Hubspot Guide to Using Negative Keywords Effectively

Understanding how to identify and manage negative keywords in your ad campaigns is easier when you apply lessons from Hubspot style PPC strategy. This guide breaks down practical steps you can follow to reduce wasted spend and sharpen your targeting.

Negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing on irrelevant searches. When used correctly, they protect your budget, improve click-through rate, and help you attract visitors who are more likely to convert.

What Are Negative Keywords in a Hubspot Style PPC Strategy?

Negative keywords are search terms you tell ad platforms not to match with your ads. When a query contains a negative keyword, your ad will not be shown.

This is the opposite of a regular keyword. Standard keywords signal when you want your ads to appear; negative keywords mark when you never want them to appear.

From a performance perspective, negative keywords help you:

• Stop paying for unqualified clicks.
• Increase the relevance of every impression.
• Improve quality scores and lower cost per click.
• Protect brand reputation by avoiding misleading queries.

How to Build a Negative Keyword List the Hubspot Way

The Hubspot approach emphasizes continuous optimization based on data. Instead of guessing, you use real search terms and performance metrics to refine your lists.

Step 1: Start With Obvious Irrelevant Terms

Begin by brainstorming clear mismatches for your offers. These are terms that attract the wrong audience or indicate no purchase intent.

Common types include:

• Job seekers – examples: “jobs”, “careers”, “internship”.
• Research-only queries – examples: “definition”, “examples”, “what is”.
• Bargain hunters (if you are premium) – “free”, “cheap”, “discount code”.
• Wrong geography – city or country names where you do not operate.
• Wrong product category – closely related but incorrect services or tools.

Add these to a shared list that can be reused across campaigns.

Step 2: Mine Your Search Terms Report Regularly

The core Hubspot-inspired tactic is to rely on search term data. Within your ad account, open the search terms report for each campaign and look for queries that meet one of these conditions:

• High impressions and low click-through rate.
• High clicks but no conversions.
• Queries clearly unrelated to your offering.

When you find an irrelevant query, decide if you should:

1. Add the exact term as a negative keyword.
2. Add only the problematic portion as a broad negative keyword.

Be careful with broad negatives. A single word can accidentally block valuable traffic if it also appears in relevant searches.

Step 3: Organize Negative Keyword Lists Like Hubspot Campaigns

A scalable approach copies how Hubspot organizes assets: use shared lists for themes and specific lists for campaigns.

Create three main levels of lists:

1. Account-level list – irrelevant in every situation (jobs, competitors, unsupported regions).
2. Campaign-level list – terms that conflict with a particular product line, funnel stage, or audience.
3. Ad group-level list – terms that correctly match another ad group but not this one.

This structure keeps your targeting clean and avoids overlapping keywords from competing with one another.

Advanced Negative Keyword Techniques for Hubspot Users

Once you have a baseline list, you can apply more advanced filters and rules to capture hidden waste without blocking valuable traffic.

Use Match Types for Precision

Negative keywords support match types similar to regular keywords:

• Negative broad – blocks any query containing all the words in any order.
• Negative phrase – blocks queries containing the words in the same order.
• Negative exact – blocks only the specific query.

Apply this logic:

• Use exact for very specific terms that frequently waste spend.
• Use phrase for recurring patterns such as “how to” + product.
• Use broad sparingly for generic words that are always irrelevant.

Segment by Intent, Not Only by Topic

A key Hubspot marketing principle is to map every interaction to the buyer’s journey. Apply that concept to negative keywords by filtering searches based on intent, not just subject.

Consider excluding searches that indicate:

• Too early-stage intent – purely educational queries when you are paying for high-intent campaigns.
• Wrong persona – student projects, DIY users, or personal use when you serve businesses only.
• Wrong price sensitivity – free-only seekers when you offer only paid solutions.

You can still target those audiences with separate content campaigns, but you avoid paying premium CPCs for them in high-intent campaigns.

Exclude Cross-Brand and Cross-Product Confusion

When you manage multiple products, a Hubspot-style structure suggests tightly themed campaigns. Negative keywords help keep themes separated.

For example, if you have campaigns for both software and consulting, add negative keywords so software campaigns exclude consulting terms and vice versa. This allows your ad copy and landing pages to remain highly relevant to the searcher’s intent.

Common Negative Keyword Mistakes to Avoid

Mismanaging negative keywords can silently throttle traffic or cut off high-performing segments. Review these common errors and correct them early.

Blocking Valuable Long-Tail Queries

Overly broad negatives can restrict long-tail search terms that actually convert well. If you notice sudden drops in impressions or conversions after adding new negatives, audit them immediately.

Using One List for Everything

A single large list for all campaigns violates the segmented, data-driven mindset used in Hubspot style campaign optimization. Instead, keep lists focused:

• Shared account negatives for universal exclusions.
• Specialized lists tied to campaign goals and funnel stages.

Never Reviewing or Updating Lists

Markets, search behavior, and offerings change. If you never re-evaluate negative keywords, you may keep blocking terms that are now relevant or miss new patterns of waste.

Set a recurring schedule to review your search terms and adjust negatives based on performance data.

How to Audit Your Negative Keywords with a Hubspot Mindset

An effective audit process mirrors how Hubspot users evaluate funnel performance: look at data, segment results, and make incremental changes.

1. Pull performance data for each campaign over the last 30–90 days.
2. Export search terms and label queries as converting, assisting, or non-converting.
3. Identify themes in non-converting terms and propose new negatives.
4. Check conflicts where negative keywords overlap with top-performing queries.
5. Test changes incrementally, monitoring impression share and conversion rate.

Document every change so you can roll back quickly if performance declines.

Next Steps: Pair Hubspot Style Strategy with Expert Support

When you align negative keyword management with a Hubspot inspired, data-first strategy, you gain tighter control over PPC performance and protect your budget from irrelevant clicks.

If you want expert help auditing campaigns, you can work with specialized consultants such as Consultevo for deeper account reviews and optimization planning.

To explore more details about negative keywords and see the original reference used for this guide, review the resource at Hubspot’s article on negative keywords. Use these principles consistently and your campaigns will become more focused, efficient, and profitable.