Yesterday we talked about narrowing your match types for the best targeted message. There’s one other way to narrow your match types that I didn’t. You can use negative keywords and tell the search engines not to display your ads for certain keywords.
For instance, using the green widgets example again, if you make plastic widgets but not wooden widgets then you can use “wooden” as a negative keyword. Just add a minus sign (-) in front of the keyword and that tells the search engine not to use that keyword for your ad placement. The negative keyword “wooden” will not return your ad and for every search made for “wooden green widgets” your ad will be passed over. But if a searcher searches for “plastic green widgets” or a similar variation then your ad will display. Negative match types are one more option for you to use to optimize your ad displays.
