Negative keywords for dental Google Ads: a practical list
Every dental ads account pays for searches that were never going to book: jobs, courses, home remedies, pets. Negative keywords are how you stop paying for them.
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Negative keywords for dental Google Ads are words and phrases you tell Google not to show your ads for. Add "jobs" as a negative and your implant ad stops appearing for "dental nurse jobs near me". It is the simplest, cheapest improvement in most practice accounts, because without negatives a dental campaign pays for searches from job hunters, students, people looking for home remedies and pet owners, none of whom will book.
What are negative keywords in Google Ads?
Google says negative keywords "let you exclude search terms from your campaigns" so you can focus on the searches that matter. Your normal keywords say which searches you want. Negatives say which you do not.
They matter more now than they once did, because positive keywords match loosely. Broad match, and to a lesser extent phrase match, will show your ad for searches Google considers related, which can include plenty you never intended to buy. Negatives are the counterweight.
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Run on our own practice first: ninth of the 14 practices measured in its town in May, first of 18 in September, on UK-wide search value. Page-one keywords: 6 in May, 194 in September.
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How negative keyword match types work
Negatives have three match types in Google Ads, and they behave differently from normal keywords.
| Match type | How you type it | Blocks a search when | Dental example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Negative broad | jobs | The search contains all your negative words, in any order | "nurse dental" blocks "dental nurse vacancy" |
| Negative phrase | "dental nurse" | The search contains the words in that order, with anything either side | Blocks "trainee dental nurse course" |
| Negative exact | [cheap dentist] | The search is exactly those words in that order, nothing added | Blocks "cheap dentist" only, not "cheap dentist chester" |
You type a negative phrase in quotation marks and a negative exact in square brackets. Plain words are treated as negative broad, which Google says is the default match type for negatives.
The rule that catches people out
Negative keywords do not match close variants. Google says they "won't match to close variants or other expansions". So a negative for "job" does not block "jobs", and "course" does not block "courses". Add singular and plural forms and obvious synonyms separately. Google says negatives do account for misspellings and capital letters, so you do not need to add those.
Should negative keywords be exact match?
Usually not. For blanket exclusions such as jobs, training or DIY, negative broad or phrase is better, because you want to block every search containing those words. Use negative exact only when a short search is wrong for you but longer versions of it are right, and test it, because it blocks far less than people expect.
A starter negative keywords list for dental practices
These are categories, not a list to paste in blind. Read each one against what your practice actually offers, because a word that wastes money for one practice is a good search for another.
Jobs and careers
- job, jobs, vacancy, vacancies, career, careers, salary, salaries, hiring, recruitment, locum, apprenticeship, work experience
- dental nurse, receptionist, practice manager jobs, associate (if you are not recruiting through ads)
Education and training
- course, courses, training, qualification, university, degree, school, student, students, exam, revision
- how to become, CPD
DIY and products
- diy, at home, home remedy, home remedies, kit, kits, strips, toothpaste, toothbrush, mouthwash, amazon
- Careful with "at home" if you offer take-home whitening and advertise it.
Animals
- dog, dogs, cat, cats, horse, equine, vet, veterinary, pet, pets
Treatment you do not offer
- Any treatment not on your fee list. If you do not place implants, "implant" belongs here. If you do not treat children, consider "child" and "kids" for your general campaigns.
- "NHS" only if you see no NHS patients at all. If you are a mixed practice, think carefully before blocking it.
Treatment abroad and far away
- abroad, overseas, and the names of countries and cities that come up in your search terms
- Towns well outside your catchment, if your location targeting lets them through
Information-only searches
- pictures, images, meaning, definition, wiki, reddit, youtube
- Be cautious with words like "cost" or "how long". People researching price and duration are often close to booking.
How to add negative keywords in Google Ads
You can add negatives at three levels. Google's help page on creating and applying negative keyword lists covers the steps.
- Ad group or campaign level. In Keywords, open the Negative keywords tab, select the plus button, pick the campaign or ad group and enter one keyword per line. Use this for negatives that apply to one treatment only.
