B2B SaaS & Software
B2B software has the widest gap in Google Ads between a query that looks relevant and a query that can sign a contract. Category nouns pull in developers reading docs, students hunting a free license, job seekers checking salary bands and people looking for a cracked copy. This list strips that traffic out so trial and demo budget lands on companies with seats to fill.
794
Negative keywords
18
Categories
6
Terms to protect
Free
No signup
Who you are paying for
An evaluator or budget holder at a company that can pay for seats and is looking to start a trial or book a demo.
These terms look like obvious waste in saas 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
Free trial and free demo are the primary calls to action in this category. Blocking the word free wipes out your best queries, so negative the freeloader phrases like free forever and free open source alternative instead.
For a challenger brand, alternative to and versus queries are the cheapest qualified traffic available. Only block comparison intent once you are the incumbent that everyone else is trying to leave.
Pricing is buying intent, not research. Someone typing your category plus pricing is building a shortlist, so publish a real pricing page rather than negativing the query out of the account.
Block open source only if you have no community edition and no self-hosted tier. If you ship one, these searches are qualified users who upgrade to paid seats once their team outgrows the free build.
Small business and startup modifiers only waste money when your contract minimum rules those companies out. If SMB is a segment you actually sell to, these are the cheapest qualified clicks in the account.
Branded login traffic is your own customers and looks like pure waste, but if your login page ranks badly a competitor will buy the query and sit above it. Handle this at the campaign level rather than as an account-wide negative.
794 terms shown
Industry
Word count
Categories
Free tier and open source hunters will never approve a seat price.
Crack and keygen searches come from people refusing to pay for software.
Existing users hunting for a login page cost a click and never start a trial.
Developers reading reference docs are already implementing, not evaluating.
Analysts and investors researching the company will never buy a seat.
Job seekers and salary researchers are applying, not shortlisting software.
Course and certification searches want a credential, not a subscription.
Student and research traffic has no budget and no buying authority.
Someone asking what a role does is researching a career, not buying tools.
Single user and household searches never clear a B2B seat minimum.
Directory and roundup queries send the click to a review site, not your trial.
Agencies looking to resell or implement are not buying seats for themselves.
A spreadsheet template solves the problem for free and ends the search.
Teams planning to build the tool in house are not shopping for a vendor.
Outage and breach queries come from customers and journalists, not prospects.
Deal site buyers pay once, churn fast and anchor on a price you cannot sustain.
Category nouns collide with drivers, games and consumer downloads.
Definition searches are people learning a concept, not shortlisting a vendor.
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.
Someone ready to buy a specific product from your store at the price you advertise.
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. B2B software has the widest gap in Google Ads between a query that looks relevant and a query that can sign a contract. Category nouns pull in developers reading docs, students hunting a free license, job seekers checking salary bands and people looking for a cracked copy.
794 terms across 18 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. Free trial and free demo are the primary calls to action in this category. Blocking the word free wipes out your best queries, so negative the freeloader phrases like free forever and free open source alternative instead.
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.