How does negative placement work in Google Ads, and how can it affect my campaign’s performance?

Negative placement in Google Ads is a strategy used to help improve the performance of a sponsored search campaigns by proactively managing where ads appear and don’t appear. This type of search placement gives advertisers the ability to exclude websites and apps in the Google display network where they know conversions won’t happen, or where ad placements don’t meet the brand’s campaign goals.

By leveraging negative placement, you can avoid wasting ad budget on ad placements that might not be relevant or bring in desirable conversions. Instead of losing budgets when ads appear in less than desirable locations, advertisers can use negative placement to block these domains and regain control over the outcome of their campaigns.

This allows them to focus available resources on achieving the goals set for their campaigns and maximize their return-on-investment (ROI). For example, if your brand generally receives higher conversions from certain sites and apps compared to others, you’ll more likely have a successful campaign if you use negative placement to target those relevant sites rather than wasting budget on sites that don’t tend to convert.

Using negative placement in Google Ads can help you create a more efficient and successful search campaign without costly, ineffective ad placements. In addition, you can identify potentially non-performing sites and apps in advance and protect your campaigns from low conversion rates.

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What is Negative Placement in Google Ads?

Negative placement in Google Ads is an advertising tactic where advertisers can exclude their ads from appearing on certain websites, apps, videos, and other placements they deem inappropriate for their campaigns. It can help prevent ad fraud and improve their ad campaigns’ performance by ensuring their ads appear only in appropriate contexts, such as the desired website or in the desired videos or apps.

Negative placement is an important part of an effective Google Ads campaign. When used correctly, it can reduce ad fraud and increase impressions, as well as improve the quality of the ads you present to customers. It can also help to reduce the Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and improve your return on investment (ROI).

Negative placement is most commonly used for search campaigns, as it can help to reduce irrelevant impressions on websites that are not your target audience. However, it can also be used in display campaigns when advertisers want to exclude their ads from appearing on specific sites, videos, or apps.

When setting up a negative placement, it is important to ensure that the placements you exclude are indeed irrelevant to your campaign. This includes websites that would draw in the wrong type of audience (for example, excluding teen-focused sites from a campaign that targets adults) or that are known to have high levels of ad fraud.

To monitor the effectiveness of your negative placement settings, you can look at the reports within the “Placements” tab of the “Dimensions” report in your Google Ads account. This report will provide you with information on the performance of your ads across all placements where they have been seen, and will allow you to identify any placements where your ads should be excluded due to poor performance.

By adjusting your negative placement settings, you can ensure that your ads are only appearing in placements that are performing well, and are accurately targeting your intended audience. This can bring down your CPA and improve your ROI, as you are not paying for placements that generate no value. Moreover, the increased relevance of your ads can also help to improve the customer experience, as they are not being served irrelevant ads.

Google Ads Success Example

The Challenge:  The Challenge: Increase new dental patients with better Google Ads campaigns.

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7. What Are the Benefits of Using Negative Placement?

How Does Negative Placement Impact My Ads?

Negative placement in Google Ads refers to the process of excluding your ads from appearing in certain locations or on certain websites. Negative placement helps you ensure your ads are displayed in the places they will most likely to be seen and convert into leads. With effective negative placement, you can eliminate wasted ad spend and increase the return on your investment in digital marketing.

Negative placement in Google Ads has a direct impact on your campaigns’ performance. It helps keep budget dollars from being wasted by avoiding locations or websites where you know your ads are unlikely to perform, as well as targeting audiences more likely to generate leads. With appropriate negative placement, you minimize your ad spend and improve the ROI of your campaigns.

Negative placement also allows you to control where your ads are appearing. By excluding certain websites or locations, you prevent your ads from appearing on sites that aren’t related to your product or services or that may reflect negatively on your brand. For example, you may want to avoid having your ads appearing on sites that are associated with offensive or inappropriate content.

In conclusion, negative placement in Google Ads is an important tool for improving your campaigns’ performance. By excluding certain locations or websites, you can ensure that you are only spending budget dollars in the places where you know your ads will be seen and convert. This results in a more efficient use of your budget and improved ROI for your digital marketing campaigns.

