Managing paid search campaigns is a daunting task that needs to be constantly analyzed and adapted according to needs and requirements based on different scenarios. Unlike what many people might assume, success of a PPC campaign not only lies in getting your ads appeared before a large target audience; but it also depends greatly on appearing only to potential target market that is really searching for what a business is trying to sell.

Concept of “negatives” in paid search campaigns

“Negatives”, as referred in PPC domain, serve as a filtration tool that counts for betterment of a paid search campaign by limiting its potential impressions. In very simple words, with the help of negatives (in form of negative keywords); an internet marketing company can prevent display of an ad to people who might be least interested in that product/service and their potentials of buying that particular product or service are very grim.

However, in reality, the concept of negatives is not only confined to adding negative keywords in a paid search campaign; in fact, it is just the first step towards the true gains of this innovative concept. To get the best results, one needs to exclude people not interested in buying the product/service at every single stage during the whole process.

Targeting Level

It is very important to realize that there is no existence of account level negatives. PPC managers have to do so at highest level; people can be excluded from campaigns or ad groups.

• Campaign – Campaign negatives should be seen as a protective umbrella busy preventing the display of an ad when a particular negative is included there. PPC professionals resort to these most frequently to avoid display against very generic terms like “cheap”, “free”, and adult terms as well
• Ad Groups – Sometimes, in a paid campaign, some ad groups seem to be prioritized over others against a specific query or they might need exclusion at a more granular level. Just like a negative, it can serve as a highly viable place for some ads to get displayed against specific queries

Keywords or Lists?

Majority of PPC specialists like to go for adding negatives using keywords combined with a relevant match type. However, a relatively new and more efficient feature has been introduced by AdWrods for the very same purpose that pertains to perform the same task through “keyword lists”. Using keyword lists, you can create groups comprising of commonly used negatives of a campaign. By doing so, you can refine your pay per click management more efficiently rather than adding keywords individually all over again.

Match Type

This really turns out to be the most underused tool in employing negatives and there are quite a few ways that can be very effective in fine tuning match types, but they still remain mostly remain strange to majority of PPC managers.

Conclusion

As it must be quite evident to you by now that this is quite an interesting area that can really count in nurturing the significance of  your paid search campaign; it is better to learn more details about this interesting and effective concept of PPC.