The Negative Keyword List I Start Every New Account With
Every marketer who searches "negative keyword list template ecommerce" wants the same thing: a list they can paste in and stop wasting money. Most of what they find is either a generic 500-word blog list with no context, or a spreadsheet someone sells for $47. There's a lot of confusion about what actually belongs on a starter list versus what you build over time. Let me clear it up.
"A negative keyword list is something you build over months of search term data"
This is half true, and that's exactly the problem. Yes, your best negative keywords come from watching search term reports and cutting what wastes spend. But that's your ongoing list. You still need a starting list on day one, before you have any data, because otherwise you're paying to learn lessons you already know.
On a DTC brand I ran from $100K to $3M in revenue, we lost about $1,800 in the first two weeks of a new campaign to searches like "free," "jobs," "reviews reddit," and "how to make" before I built out a proper starter list. That money bought us zero insight we didn't already have.
"One universal negative list works for every ecommerce account"
No. There's a core list that applies to almost every ecommerce account, but it's not universal, and treating it that way costs you sales. If you sell a $9 product, "cheap" might be a negative. If you sell a $9 product and it actually is the cheap option in your category, "cheap" could be a keyword you want to bid on, not block.
The kernel of truth: about 70% of a starter negative list is genuinely reusable across accounts. Intent-killers like "jobs," "reddit," "diy," "free," and "template" mean roughly the same thing regardless of what you sell. The other 30% needs a five-minute gut check against your actual price point, product, and brand name.
"More negatives is always safer"
This is the one that gets people in trouble. I've audited accounts where someone added 400 negative keywords in the first week, feeling productive, and quietly killed 20% of their impression volume on terms that were actually converting fine.
Negatives are a scalpel, not a shield. Every negative you add is a bet that no valuable traffic exists inside that term. Broad negatives like "buy" or "best" can wipe out purchase-intent traffic you actually want. Add negatives that block noise, not negatives that block behavior that looks slightly risky but isn't proven bad.
What actually matters instead
Here's the actual list I paste into every new ecommerce account before launch. I break it into three buckets.
Bucket 1: Non-buyer intent (universal, safe for almost any account)
- free, cheap, coupon, promo code, discount code
- jobs, careers, salary, hiring, internship
- reddit, quora, forum, complaint, lawsuit, class action
- diy, how to make, tutorial, pattern, template
- wholesale, bulk, manufacturer, supplier, dropship
- reviews, scam, is it legit (unless you're specifically running a trust campaign on these)
Bucket 2: Wrong-product signals (check against your catalog)
- used, refurbished, second hand (unless you sell used goods)
- rental, rent, lease (unless that's your model)
- kids/children versions of an adult product, or vice versa
- competitor brand names, added deliberately, not by accident
Bucket 3: Research and comparison terms (decide deliberately, don't default to blocking)
- vs, comparison, alternative
- best, top 10, ranked
Bucket 3 is where most people get sloppy. "Best running shoes" has real purchase intent behind it. I leave these in as keywords I'm actively bidding on and watching, not negatives. The exception is if you're running a brand campaign and don't want to show up next to competitor comparison content. Then it's a judgment call, not a rule.
The most common mistake
The most common mistake I see is copying a negative list from a blog post without checking it against the account's actual price point and product. I once watched a team add "cheap" as a blanket negative on an account selling a budget product line priced under $15. They were blocking their own core customer's search language. Read every negative against your actual catalog before you add it. Five minutes of thought beats a free template every time.
Practical takeaway
Start with Bucket 1 on day one, no exceptions, it's nearly free money saved. Add Bucket 2 after a ten-minute review of your product catalog. Leave Bucket 3 alone until you have real search term data telling you otherwise. Then, every two weeks, pull your search term report and add three to five new negatives based on actual wasted spend, not guesses. That's the whole system. It's not complicated. It just has to actually get done.