rocket
Meet
Merchant API
- the official successor to the Content API for Shopping.
updateGet the latest
on new features, bug fixes, and release updates of the Merchant API.
point_of_sale
Learn how to manage your business and products on Google and how to get programmatic access to
data, insights, and unique capabilities at scale.
Get started with Merchant API today!
Stay organized with collections
Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
Summary
You can use negative keywords to prevent a campaign from serving ads for
specific keywords.
Negative keywords can be broad, exact, or phrase match. You can create a
negative keyword by following the steps for the Google Ads UI
or the Google Ads API.
In addition to creating individual keywords for a campaign, you can create a
negative keyword list to apply to multiple campaigns at once.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-03 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eUse negative keywords to prevent ads from showing for irrelevant search terms.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eNegative keywords can be managed at the campaign or ad group level, and offer broad, phrase, or exact match types for refined control.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Ads provides two ways to implement negative keywords: manually through the UI, or programmatically using the Google Ads API.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eNegative keyword lists allow for efficient application of negative keywords across multiple campaigns.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Add negative keywords\n\nSummary\n-------\n\nYou can use [negative keywords](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453972) to prevent a campaign from serving ads for\nspecific keywords.\n\nNegative keywords can be broad, exact, or phrase match. You can create a\nnegative keyword by following the steps for the [Google Ads UI](#manual_steps)\nor the [Google Ads API](#automatic_steps).\n\nIn addition to creating individual keywords for a campaign, you can create a\n[negative keyword list](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453983) to apply to multiple campaigns at once.\n\nManual steps\n------------\n\n1. [Create a Shopping campaign](/google-ads/shopping/campaign-management/articles/t18).\n2. Sign in to the [Google Ads account](https://ads.google.com/).\n3. Click the **Keywords** tab.\n4. Click the **Negative keywords** tab.\n5. Click the **+ Keywords** button, then choose ad group or campaign.\n6. Select the ad group or campaign to apply the negative keywords to.\n7. Enter your keywords, then click **Save**.\n8. To change the match type, click on the keyword and select the desired match type, then click **Save** . Here are the supported match types:\n - Broad match (default)\n - Exact match\n - Phrase match\n\nAutomatic steps\n---------------\n\n1. Make sure you've successfully created a campaign and have a campaign ID.\n2. Create a [`MutateCampaignsRequest`](/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/latest/MutateCampaignsRequest) as follows:\n 1. Set the operation to `update`.\n 2. Set the operand to a [`Campaign`](/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/latest/Campaign) as follows:\n - Set the `CriterionType` to [`KEYWORD`](/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/latest/CriterionTypeEnum.CriterionType#keyword).\n - Set the `negative` field to `true`.\n - Set the `criterion` to `keyword` by providing [`KeywordInfo`](/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/latest/KeywordInfo).\n\nYou can also add negative keywords at the ad group level."]]