How to Monitor and Adjust Your Negative Placement Settings

Negative Placement in Google Ads is a tool which advertisers can use to block their ads from appearing on certain websites, locations, apps and videos. This helps the advertiser to eliminate irrelevant impressions and clicks, and therefore gain better targeting. It is a great way to control where your ads are being displayed and ensure that your campaigns reach the right people.

By monitoring and adjusting your negative placement settings, you can prevent your ads from showing up on sites that don’t fit the target audience of your campaign, saving budgets and improving results. This process requires selecting accurate target keywords and other criteria that support the goals of the campaign. As mentioned before, the selection of target keywords is important because it allows you to find and add better negative placements to ultimately block irrelevant content from displaying your ads. You can also adjust bids for placements, which allows you to set different bids for different placements. For example, if a particular placement is not performing well, you can lower the bid for it in order to save budget.

Negative placement also helps to reduce CPA ( Cost Per Acquisition) and thereby improve campaign ROI (Return on Investment). This is possible because placements that are not generating conversion are being eliminated thereby increasing the chances of higher conversions and ROI on the campaigns. Furthermore, the ads are more likely to reach the right audience, meaning a lower cost per acquisition and improved ROI for the campaigns.

Overall, negative placement in Google Ads presents many benefits for advertisers by helping them to control where their ads are being displayed. By monitoring and adjusting the settings, they can make a more effective use of their budgets and get better results from their campaigns.

SEO Success Story

The Challenge:  The Challenge: Design an SEO friendly website for a new pediatric dentist office. Increase new patient acquisitions via organic traffic and paid search traffic. Build customer & brand validation acquiring & marketing 5 star reviews.

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Issues Caused by Negative Placement

Negative placement in Google Ads works to keep ads from being shown on unwanted websites and on sections of websites that are not intended for the target audience. Unfortunately, when using negative placement, there can sometimes be significant drawbacks. One of the most common issues that can arise from using negative placement is that it reduces the reach of the ad, resulting in fewer impressions and a smaller potential audience. Additionally, too many negative placements can lead to a campaign becoming too narrowly focused, resulting in lower visibility and less interest from potential customers.

Additionally, negative placement can sometimes be too broad, and cause ads to be displayed in irrelevant sections of websites, potentially leading to decreased ad relevance and lower click-through rates. When running a Google Ads campaign, it is important to monitor negative placements and adjust settings as needed in order to avoid these issues.

Negative placement in Google Ads has a direct effect on the performance of a campaign. If the wrong websites or website sections are blocked, it can lead to ads not being seen by the target audience or being seen in irrelevant sections, resulting in lower click-through-rates (CTRs) and higher costs-per-action (CPAs). On the other hand, careful adjustment of negative placement settings can result in better targeted ads, higher relevance and CTRs, and more efficient use of ad spend. It is important to have an understanding of your target audience and the content that they interact with in order to make optimal use of negative placement settings.

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Tips for Improving Your Ads’ Performance with Negative Placement

By using negative placement in Google Ads, marketers can ensure that their ads are displayed only on platforms, websites, and apps that generate the desired results. Negative placement allows marketers to exclude certain websites from appearing in their ads and choosing where their ads should be placed. This helps the advertisers’ campaigns to have better targeting, better returns, and better ROI.

Negative placement works by blocking specific websites where you don’t want your ads to appear. For example, if a website has a poor track record of delivering quality leads then the advertiser can add that website to the list of excluded websites where their ads should not appear. Anything from particular websites, app categories, or videos, can all be blocked and restricted from displaying within an advertiser’s campaigns using negative placement. Although this is beneficial for marketers, it can also lead to websites blocking campaigns from appearing in certain locations, which means marketers must ensure they are only blocking websites they do not want ads to appear on.

Negative placement helps marketers better monitor the campaigns’ effectiveness and allows them to stay up to date with their campaigns’ progress. Advertisers can see the various sites and categories that are generating more traffic, which helps them make better optimization choices over time. This can result in higher ROI as marketers can better target their campaigns to get more relevant leads. Additionally, negative placement can help decrease CPA by reducing unwanted clicks from unqualified users.

