that is wrong for you, like “maker” for a coffee pack |
| Negative product | Your ad on that product's page | Product pages where your ad gets clicks and no orders |
There is no negative broad on Sponsored Products. Negative phrase is the widest net, so use it on words you are sure about.
How to find them
- Open the search term report for the last 30 days, ending 3 days ago.
- Filter to zero orders and sort by spend.
- For each term, ask whether a buyer searching it could want your product. If not, negate it whatever the click count.
- If they could, negate only after enough clicks: about twice the clicks your product usually needs to sell once.
- Look for repeated words in the losers. Three unrelated terms all containing “maker” is one negative phrase.
Check the other direction too: a term that converts in an Auto or Broad campaign and that you then add as an Exact keyword should be negated in the source campaign, so your two campaigns stop bidding against each other. Match types.
Pause the keyword, or negate the search?
They act on different things. A keyword is what you bid on; a search term is what the shopper typed. Pausing a broad keyword stops every search it matched, good and bad. Negating one search stops that search and leaves the rest running. When one keyword brings both buyers and junk, negate the junk.
Mistakes to avoid
- Negating on too few clicks. Ten clicks without a sale is normal for many products. Wait for the evidence.
- Negating your own brand or product words. A phrase negative on a word in your title can switch off your best traffic.
- Never checking again. Track the spend you blocked and the orders that followed. If sales fell with the spend, a negative was too wide; archive it.
Questions
- What are negative keywords in Amazon PPC?
- Searches you tell Amazon not to show your ad for. They stop spend on searches that bring clicks and no orders.
- Can I add negative keywords in bulk?
- Yes. Campaign Manager accepts a list in the Negative keywords tab of an ad group or campaign, and bulk operations take a spreadsheet for many campaigns at once.
- Do negative keywords work across campaigns?
- A negative applies to the campaign or ad group you add it to. To block a search everywhere, add it to each campaign that matched it.