Negative keywords: the boring list that saves more budget than any bid change

Ask to see an Apple Search Ads account and the first thing we open is not the keywords. It is the negative keywords. A long, slightly tedious list means someone has been reading the search terms report every week. A short one means money is leaking somewhere nobody has looked.

Where the leaks come from

Search Match and broad match are designed to find new searches, which means they also find irrelevant ones. A kids' story app ends up showing for "scary stories". A manifestation app shows for "manifest file". A loyalty app shows for someone's unrelated brand name. Each of these costs a tap and converts to nothing.

Three sources of negatives

• The search terms report. Every week, sort by spend, find the terms with taps and no trials, and add them. This is most of the list.
• Your own exact keywords. Every term you promote to an exact match campaign goes in as a negative in the discovery campaign, so the two never bid against each other.
• Common sense. Words that signal the wrong intent for your app: "free" if you are paid, "pc" or "android", "cheat", "hack", adult terms for a kids' app. Add these before the first dollar is spent.

Where to add them

Campaign level, in almost all cases. Ad group negatives are for fine-tuning within a campaign and tend to be forgotten. A campaign-level list is visible, reviewable and applies to everything inside.

Exact or broad negatives

Use exact match negatives for specific phrases you never want, and broad negatives for words that are wrong in any combination. Be careful with broad negatives on short words; "story" as a broad negative in a story app would be an expensive mistake.

The routine

Weekly, on a fixed day, fifteen minutes. Search terms report, sorted by spend, filtered to zero trials. Add, promote, move on. It is the least glamorous part of account management and the one with the most reliable return.