Ecommerce & Retail
Retail search is cheap to enter and expensive to get wrong. Shopping and Search campaigns pull in order tracking, return policy questions, coupon hunters and resellers, all of which look like shopping intent to Google and none of which place a new order. This list separates post-purchase and freebie traffic from the people who are ready to check out.
812
Negative keywords
17
Categories
6
Terms to protect
Free
No signup
Who you are paying for
Someone ready to buy a specific product from your store at the price you advertise.
These terms look like obvious waste in ecommerce and are usually the opposite. Blocking them is the fastest way to make a negative keyword list cost you money.
Do not blanket-block these
A value retailer sells on price, so cheap, discount and clearance are how its best customers search. Block these only if you sit at the premium end of the category, otherwise you cut the queries that pay the bills.
Branded coupon searches convert. Someone typing your brand plus coupon is sitting on the checkout page looking for a reason to finish, so block the generic coupon-site queries and keep brand plus coupon running.
Free shipping is an offer, not a negative. A shopper checking whether you ship free is comparing you against one competitor, so answer the question on a landing page instead of blocking the click.
If you run stores, near me drives buy online pick up in store orders and walk-ins that close at a far higher rate than cold prospecting. Only block it when you are pure ecommerce with no physical location.
If you sell refurbished, open box or certified pre-owned stock, used and refurbished are money terms rather than waste. Block them only when every listing on your site is new.
Some brands deliberately conquest marketplace queries to pull buyers onto their own site at better margin. If that is your play, keep amazon and walmart live and negative only the seller-side and support variants.
812 terms shown
Industry
Word count
Categories
A shopper hunting for a tracking number has already paid you or paid a competitor.
Return and warranty queries come from people who already own the product.
Existing customers looking for help cost a click and can never place a first order.
These shoppers want a marketplace listing, not your storefront.
Code hunters abandon the cart the moment they cannot find a working code.
Sample and sweepstakes traffic converts at zero no matter how cheap the click.
Resellers want your supplier and your margin, not a retail order.
Someone searching for a pattern or a recipe is making it instead of buying it.
Secondhand shoppers want a used listing from another seller, not new stock.
Dupe hunters are shopping for a cheaper copy of what you sell.
Deep research queries land on forum threads rather than a checkout page.
Aspiring store owners and job seekers are studying your business, not buying from it.
Care instructions and size charts are owner questions, not purchase questions.
Image and wallpaper searches want a file for a screen, not a shopping cart.
Renters and box subscribers want access, not ownership of the item you sell.
Repair searches want a part or a fix for something the searcher already owns.
Game, show and lyric searches share nouns with retail and convert at zero.
Switch on Universal above to merge the 1,559 terms that waste money in every account. The two lists never overlap, so nothing is duplicated when you copy them together.
Someone with a specific legal matter who is looking to hire a lawyer and will book a consultation this week.
Someone shopping for coverage right now who will complete a quote form or call an agent to bind a policy.
A homeowner with a broken or aging system who wants a licensed company to come out, quote the work and do it.
A patient with a specific problem who is choosing a provider and is ready to book an appointment.
A patient with a specific problem or procedure in mind who is ready to book an appointment and pay for treatment.
A homeowner ready to list, or a buyer ready to tour and write an offer, in the market this advertiser actually serves.
Someone who needs money or a financial product now and is ready to start an application with a lender, broker or advisor.
Someone within driving distance who wants to buy a vehicle, book a repair, or get tires fitted in the next week or two.
An evaluator or budget holder at a company that can pay for seats and is looking to start a trial or book a demo.
Someone choosing a programme to pay for who is ready to apply, request information or book a call with admissions.
Someone with dates in mind who is ready to book a room, a seat, a tour or a package.
Someone looking for a gym, studio, trainer or clinic near them who is ready to book a tour, a first class or a consultation.
Someone researching a specific treatment who is ready to book a consultation or an appointment at a clinic near them.
A person with a substance use problem, or the family member acting for them, who is ready to admit to a programme they can pay for in a state the facility serves.
They are the searches that look close enough to your keywords for Google to match them, but come from people who will never buy. Retail search is cheap to enter and expensive to get wrong. Shopping and Search campaigns pull in order tracking, return policy questions, coupon hunters and resellers, all of which look like shopping intent to Google and none of which place a new order.
812 terms across 17 categories, and none of them repeat the universal list, so you can apply both without duplicates. Every term is free to copy or download as a CSV that imports straight into Google Ads Editor.
Yes. The universal list covers the waste every advertiser sees, such as job seekers, students and freebie hunters. This page covers what only wastes money in your vertical. Keep them as two separate shared lists in Google Ads so you can tell which one is doing the work.
No list is safe to paste unread, which is why the terms above this list exist. A value retailer sells on price, so cheap, discount and clearance are how its best customers search. Block these only if you sit at the premium end of the category, otherwise you cut the queries that pay the bills.
Adscriptly
Blocking bad traffic is half the job. Adscriptly sends the other half back to Google: which clicks became qualified calls, booked jobs and closed revenue, so the algorithm bids on outcomes instead of clicks.