Which searches should a negative keyword stop?
Searches from people who cannot become customers. They fall into a few families: people looking for work ("jobs", "salary", "apprenticeship"), people learning the trade ("course", "how to", "diy"), people wanting it free, and people looking for a different business or place altogether. Every trade has its own list. A florist blocks "funeral home"; a tutor blocks "answers".
You find them in the search terms report, not by guessing. The report shows what people actually typed before your ad showed, and every row with clicks, cost and no enquiries is a candidate.
How do the three negative match types behave?
They work more strictly than normal keywords. Here is what each version of the negative "photography course" blocks:
| Search typed | Negative broad: photography course | Negative phrase: "photography course" | Negative exact: [photography course] |
|---|---|---|---|
| photography course | Blocked | Blocked | Blocked |
| photography course sunshine coast | Blocked | Blocked | Shows |
| course in wedding photography | Blocked | Shows | Shows |
| photography courses | Shows | Shows | Shows |
Negative broad blocks a search that contains every word, in any order. Negative phrase needs the words together and in order. Negative exact blocks only that search and nothing longer.
Why did the plural get through?
Because negatives do not stretch. Google Ads Help ("About negative keywords") says negative keywords do not match close variants or other expansions, so a negative "course" leaves "courses" free to trigger your ad, and the same goes for misspellings. Normal keywords are generous and reach searches with the same meaning. Negatives are literal. Add the singular and the plural, and the misspelling you keep seeing.
What did a Sunshine Coast wedding photographer stop paying for? (example figures)
A wedding photographer on the Sunshine Coast, working alone with a second shooter on big days, spends $900 a month on Google Ads. Packages start at $3,800, so a single booking pays for months of ads. The search terms report for August showed $268 going to searches that could never book:
| Searches | Cost in August | Negative added |
|---|---|---|
| wedding photographer jobs, second shooter wanted | $84 | jobs, wanted |
| wedding photography course, courses | $71 | course, courses |
| free wedding photo editing | $46 | free, editing |
| wedding photographer hobart | $67 | hobart, tasmania |
That is 30 percent of the budget. The Hobart searches came from Sunshine Coast couples planning a wedding in Tasmania, which this photographer does not travel to, so the place name went on the list too. At about $4.50 a click, the same $900 now buys roughly 60 more clicks a month from couples who could book.
Where do negative keywords sit in your plan with Cora?
They are a step you take yourself, in a session where Cora can see your screen. CoraVision reads each campaign's spend, clicks and conversions every night once Google Ads is connected, so a cost per enquiry that is creeping up is there in the numbers at the weekly check-in. Finding the searches behind it happens in a session you start: Cora reads the search terms report on your screen, and you add each negative yourself, because CoraVision never changes your campaigns.
Questions
Can a negative keyword block customers I want?
Yes, and it is the common mistake. A negative "cheap" stops "cheap wedding photographer", and it also stops "is a cheap wedding photographer worth it", which might be a couple worth talking to. Add broad words as negatives only after the search terms report shows they never convert.
Should negatives go on the campaign or the ad group?
Words you never want, such as jobs, course or free, belong at the campaign level or in a shared negative list applied to every campaign. Ad group negatives are for steering, so that a search for elopement photography lands on the elopement ad and not the full-day package.