Smart Campaign requires little setup or maintenance and can be created within minutes. However, that might just not be it. There are certain areas that might need advertisers’ intervention. Negative Keywords are one of these crucial elements that need work and upkeep.
What is Smart Campaign?
Smart Campaigns previously called AdWords Express is a quick way to create your business ads. It reduces the effort taken in controlling the many settings such as keywords, ad creation, targeting, etc. Advertisers have to make minor settings and basis your budget and goals Google displays your ad across their various platforms.
Negative Keywords in Smart Campaign
Unlike a Search campaign, the Smart Campaign allows you to add a negative keyword theme. So, for example, if you are selling cakes online and do not want to show for queries related with the term muffin or cupcake then adding them as negative keyword theme will block all similar and related terms of the term.
Things to make a note of when selecting your negative keyword themes
1. Unlike search campaigns, here you can’t assign a match type to your negative keyword themes. Match types infuse control on how your keyword behaves, but with the option not being there, choose your negative keywords carefully
2. The negative keyword themes don’t block the close variant, much like how it happens in search campaigns. So for close variations of your theme, your ad might still end up showing
3. While assigning a keyword as a negative keyword, remember that you are not blocking just that keyword but the entire keyword theme. There is a higher probability of you ending up blocking even some relevant terms. So do a double check on the reach of the keyword theme that you choose as a negative keyword theme
4. You can’t employ a negative keyword list in Smart Campaign. So if you have some account-level negative keywords then you must add them to your Smart Campaigns, as negative keyword themes
5. Adding too many negative keyword themes might result in showing your ad for fewer searches. So while selecting your negative keyword themes make a note of what impact it might have on your campaign performance.
6. There is no clear understanding of the range of terms a keyword theme will show your ad for and the range of terms a negative keyword theme will block your ads for. So, keep a track of your search terms report to identify negative keywords to add. But once the negative keyword theme is added you won’t show your ads for all the related searches so make sure that you really want to block that term.
Now that you understand the negative keyword theme’s behavior, get started with your Smart Campaign and effectively manage who sees your ads.
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