Google Enables Negative Keywords For Product Listing Ads

AdWords advertisers have long had the ability to use negative keywords to limit the situations when their ads will display, and now product listing ads — rolled out in November — will have this feature, too.

Google announced the new targeting capability, saying it’s the first of more extensive targeting features that it is working on.

Product Listings ads allow merchants to bid on product-related keywords and display ads that feature their products. With the negative keyword feature, advertisers can ensure their ads won’t appear for search queries relate to products they don’t offer, for example. So, a sock retailer that specializes in cotton socks could exclude the keyword “wool,” so that a query for “socks” would trigger the ads, but a query for “wool socks” would not.

Advertisers can also use the negative keyword list feature that Google introduced in January, to manage negative keyword lists across campaigns.