Negative Keywords for Local Search Ads
Every click on a search ad costs money. Some of those clicks come from people who will never hire you. They want a free guide, a job, a part for their own repair or a service you do not offer. Negative keywords are the tool that keeps those searches away from your budget. For a local business in Los Angeles, a good negative list is one of the cheapest fixes in a Google Ads account.
What a negative keyword does
A negative keyword tells Google not to show your ad when a search contains that word or phrase. If you add "free" as a negative, your ad stops showing for "free roof estimate template." You still show for the searches you want.
Think of it as a filter on the front door. Your regular keywords invite people in. Negatives turn away the wrong ones.
Why local ads need them most
Local searches are short and messy. A plumber ad targeting "water heater repair" can match searches about parts, manuals, careers, schools and videos. Google's matching has grown looser over time, so your ad can appear for terms that only loosely relate to your words.
A small budget makes this worse. When you only spend a few hundred dollars a month, a handful of poor clicks can eat a large share of it. We do not quote benchmarks here, because every market and trade is different. The point is simple: unfiltered traffic costs you money and gives you noise in your reports.
Match types for negatives
Negatives use match types, but they work differently from regular keywords. This trips up many owners.
Broad match negative
The ad is blocked only if the search contains all of your negative words, in any order. A negative of "cheap roof" would not block "cheap roofing quote" unless both words appear. Broad negatives do not catch close variants, so plurals and misspellings need their own entries.
Phrase match negative
The ad is blocked if the search contains your words in that order. This is useful for fixed phrases like "how to" or "do it yourself."
Exact match negative
The ad is blocked only if the search is exactly your term. Use this when a word is fine in some searches but bad in one specific search.
Where to find negative ideas
Do not guess. Your own account tells you what to block. Open the search terms report in Google Ads and read the real queries that triggered your ads. Sort by spend and look at the ones that did not lead to calls or forms.
Then add words from these groups:
- Free and cheap seekers: free, coupon, cheapest, diy, template.
- Job seekers: jobs, hiring, salary, career, apprenticeship.
- Learners: course, school, training, certification, how to.
- Parts and supplies: wholesale, parts, manual, kit, supply store.
- Wrong services: anything you do not offer, such as commercial work if you only serve homes.
- Wrong places: cities and neighborhoods outside your service area.
Review the list with the person who answers your phone. They know which callers waste time and which questions come up again and again.
Build the list in layers
A single giant list is hard to manage. Use shared negative lists for words every campaign should block, like job and course terms. Then add campaign-level negatives for the rules that apply to one service. At the ad group level, use negatives to keep similar services from competing with each other.
Here is the idea. If you run one ad group for "AC repair" and another for "AC installation," add "install" as a negative to the repair group and "repair" to the install group. Each search then goes to the ad that matches it. Home service trades like those covered in search ads for HVAC companies during heat waves often have this exact overlap.
Do not block too much
Negatives can backfire. If you add "cheap" because you want premium customers, you might also block people searching for "affordable electrician near me" who are ready to book. Think about what the word means before you add it.
Be careful with short, common words. A negative like "free" might block website design for local businesses "free estimate," which is a phrase you want. Use a phrase or exact match negative in those cases, and check the search terms report again a week later.
For trades with urgent calls, such as electricians, the wrong-job problem is common. Our notes on Google Ads for electricians who want fewer wrong-job calls go deeper on how to match ad text to the work you want.
Negatives and Local Services Ads
Local Services Ads do not use keywords the same way. You pick job types and service areas, and Google matches searches to them. Some LSA accounts let you manage which job types you receive, which acts as a kind of filter. If you get leads for work you do not do, review your selected job types first, then use the lead dispute process for bad leads. Standard search ads give you the fuller keyword control.
Keep the list alive
A negative list is never finished. New searches appear all the time, and seasons change what people type. Set a review rhythm and stick with it.
- Check the search terms report every week during the first month of a campaign.
- Move to a review every two weeks once the account settles.
- Add new negatives to the correct list level, not just the campaign you happen to be viewing.
- Note why each negative was added so the next person understands.
- Re-check old negatives when you add a new service, since a past block may now be wrong.
Negatives help the whole funnel
Cleaner traffic helps beyond the ad itself. It improves the data you see, so reports show real calls instead of noisy clicks. It also helps the page you send people to. Shops with specialty offers, like those in PPC and search ads for auto body shops, can match a clean query to a focused page. Pairing that with website design that makes search ads landing pages convert gives each click a better chance of becoming a call.
How BMG handles it
At Bottarini Marketing Group, negative keyword work starts at setup and continues each month. The planner who writes your strategy also reads your search terms. We cannot promise rankings or lead counts, and results depend on your market and budget. What we can do is keep your spend pointed at searches that match your services.
Review our PPC service for Google Ads and Local Services Ads to see how paid work fits with the rest of your marketing, and check pricing for Google Ads management is set by scope for how quotes are built. When you want a search account reviewed, talk with us about trimming wasted PPC spend. You can also start at Bottarini Marketing Group builds search ads around buyer intent filters or call (818) 299-3505.