How to Identify Negative Keyword Candidates After Each Review
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Quick answer
Negative keyword candidates are search terms that consume ad spend without producing meaningful conversions. After a campaign review, they are identified by reading recent search term reports and isolating queries with clicks or spend but no orders. Each potential negative should be recorded with the date, match type, cost, clicks, orders, and a brief reason the term is unlikely to convert. This makes future exclusions easier to evaluate and keeps account notes consistent.
A reliable negative keyword process depends on evidence, not guesswork. The notes you keep during each review become the working memory for the account, so recording too little can let the same wasted terms reappear month after month. The steps below help make those decisions repeatable and easier to hand off.
Review the search term report before you touch match types
Negative keyword candidates should come from recent search term performance, not from assumptions about what a keyword might do. Look at the reporting window you just reviewed and isolate terms that received measurable traffic but produced no purchase or an unsustainably high ACoS. Pay attention to near-miss queries that may look relevant but repeatedly fail to convert.
A tool like Amazon Negative Keyword Tool by Todoza can support this step by evaluating terms against campaign-specific signals instead of applying one fixed cost threshold across every campaign.
Record evidence and rationale for every candidate
For each search term you plan to exclude, write down more than the keyword itself. Include the number of clicks, spend, orders, and the conversion value or ROAS you observed. Then add a one-line rationale such as “broad match term pulled irrelevant traffic for four weeks with no sales.”
- Search term exactly as it appeared
- Campaign and ad group context
- Clicks, spend, orders, and conversion rate or ACoS
- Match type and proposed negative match type
- Date of review and evidence source
When this matters: accounts with multiple campaigns or marketplaces
If you manage several campaigns or Amazon marketplaces, include the marketplace and the campaign goal at the time of review. A term that wastes spend in a United States broad campaign may behave differently in a United Kingdom exact campaign, so context can prevent over-excluding. Keeping a marketplace tag and campaign type in the note also helps when another team member reviews the account later.
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These negative keyword records fit into the wider Amazon Ads account notes routine. When every review captures the same evidence and rationale, cleanup decisions become easier to audit, revisit, and hand off without losing context.