A Free Negative Keyword Template for Ecommerce Accounts
You want a negative keyword list template for ecommerce that actually works, not a generic list someone scraped from a blog in 2019. Here it is, built from accounts I've run, and here's exactly when to apply it.
The short answer
Load your negative keyword list template before your first campaign goes live, then review it every two weeks for the first 90 days. After that, monthly is fine. The reason is simple. Search terms drift fast in ecommerce. A DTC brand I ran went from $100K to $3M in annual revenue, and in the first 60 days on Google Shopping and Search, we picked up over 40 irrelevant search terms burning spend before we caught them. Waiting a month to review meant we'd already spent $1,800 on clicks for "free," "jobs," and "reviews reddit."
Here's the core template. Add these as account-level negatives on day one:
- free, cheap, discount code, coupon code (unless you actually run promos through search)
- jobs, careers, salary, hiring
- reviews, reddit, scam, complaints
- diy, how to make, tutorial
- wholesale, bulk, b2b (unless that's your buyer)
- near me (unless you have physical retail)
- used, refurbished, second hand
- your competitor brand names, unless you're intentionally running a competitor campaign
That's your starting negative keyword list template. It's not the finish line. It's the floor.
What changes the timing
Four things push the review cycle earlier or later.
- Catalog size. A 40-SKU store has a tighter, more predictable set of search terms. A 4,000-SKU store generates messy long-tail queries constantly, so you need weekly checks for the first month, not biweekly.
- Match type mix. If you're running broad match on Search or Performance Max with minimal control, Google will find creative ways to spend your money. Review weekly. If you're tightly on phrase and exact, biweekly is enough.
- Seasonality. Around Black Friday and holiday, search volume spikes and so does junk traffic, people searching "black friday free shipping no minimum" type queries. Tighten your review cadence to weekly from mid-November through the end of December.
- Budget size. A $500/month account can survive a slow review cycle. A $50,000/month account cannot. The bigger the spend, the more expensive every day of neglect becomes.
Signs you are overdue
You don't need fancy reporting to know it's time. Watch for these:
- Your search terms report has queries you'd be embarrassed to show your CFO.
- Click-through rate is healthy but conversion rate is dropping over a rolling 30 days.
- Cost per click is stable but cost per acquisition is climbing.
- Performance Max "insights" tab shows search categories that have nothing to do with your product.
- You haven't opened the search terms report in over three weeks. That alone is the tell.
What happens if you wait too long
The cost isn't dramatic, it's slow and quiet, which is worse. On the $2.2B infrastructure project I marketed, we ran a much smaller paid search line, but the same rule applied: unmanaged accounts don't crash, they leak. A leak at 5% of spend on a $10,000/month account is $500 a month, every month, forever, until someone notices.
Compound that. At $500/month leaked for six months, that's $3,000 spent on people who were never going to buy. That's not a rounding error. That's a media buy for a whole new campaign you didn't run because the budget went to someone searching "shoe repair near me" when you sell running shoes online with no retail presence.
There's also a data quality cost. Junk clicks pollute your conversion data, which pollutes your Smart Bidding signals, which makes Google's automated bidding worse at finding real buyers. The algorithm learns from what you feed it. Feed it garbage clicks and it optimizes toward garbage.
The most common mistake
People build a negative keyword list once, feel good about it, and never touch it again. A static list is a liability, not an asset. New products launch, seasonal terms shift, competitors start bidding on new brand variations, and your list goes stale. The second version of this mistake is worse: copying someone else's exact negative list without checking it against your own catalog. I've seen ecommerce accounts negative out "free" globally, then wonder why their free-shipping threshold campaign got zero impressions. Always customize the base template to your actual offer and catalog before you load it.
Takeaway
Download or build your negative keyword list template, load the core list on day one, and put a recurring calendar reminder for every two weeks during your first 90 days. After that, monthly, and weekly again around your biggest sales season. Check your search terms report like you check your bank balance. It's the same money.