Google Ads Negative Keywords: The Ten-Minute Fix for Wasted Spend

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By Brandon Aubey

In short: A short Google Ads check that finds job seekers and other bad clicks eating your budget. Then you block them with negative keywords.

If you run Google Ads, you are paying for clicks. Some of those clicks are from people who will never hire you. They just happen to type words that match your ads. This fix takes about ten minutes and it stops a lot of that waste.

Where does the money leak?

Here is the thing. Say you run an HVAC company in El Paso. You bid on “HVAC El Paso”. Someone types “HVAC jobs El Paso”. Google sees the match and shows your ad. That person wants a paycheck, not a repair. They click, you pay, and nothing comes of it.

Same thing with “plumber salary” or “roofing careers”. Or “electrician hiring near me”. Job seekers search a lot. It adds up fast.

How do you fix it?

Google keeps a list of every real search that triggered your ad. It is called the search terms report. Here is how to use it.

1. Open Google Ads and sign in.
2. Click Campaigns in the left menu.
3. Click Insights and Reports.
4. Click Search Terms.
5. Set the date range to the last 90 days.
6. Sort the list by cost, highest first.
7. Read down the list. Look for words like “job”, “career”, “hiring”, “salary”, and “apply”.
8. Check the box next to each bad term.
9. Click “Add as negative keyword”.

That’s really it. A negative keyword is a word you tell Google to block. Any search with that word will not show your ad. You stop paying for it.

Same budget. Now it goes to people who actually want your service.

What other words waste money?

Job seekers are the big one. But they are not the only ones. Keep an eye out for these too.

• “Free”. A free estimate is fine. But “free AC unit” is not a customer.
• “DIY” and “how to”. They want to do it themselves.
• “Used”. They want to buy a part, not hire you.
• “Parts”. Same thing.
• “Training”, “school”, “course”, “license”. They want to join the trade.
• “Reviews” of a brand name. They are shopping for a product.

Use some judgment here. If you sell parts, keep “parts”. If you offer free estimates, don’t block “free” by itself. Block the exact phrase that does not fit instead.

How often should you check?

Honestly, most owners do this once and forget it. New bad terms show up every month. People search in weird ways, and Google keeps matching wider over time.

So put it on the calendar. Once a month, pull the 90-day report. Sort by cost. Add the junk as negatives. It takes ten minutes and the savings stack up.

Want someone to run this check for you, along with the rest of your account? Look at our Google Ads management. Or book a strategy call and we will look at your search terms together.

We can do this for you

You can do everything above yourself. Most owners do not have the hours. Dead River Management builds and runs it for home service businesses. We work in El Paso and across the country. You keep running jobs. We handle the ad account and the follow-up. You judge us on booked jobs, not reports. See Google Ads management, read about the Demand Flow guarantee, or book a strategy call.

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