Overall, negative placement can help improve the performance of any Google Ads campaign. It enables marketers to better target their campaigns by selecting and excluding platforms, websites, videos, and app categories that would otherwise produce poor results. This will help increase ROI and lower the CPA by eliminating unwanted clicks. With careful monitoring and optimization, negative placement can be a great tool for ensuring Google Ads campaigns are reaching their full potential.

SEO Success Story

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How to Use Negative Placement to Reduce CPA and Improve Campaign ROI

Negative Placement in Google Ads is a way of avoiding showing ads on certain websites and webpages, even if they fall within the desired target market. This tool can be especially useful for marketers who are trying to increase their Return on Investment (ROI) and reduce their Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). By using negative placement, a marketer can effectively block ads from appearing on websites and pages that are likely to generate low-converting traffic or high costs per click. They can even target ads towards specific types of websites or placements that have been effective in the past.

At its core, negative placement is a form of bid strategy, allowing marketers to be more precise in where they want their ads to show and where they do not. Once certain placements have been chosen for exclusion, those placements will not be targeted by any of the advertiser’s campaigns or ad groups. This makes it easier to achieve a higher ROI without having to splurge on popular sites.

Furthermore, Negative Placement enables marketers to control their spending and effectiveness more effectively. By blocking irrelevant placements or those which are known to generate low clicks or high CPCs, marketers can make sure that their ads will appear to the audience most likely to convert. This helps to reduce wasteful costs and instead direct the money to placements that are likely to generate higher ROI.

Negative Placement can also be used to avoid appearing in ad placements that may negatively impact the brand’s overall reputation. A marketer may want to avoid featuring ads next to controversial or highly opinionated topics, as this may cause their customers or even potential customers to view their company’s values and actions in a negative light. Ultimately, the use of Negative Placement enables marketers to customize their placements and target a more relevant and profitable audience.

FAQS – How does negative placement work in Google Ads, and how can it affect my campaign’s performance?

1. What is negative placement in Google Ads?
Answer: Negative placement in Google Ads is a feature that allows advertisers to choose where their ads should not appear, so that ads don’t show up unwantedly in inappropriate contexts.

2. How does negative placement work?
Answer: Negative placement works by providing advertisers with a list of websites, apps, and videos that their ads should not appear on. Advertisers can add any unwanted websites, apps, and videos to the list to ensure that their ads don’t appear in those contexts.

3. How does negative placement affect my ad campaigns?
Answer: Negative placement can be effective in preventing ads from appearing on inappropriate websites, apps, or videos, which can help to avoid wasted spend and poor campaign performance.

4. What kind of websites, apps, and videos can I use negative placement for?
Answer: Negative placement can be used for any type of website, app, or video that an advertiser deems inappropriate for their ads.

5. What are the benefits of using negative placement?
Answer: The main benefit of using negative placement is that advertisers can avoid wasted spend on poorly performing campaigns due to ads appearing on inappropriate websites, apps, and videos. Additionally, it can help to improve brand image and consumer trust.

6. What should I consider when adding websites, apps, and videos to my negative placement list?
Answer: When adding websites, apps, and videos to your negative placement list, it’s important to consider the context of the website, app, or video and how it might affect your ad campaigns. Ensure that you only add websites, apps, and videos that you deem to be inappropriate for your ads.

7. How often should I review my negative placement lists?
Answer: It’s important to review your negative placement lists often to ensure that the websites, apps, and videos listed are still appropriate for your ads. It’s recommended that you review your lists at least once a month.

8. What are some common mistakes to avoid with negative placement?
Answer: Common mistakes when using negative placement include adding inappropriate websites, apps, and videos to your list; not reviewing the lists enough; or not using negative placement at all.

9. What other methods can I use to optimize my Google Ads campaigns?
Answer: In addition to using negative placement, there are many other methods that can be used to optimize your campaigns. These include using other features such as remarketing, keyword optimization, targeting, and leveraging advanced data to optimize your campaigns.

10. How can I learn more about negative placement?
Answer: To learn more about negative placement, you can read Google’s help centre articles or tutorials and talk to an expert or digital marketing agency.

SEO Success Story

The Challenge:  Increase new dental patients with better organic visibility and traffic.

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