Amazon advertising
Amazon PPC negative keyword services
Negative keyword services review the searches your ads appear for and exclude the ones that waste money. It sounds simple, but the judgement matters: exclude too little and budget leaks to irrelevant shoppers; exclude too much and you quietly block searches that would have sold. A careful service bases every exclusion on search term evidence, checks that each negative will not block converting searches, applies negatives at the right campaign or ad group level, keeps a log of what was changed and why, and reviews old negatives as well as adding new ones.
Here you will find what to ask, what an audit should cover, responsibilities, warning signs and how to judge the work. LetGetGrow manages Amazon advertising as ongoing management or one-off projects, working in your own advertising account, with the scope and fee set out in a custom quotation.
Illustrative diagram
- Access
- Review
- Propose
- Apply
- Follow up
How a negative keyword audit runs
Access
Reports or limited permissions.
Output: Data for review
Review
Search terms, spend and sales.
Output: Problem searches
Propose
Negatives with reasons and level.
Output: Proposal for approval
Apply
Approved changes only.
Output: Updated campaigns
Follow up
Check effect after a few weeks.
Output: Follow-up note
Approving changes
Ask whether the service will propose negatives for your approval or apply them directly. For a first audit, seeing a proposal with reasons lets you catch terms the service has misjudged, especially ones that look irrelevant but describe a real use of your product. Once you trust the method, routine additions can be agreed to run without sign-off each time.
Questions to ask
| Question | Good answer shows |
|---|---|
| How do you decide a search is wasteful? | A threshold based on spend, clicks and margin |
| How do you avoid over-blocking? | Checks against converting search terms |
| At what level do you apply negatives? | Deliberate choice of campaign or ad group |
| Do you review existing negatives? | Yes, with outdated ones removed |
| What record will we get? | A dated log with reasons |
Warning signs
Bulk negatives with no reasons
Hard to check, easy to over-block.
Judging on a few clicks
Searches excluded before they had a chance.
Only ever adding
Outdated negatives left in place.
Shared logins requested
Use Amazon's permission tools instead.
Account access
An initial audit can often be done from exported search term reports and campaign structure, without account access. If the service will apply changes, give it its own user through Amazon's permission settings with the minimum access needed, and remove that access when the work ends. Never share your own login.
Example: an audit proposal
Illustrative example — not a client case study
Situation: A pet supplies seller has run broad and automatic campaigns for a year with few negatives.
- The service reviews six months of search terms and finds spend on searches for live animals and veterinary services.
- It proposes negative phrase for those themes, after checking no converting term contains them, and negative exact for several single wasteful searches.
- Two old negatives that block a now-stocked variant are recommended for removal.
What this shows: The seller approved the proposal knowing why each change was made. This example is illustrative.
What you should receive
Proposal
- Each negative with a reason
- Match type and level
Clean-up
- Outdated negatives flagged
- Conflicts with converting terms noted
Record
- Dated change log
- Follow-up review date
One-off audit or ongoing work
A one-off audit clears accumulated waste. Ongoing negative keyword work may be part of PPC management, with search term reports reviewed on a regular schedule. Ask how often reviews happen and whether the same over-blocking checks are applied each time.
Judging the work
After negatives are applied, look at the next few weeks of search term reports. Irrelevant searches should appear less, and converting searches should not drop away. If sales from a theme fall sharply after a change, ask the service to check whether a negative is responsible.
What to share
Provide what the product is and is not, your margins, any searches you already know are problems and any variants recently added or discontinued. That context helps the service judge borderline searches correctly.
Borderline searches
Some searches sit in a grey area: a shopper looking for a 'gift for a runner' might buy your water bottle, or might not. A good service flags these separately instead of excluding them automatically, explains what the data shows so far and suggests whether to wait, lower the bid or exclude. Those calls benefit from your knowledge of who actually buys the product.
Negative product targeting
Exclusions are not only about keywords. Amazon also lets advertisers exclude specific products or brands from product targeting. Ask whether the audit covers these, for example product pages where your ads have spent without sales, and how those decisions are evidenced.
Questions about Amazon PPC negative keyword services
What does a negative keyword service do?
Reviews search terms and excludes wasteful ones.
Should we approve negatives first?
For a first audit, a proposal with reasons is sensible.
Does the service need account access?
An audit can often start from exported reports.
What is over-blocking?
Negatives that stop searches which would have sold.
Should old negatives be reviewed?
Yes; outdated ones may block relevant searches.
How do we judge the result?
Fewer irrelevant searches with converting searches intact.
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