Amazon PPC Guide

Negative Keywords for Amazon Ads

Stop paying for irrelevant clicks. Find, add, and maintain negative keywords that protect your ACOS.

Quick win

Sellers who add negatives from their search term report in the first week typically cut wasted spend 15–30% before touching bids. See the full ACOS reduction guide.

Where negative keywords live

Add negatives at the campaign or ad group level in Sponsored Products. Campaign-level negatives apply everywhere; ad group negatives are more surgical when you run multiple targets in one campaign.

How to build your first negative list

Pull 30–60 days of search terms. Export to a spreadsheet. Filter: spend > $5 AND orders = 0. Add each term as a negative exact. For recurring junk patterns (competitor brands, wrong size, "free"), use negative phrase.

Negative keyword examples

Wrong audience: "kids", "men", "professional". Wrong intent: "free", "diy", "how to make". Wrong product type: "replacement part" when you sell the whole unit. Wrong brand: competitor names you do not carry.

Ongoing maintenance

Review new search terms weekly. Amazon constantly matches new queries to your broad and auto campaigns. A standing negative keyword process is what separates profitable accounts from bleeding ones.

Negative keywords FAQ

Negative keywords tell Amazon not to show your ad for specific search queries. They stop your product from appearing when shoppers search terms that are irrelevant, too broad, or historically non-converting for your ASIN.

Never miss a wasteful search term

BidBoost scans your search terms daily and recommends negatives in plain English.