Most people in real life focus upon the negatives: it’s too hot, cold, windy, wet, expensive, big, fast, slow etc. yet in pay per click they just don’t do this enough.

They keep shovelling cash at the positives and rarely focus on the negatives, By this I mean Negative keywords, this is where an hour spent elbow deep in reports and spreadsheets can literally save you thousands if not tens of thousands of pounds/dollars/Shekels in wasted clicks and higher CPC charges than you often need to pay.

By taking the time to find negatives you can lower your campaign spend, reduce the cost per click and even gain higher ad positions all via the higher Click Through Ratio you’ll achieve as a result of removing irrelevant impressions by implementing a good range of negatives

The best way to gain an edge is to increase your CTR and the fastest way to do that is to use negative keywords, NOT to bid 5 times as much !  You can actually double your CTR if you can halve the number of impressions whilst keeping the same level of clicks !  So  get rid of every irrelevant impression you can and you’ll reap the rewards mentioned above., ie :

1000 impressions and 100 clicks is 10% CTR

Yet

500 impressions and 100 clicks is 20% CTR

So with some work you can probably make significant CTR improvements unless your campaigns and adgroups are so well organised there’s not a negative keyword you haven’t found yet !? if so then how lucky are you and well done ! but I’d still have another look every month or so, even with the very best run accounts things change, seasons, products, competitor offerings etc. so an ongoing negatives hunt should be a regular occurrence.

Where can you find the mystical negative keywords I’m talking of, if you use Google Analytics, 3rd party weblog software, or even AdWords own Search Query Report you should be able to see some phrases in there that aren’t appropriate to help you sell your product or service.

If you can refine your negatives lists to exclude as many irrelevant searchers as possible then your CTR will get a boost like well shook can of Red Bull, you *should (according to the mighty Google) end up with a reduced click cost for the same position or your ad will probably display higher for the same cost per click, but things rarely go as Google say but overall you should be better off spend and cost per acquisition wise.