- Negative keyword lists. Tick "Save to new or existing list" when adding negatives, then apply the list to several campaigns at once. Google says you can create up to 20 lists, each holding up to 5,000 negatives, and a change to the list applies to every campaign that shares it.
- Account level. In Account settings, the Negative keywords section holds exclusions that apply across the whole account. Google says account-level negatives cover Search, Performance Max, Shopping, Smart, Local and App campaigns, with a limit of 1,000 per account.
Where to find negative keyword lists in Google Ads
Lists live in the Tools menu under Exclusion lists, on the Negative keyword lists tab. From there you can tick a list and choose "Apply to campaigns".
A sensible structure for a practice
- Account level: words that are wrong for every campaign, such as jobs, training, animals and DIY.
- Shared lists: treatments you do not offer, places outside your catchment.
- Campaign level: negatives that keep your own campaigns apart. Your general dentistry campaign might exclude "implant" so implant searches go to the implant campaign and its own landing page.
Finding the waste: the search terms report
A starter list stops the obvious waste. The rest is specific to your area and has to be found in your own data.
The search terms report shows the actual searches that triggered your ads. Google says it lists terms that a significant number of people have used, and that some low-volume terms are left out for privacy, so you will never see every search you paid for. Read it anyway:
- Weekly for the first month of any new campaign, then fortnightly or monthly once it settles.
- Sort by cost, so the expensive mistakes come first.
- Ask of each search: could this person plausibly book an appointment with us? If not, add the word that makes it wrong as a negative, not the whole search.
- Pick the right level: account, list or campaign.
- Note what you added and when, so you can undo a negative that turns out to block good traffic.
The skill is in choosing the word. If "dental nurse salary uk" appears, adding "salary" as a negative broad blocks every future salary search, which is better than blocking that one search exactly.
Negative keywords in Performance Max and Microsoft Ads
Performance Max campaigns now accept campaign-level negatives, and account-level negatives apply to them as well. If you run Performance Max alongside search, make sure your account-level list is in place, because Performance Max can otherwise pick up the same job and training searches.
Microsoft Advertising handles negatives differently. Microsoft supports negative phrase and exact match, not negative broad, and it does not filter out plurals, synonyms or misspellings, so each one has to be added. If you import your Google campaigns into Microsoft, check how your broad negatives came across.
Common mistakes with dental negative keywords
- Blocking your own best searches. A negative for "emergency" added to stop out-of-hours enquiries will also block emergency appointments you would happily take during the day.
- Copying a generic list from the internet. Lists written for shops often include "price", "cost" and "cheap", which for dental treatment can block people ready to book.
- Forgetting plurals. Negatives do not match close variants.
- Adding whole searches as exact negatives. It blocks one search and lets the next hundred variations through.
- Never reviewing them. Your services change. A negative added two years ago for a treatment you now offer quietly blocks it.
- Bidding on searches you already win. Not strictly a negative keyword problem, but related. If your practice already holds the top organic result and the map pack for a search, paying for it may not add much. Check what you rank for before you bid, as our guide to Google Ads for dentists explains.
How many negative keywords is too many?
Google warns that too many negative keywords can mean your ads reach fewer customers. In practice the risk is not the number but the quality. A long list of well-chosen negatives is not a problem in itself. A handful of careless ones, such as "cost", "near" or "best", can do more harm than a long, careful list.
If your impressions drop sharply after adding negatives, review the most recent additions first. And keep in mind that negatives fix wasted spend, not demand. If nobody nearby is searching for a treatment, no keyword setting will create those patients. Your wider plan for attracting them is covered in marketing for dentists.
Let the waste find itself
On Growth, Practice Radar watches the search terms your ads pay for and adds the wasted ones as negative keywords when you approve them.
Run on our own practice first: ninth of the 14 practices measured in its town in May, first of 18 in September, on UK-wide search value. Page-one keywords: 6 in May, 194 in September.
Thirty days free. No card, and nothing starts automatically when it ends.