If you have a PPC campaign currently running I’m sure you’re wondering about the negative keywords section.  A negative keyword, is a keyword which if entered will stop your keywords from showing up in the result.

The advantage of this type of keyword in your PPC campaign is that it can help you to eliminate wasted clicks from people who just want something for nothing.  Many people will search across the Internet looking for a free version of something which they know they will eventually have to buy.  The unfortunate effect of this is that because this type of surfing is so prevalent you can waste lots of money advertising to people that have no intention of buying anything.

In any type of PPC campaign your main interest should be your ROI (Return on Investment) and if there is a way to reduce the amount of clicks you pay for between sales, then this certainly needs to be investigated.

I found that in most PPC campaigns adding the keyword “free” and “free download” to my negative keywords list, caused a noticeable increase in my conversion rate. 

In case you’re wondering what a conversion rate is, it is the name we give to the amount of clicks divided by the amount of sales we made.    A large part of improving your PPC campaign revolves around various methods of boosting your conversion ratio, and while there are many different methods you can use I urge you not to neglect the negative keywords.

Another thing to consider when setting up a PPC campaign is that Google Adwords are not the only advertising company online, though they may pretend they are.

Another great company advertising via a PPC campaign is Bidvertiser, though their effectiveness will depend largely upon the niche you are in.  Overture is another provider of the PPC campaigns service, and many people consider them better than Google Adwords, though I think it really depends upon the niche you are in.

When trying to compile a list of negative keywords to add to your PPC campaign, I suggest you look at the other websites competing for your main keywords.  What you should try and do, is discover what the free alternative is to what you are selling, and make sure that those people are not coming through to your website via your PPC campaign.

Sometimes I have found it very effective to add my competitors name to my negative keyword list.    The reason this has been the case, is that they were looking for a particular product, and finding that I was not selling it, moved on after costing me one click.  By adding my competitors name to my negative keyword list, I found in some cases my PPC campaigns conversions improved dramatically.  Though in other PPC campaigns it turned out that my main buying traffic had actually been looking for a competitor’s product and instead decided to buy mine.  By blocking those keywords I had blocked my buying traffic.

The route to go with this will depend upon the niche you are in, but I advise testing as you could be leaving money on the table.

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