Key takeaways
- Flag a search term for review once its clicks reach 2 ÷ your conversion rate (orders ÷ clicks) with no order: 20 clicks at a 10% conversion rate, for example.
- Default to negative exact. Use negative phrase only for words that make any search wrong for your product, and test the phrase against your full search term report first.
- Search the whole account before you negate. Use ad-group level when a term suits another product in the same campaign, and campaign level only when it is wrong for everything the campaign sells.
- Rules can flag candidates and apply a never-list you have approved. Relevance calls, brand terms and seasonal terms need a person. Review weekly, leaving out the last 7 days.
Amazon negative keywords stop your ads showing on searches that cost you clicks and don't sell. To find them, pull the Sponsored Products search term report and flag every term that has had enough clicks to expect an order but has none. Confirm each one is wrong for the product, then add it as negative exact or negative phrase, at ad-group level unless it is wrong for everything the campaign sells.
What Amazon negative keywords do, and what they can't do
A negative keyword takes a search out of your ad's reach and changes nothing else. Sponsored Products offers two negative match types, negative exact and negative phrase, and both work in automatic and manual campaigns, at campaign or ad-group level.
Negative keywords act on searches only. They can't stop your ad appearing on another product's detail page, which automatic and product-targeting campaigns do. That needs a negative product target, covered below.
A correct negative cuts spend with no sales attached, so unlike a bid cut it costs no orders. For our clients, cutting 30–40% of wasted ad spend is a typical outcome (never a guarantee), and the search term report is where that work starts.
How to find waste in the Amazon search term report
A search term is waste when it has had enough clicks that you would expect an order, and it has none. What counts as enough depends on your own conversion rate, so work it out from your account.
- Download the report. In the Amazon Ads console, create a Sponsored Products search term report ending 7 days before today. Sponsored Products credits an order to a click for up to 7 days (14 days for vendors), so the latest week always looks worse than it will end up.
- Work out your conversion rate. Divide total orders by total clicks. If your products convert very differently, do it per ad group.
- Set the threshold. Our rule of thumb is to flag a term once its clicks reach 2 ÷ conversion rate with no order, which is twice the clicks you would normally need for one sale.
- Filter and sort. Keep rows at or above the threshold with zero orders, and sort them by spend, highest first.
- Split out ASINs. Rows where the search term is an ASIN (Amazon's product ID) are product pages where your ad appeared. They need negative product targets.
The rule of thumb at common conversion rates:
| Your conversion rate | Flag at 2 ÷ conversion rate | Core terms: 3 ÷ conversion rate |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | 40 clicks, no order | 60 clicks, no order |
| 10% | 20 clicks, no order | 30 clicks, no order |
| 15% | 14 clicks, no order | 20 clicks, no order |
| 20% | 10 clicks, no order | 15 clicks, no order |
With expensive clicks, add a spend check: a term that has spent more than your profit per unit without an order has already cost more than a sale would earn.
Worked example. Say your report covers 60 days, ends a week ago, and shows 4,000 clicks and 400 orders. Your conversion rate is 400 ÷ 4,000 = 10%, so the threshold is 2 ÷ 0.10 = 20 clicks. "Steel bottle for kids" has 23 clicks, ₹230 of spend and no orders, so it goes on the review list. It isn't negated yet, because even a term that converts at your average 10% shows no order after 20 clicks about 12% of the time (0.9 multiplied by itself 20 times). For core terms, wait for 3 ÷ conversion rate, where that chance falls to about 4%.
Terms with orders but a high ACoS (advertising cost of sales: ad spend ÷ ad sales) usually need a lower bid, not a negative, because the search sells. Compare their ACoS with the break-even ACoS from our profit calculator, and see why ACoS runs too high for the bid side.
Negative exact vs negative phrase: which is safer?
Negative exact is the safer default. It blocks the search you have judged and leaves longer searches that contain it alone. Negative phrase blocks every search that contains the phrase, with the words in the same order, including searches you have never reviewed.
| Negative exact | Negative phrase | |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks | That search term | Any search containing the phrase |
| You add "bottle for kids" | Blocks "bottle for kids"; "steel bottle for kids school" can still match | Blocks "bottle for kids", "steel bottle for kids school" and "bottle for kids with straw" |
| Use it for | A plausible search that hasn't sold | A word that makes any search wrong for your product |
| Main risk | Near-duplicate searches each need their own entry | Blocking good searches you never saw |
Negative phrase earns its place for words that rule a search out whatever else the shopper typed: "used", "second hand" or "repair" for a seller of new products, or a size you don't make. Before adding one, search your full search term report for the phrase and read every match. If any matching term has orders, use negative exact on the wasteful ones instead.
One-word phrases need the most care. Say you sell steel bottles and add "plastic" as a negative phrase. It also blocks "plastic free water bottle", a search from exactly the shopper you want.
Campaign-level or ad-group-level negatives?
Add each negative at the lowest level where the term is wrong. A campaign-level negative applies to every ad group in the campaign; an ad-group-level negative applies only to its own ad group.
- Campaign level suits terms that are wrong for everything the campaign advertises, such as "repair" in a campaign that only sells new bottles.
