Search terms and negatives

It’s the screen where you decide what to do with the actual searches people typed. Pulzeo sorts them into groups based on what they cost you and what they bring in, and you decide row by row: exclude them, add them as keywords, or let them run. You’ll find it in “Optimizations”, under the “Search terms” tab.

Each group calls for a different decision. “Wasted spend”: searches that keep costing you without ever converting. Exclude these first. “Off-topic”: they have nothing to do with what you sell. “Watch list”: they cost something, but not enough to decide yet. “Keyword opportunities”: they already convert without you targeting them, so you might as well add them as keywords. “Keywords to review”: these are keywords you target, so you pause them but never exclude them. “Already reviewed” keeps track of your decisions.

With a threshold calculated for each campaign, not an arbitrary number: it’s based on what a conversion usually costs you in that campaign. A search that has gone past that threshold without bringing anything in counts as wasted spend. Below it, it stays on the watch list. The threshold is displayed, and you can change it campaign by campaign.

In a campaign, the negative keyword applies to that campaign only. In a list, it covers every campaign that uses the list, and you can reuse it for future campaigns without starting over. Use a list for searches that are never relevant to your business, and the campaign for ones that only cause trouble there. You choose where it goes in the selection bar.

Because the search matches a keyword you’re targeting that’s serving. Adding a negative for it would silently shut that keyword off: in Google Ads, a negative keyword always wins over a keyword. Instead, Pulzeo offers to pause that keyword, which you can undo at any time. A keyword in an ad group that’s already paused doesn’t block anything, since it isn’t serving.

It adds the search as an exact match keyword in the ad group it came from, with no bid of its own. That way you take control of a search that was already paying off by chance. Check the rows you want: you don’t have to add the whole group.

Because there isn’t one. Some targeting works without keywords: dynamic search ads, AI Max without keywords, and Performance Max campaigns. Pulzeo tells you which of these is involved instead of leaving the column blank. It isn’t missing data; it’s how those campaigns work.

It lets you see and manage the negative keyword lists shared across your campaigns: what they contain, where they apply and what you add to them from the Search terms tab. Google limits how many lists you can have and how long they can be; Pulzeo warns you before you hit the limit.

In “Optimizations”, under the “Negative keywords” tab. You’ll find the full list there, showing where each one applies: the campaign, the ad group or a shared list. It’s useful when a search stops triggering your ads and you don’t know why.