Negative Keyword Generator

A negative keyword tells Apple which searches your ads must never appear on. Negatives can be set at the campaign level, where they apply to every ad group inside it, or at the ad group level for finer control — for example, keeping “photo editor” positive in one ad group while blocking it in another. Each negative uses one of two match types: exact match blocks only that precise query (plus close variants), while broad match blocks any search containing the words in any order.

The highest-leverage place to mine negatives is Search Match and broad match traffic. Those match types exist to discover new queries for you, which inevitably includes irrelevant ones — the standard workflow is to let discovery campaigns run, harvest converting terms as exact keywords, and push the non-converting terms back as negatives. Without that feedback loop, discovery campaigns quietly re-buy the same junk traffic every day.

Start with objective misfits: queries for features you do not have, platforms you are not on, and intent you cannot serve (“free” if you are paid-only, “offline” if you require a connection). Next come competitor brand terms — some advertisers bid on them deliberately, but if yours convert poorly they are usually the single biggest source of wasted spend. Finally add near-miss categories: a meditation app probably wants “sleep sounds for babies” negated even though it contains a relevant word.

Be careful not to over-negate. A broad match negative on a single common word can block hundreds of legitimate queries — negating “game” for a gamified learning app would block “learning games for kids”. When a term is only bad in some combinations, prefer exact match negatives for the specific bad queries instead of a broad block, and review your search terms report after adding negatives to confirm impressions did not collapse.