- Ad-group level suits terms that are wrong for one product and right for another in the same campaign.
- Neither level reaches other campaigns. A negative in one campaign doesn't stop another from matching the same search, so a term that is wrong for your whole catalogue needs adding wherever it shows up.
Some negatives route traffic rather than cut waste. When you move a converting term from an automatic or broad campaign into its own exact campaign, add it as negative exact where it came from. The exact campaign, where you set the bid, then takes that search.
Negative product targeting for irrelevant ASINs
ASIN rows follow the same click rule as word searches; only the relevance check differs. Open the ASIN on Amazon and ask whether someone viewing it would consider yours instead, or as well.
- A product with a very different price, size or use from yours is usually a fair exclusion once it crosses the threshold.
- A close competitor isn't waste by default. Its page can sell your product, so judge it on orders and ACoS like any other target.
- Add the ASIN as a negative product target in the ad group where it wastes clicks. If one brand's products keep wasting clicks, some ad groups also let you exclude the whole brand.
Check the term isn't selling elsewhere before you negate
Search the whole account for a term before negating it, because the same search can be waste for one product and a winner for another.
Worked example. Say one campaign holds two ad groups: a 1-litre gym bottle and a 500 ml kids' bottle. "Steel bottle for kids" has 23 clicks and no orders in the gym bottle's ad group, and 6 orders in the kids' bottle's. A campaign-level negative would block both and cost those 6 orders. The right move is a negative exact in the gym bottle's ad group only.
Then run a relevance check on whatever is left:
- Does the search describe your product? Check type, size, material, use and who it is for. One wrong attribute, such as "for kids" on an adult bottle, usually makes the search wrong for it.
- Is it your brand, or a product name you sell? Keep it. If a brand term isn't converting, look at price, stock and the listing instead.
- Is it a competitor's brand? That is a strategy call: keep it while it meets your ACoS target.
- Is it tied to a season or festival? Judge gift and festival searches on last season's data, not last month's.
- Do you have Brand Analytics? Check the Search Query Performance report. If your brand wins purchases on that query, it is relevant to your catalogue even if one ad group wastes clicks on it.
How to add negative keywords on Amazon
Add a handful in the console, use a bulk file for larger batches, and log every one.
- In the Amazon Ads console, open the campaign for a campaign-level negative, or the ad group inside it for an ad-group-level one.
- Go to its negative targeting tab, add negative keywords, pick negative exact or negative phrase, paste the terms one per line and save. ASINs go in as negative products in the same place.
- For many terms across campaigns, use a bulk operations file, which has separate rows for campaign-level and ad-group-level negatives.
- Log the date, term, match type, level, reason and approver. A negative can be removed later, and if sales drop after a round of negatives, the log shows which ones to check first.
What rules can automate, and what needs a person
Rules are good at arithmetic and poor at relevance, so split the work that way. We run search terms through three steps: rules settle the clear cases, verdicts from earlier reviews are reused, and only the ambiguous remainder gets a closer look.
Safe to automate:
- Flagging terms past the click threshold with no orders.
- Applying a never-list you have approved, such as the negative phrase words above, and starting every new campaign with it in place.
- Remembering verdicts, so a term already judged for a product isn't reviewed again every week.
Needs a person:
- Relevance calls where the words are ambiguous, and every one-word negative phrase.
- Terms with some orders but a high ACoS, which usually need a bid change instead.
- Brand terms, competitor brand terms and seasonal searches.
- New products with too few clicks to judge.
An AI model can sort the ambiguous remainder by comparing each search with the product's title and attributes. Treat its verdict as a draft for a person to approve.
How often to review negative keywords
Review weekly, judging only clicks at least 7 days old, and add these checks on their own schedule:
- New automatic and broad campaigns: more often in their first few weeks, because they match the widest range of searches.
- Monthly: re-read your negative phrase list and ASIN exclusions for anything too broad.
- When your catalogue changes: audit old negatives. Launch a kids' bottle and last year's "for kids" negative now blocks its best searches.
- Before sale events: check that negatives added in a quiet month aren't blocking gift and sale searches (more in our sale-event guide).
ScaleSKUs runs this waste check daily on your live search term data, flags terms with spend but no orders in each ad group, and shows each term across every campaign before you queue a negative. Nothing changes on Amazon until someone on your team approves it, and live changes need two-factor verification. See how it works.
Frequently asked questions
How many clicks before you add a negative keyword?
Flag a term once its clicks reach 2 ÷ your conversion rate with no order: 20 clicks at a 10% conversion rate, or 40 at 5%, for example. Check relevance before negating, and wait for 3 ÷ conversion rate on core terms.
Can you add negative keywords to automatic campaigns?
Yes. Automatic campaigns take negative exact and negative phrase keywords, plus negative product targets for ASINs. They tend to need more negatives than manual campaigns, because Amazon decides what they match across four targeting groups: close match, loose match, substitutes and complements.
Do the same rules apply to Sponsored Brands?
Mostly. Sponsored Brands campaigns also take negative exact and negative phrase keywords and have their own search term report. Wait longer before judging a term, because Sponsored Brands credits sales for 14 days after a click, against 7 days for Sponsored Products sellers.