The Role of Negative Keywords in Amazon PPC: A Complete Guide

In the fast-paced world of Amazon PPC, optimizing ad spend and increasing conversions are top priorities for sellers. Negative keywords are an often overlooked tool that plays a crucial role in achieving these goals. 

Throughout this guide, we will dive deep into the purpose of negative keywords from how they impact your ad performance to practical steps for efficiently implementing them. Let’s dive into it. 

What are Negative Keywords in Amazon Advertising? 

Negative keywords in Amazon Advertising are terms or phrases that sellers add to their PPC campaigns to prevent ads from appearing in response to irrelevant or low-converting search queries. 

Specifying these keywords allows us to refine audience targeting and reach relevant customers who are likely to purchase the product. 

Difference between Regular and Negative Keywords on Amazon

The main differences between regular and negative keywords on Amazon are: 

– Regular keywords trigger ads when customers search for terms related to the products being promoted.

– Negative keywords prevent ads from showing up in searches that include specified, irrelevant terms.

– Regular keywords aim to attract relevant traffic, while negative keywords help filter out unwanted traffic to optimize ad spend.

Importance of Using Negative Keywords for Amazon PPC Campaigns 

As far as we are clear on what negative keywords are and how they differ from regular keywords, let’s overview the main benefits of using negative keywords in your Amazon PPC campaigns. 

Ad Spend Optimization 

Negative keywords are crucial in refining ad spend by preventing ads from appearing to irrelevant audiences and in irrelevant search results. How? Well, the PPC campaigns charge you based on the number of clicks (per click) meaning that you definitely do not want to waste your ad budget on clicks that are unlikely to result in a sale. 

This targeted approach to ad spend ensures that more of your budget is dedicated to audiences likely to convert, making every dollar go further. By leveraging negative keywords you can filter low-quality traffic, achieve better budget control, and optimize advertising costs, focusing on high-performing keywords. 

Increase your Conversion Rates 

Another benefit that proves the huge role negative keywords play for Amazon’s PPC is that these result in increased conversion rates. If you incorporate the right negative keywords you can exclude irrelevant search terms and attract the right audience. This will ultimately lead to higher conversion rates as your ad reaches the right people, helping you generate more value per dollar spent. 

Improve Your CTR 

Finally, negative keywords research will also help you improve your CTR rate, which is a key indicator of how well your ad resonates with your target audience. By excluding certain keywords and phrases you ensure that your ads are shown to users genuinely interested in your products. 

This refined targeting reduces the chance of unqualified clicks and improves the likelihood that those who see your ad will be inclined to click. With a higher CTR, your ads gain better placement within Amazon’s advertising algorithm, enhancing visibility and contributing to overall campaign performance.

Types of Negative Keywords 

There are two main types of negative keywords on Amazon and these are negative phrase match keywords and negative exact match keywords. The differences between the two include: 

– Negative phrase match: This type of negative keyword blocks your ad from showing for any search query containing the entire negative phrase in the specified word order  For example, if “cheap shoes” is a negative phrase match, your ad won’t appear for searches like “buy cheap shoes online.” 

– Negative exact match: This blocks ads only if the exact term or phrase is searched, without any additional words before or after. For instance, if “cheap shoes” is a negative exact match, your ad won’t display this exact phrase. 

Where can Negative Keywords be Added on Amazon? 

To add negative keywords to your ad campaigns you can do it either by adding such to the campaign or to an ad group. 

For instance, you can add these keywords at the campaign level and apply them to all ad groups. It is a good option to set campaign-wide keywords. You can also add negative keywords to a specific ad group and apply it only to that group. If you proceed with this option, remember that it is possible only in manual campaigns. 

How to Find Negative Keywords on Amazon? 

Now we know the importance, benefits, and even types of negative keywords. A new question arises “How do find quality negative keywords?” Well, you need to look for keywords that: 

– Have high cost-per-conversion but low conversion rates

– Keywords with high impressions but a low number of clicks 

– Automatic campaigns. Run automatic campaigns and review the search terms that Amazon matches with your ads. Flag any terms that don’t align with your product.

– Competitor listings. Review competitors’ listings and identify keywords they target that aren’t relevant to your product to add as negatives.

Improve your PPC campaign performance with Enso Brands 

If you are looking for a partner who will help you maximize results and RPI on your Amazon PPC campaigns, then you are in the right place. Enso Brands is an Amazon PPC Agency that provides a variety of PPC management services. 

The services range from tailored campaign management and Amazon-sponsored products agency to Amazon PPC optimization and Amazon advertising management. Contact us to find out more about how we can help you maximize ROI.