150+ Negative Keywords for Software Selling AdWords Campaigns
Selling software over the Internet with Google AdWords has a lot of traps that we should learn to avoid as good as possible, so that our ads reach more targeted prospects every day. One of the trickiest aspects we should be in control of is the use of negative keywords, because they are the toughest candidate for wasting our money and for getting on the nerves of Google users, as it was eloquently explained by Linda Bustos on Get Elastic blog.
Negative keywords in your AdWords keyword list are those for which your ads will not show in search queries containing them. You can get the general information about negative keywords directly from the AdWords blog.
When you’re trying to sell software through PPC campaigns, your goal is to obtain qualified leads to your software selling business, not to get as much and as untargeted traffic as possible. And that’s when negative keywords come in. Or out, actually:).
How do you know which negative keywords are right for your campaign?
Although it’s somewhat easy to describe what your software is and does and thus come up with keywords for your AdWords campaign, the semantic mix-up generated by users around the globe always has some surprises reserved for each of your campaigns.
No matter how hard you try to associate all possible negative keywords to your campaign, there will always be room for more. That’s because beyond what your software does not do and what names it does not have, search terms used on millions of computers accessing Google every day have as limit the sky itself.
That is why enriching the negative keyword list must be an on-going activity for every effective PPC campaign out there.
Depending on the type of software you are selling, some search terms used in Google simply are not good for business because they are not targeting the people who are interested in your solutions. I really liked the post written by Alwin Hoogerdijk about negative keywords specific to the software industry and felt I can add to it.
That’s why in this blog post I have listed more than 150 negative keywords that I believe could be used in a software selling campaign (from our experience managing PPC campaigns for our clients and for ourselves, as well as from an inspiring article on b2b negative keywords from komarketingassociates.com).
Nevertheless, don’t take it for granted – consider them as a starting point, as they are not meant to be general guidelines for each and every piece of software out there.
Here goes the negative keyword list for selling software:
activation key
bittorrent
broken
burn
burner
cd
cd key
code
crack
cracked
cracks
crackz
disk
dvd
easyshare
faulty
hac
hack
hacked
hacks
image
key gen
key generator
key gens
keygen
keygens
keygenz
keymaker
license
license key
licensekey
password
patch
patches
pirate
pirate key
pirated
rapid share
rapidshare
reg key
registration
registration codes
registration key
regkey
serial
serial key
serial number
serials
serialz
shortcut
shortcuts
torrent
torrents
torrentz
unlock
unlocking
validation
wares
warez
about
bad review
case studies
case study
community
comparison
comparisons
contest
creating
define
definition
error
example
forum
help
how-to
info
information
instruction guide
instructions
journal
journals
manual
model
negative review
picture
pictures
tutorials
user manual
video
project
review
reviews
support
tip
tips
tutorial
Web/mobile
api
appz
desktop
iphone
mobile
pda
web
web based
webbased
Operating system
apple
linux
mac
macintosh
microsoft
os x
osx
unix
windows
Jobs hunters
career
careers
hiring
job
jobs
ajax
c++
dbase
delphi
developer
developers
DIY
do-it-yourself
excel
file
filemaker
files
flash
fox
java
libraries
library
mdb
mysql
open source
php
sample
schema
sheet
source
spreadsheet
sql
template
templates
vb
visual basic
xls
xml
xsl
Freebies hunters
bargain
amazon
cheap
close out
close outs
closeout
closeouts
discount
discounted
eastbay
free
freebie
freebsd
freeware
giveaway
gnu
gratis
gratuit
kostenlos
no charge
no cost
retail
retailer
retailers
price
prices
pricing
Please add your suggestions to this list!
Tags: adwords, PPC, selling software
September 25th, 2009 at 5:57 am
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September 25th, 2009 at 6:38 am
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September 25th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Some of these seem a great way to leave money on the table.
September 25th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
[...] this morning, Roxana Patrichi of Avangate published a list of 150+ negative keywords for software selling AdWords campaigns. This reminded me of one of the questions that I was asked in a recent interview to Affilorama. I [...]
October 6th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
The best cost savings measure I’ve found with regards to Adwords is to just not bother. I have tried twice with two different products and two different “Adwords Pros” managing campaigns (one who makes his living doing it and another who is amateur but has been highly successful with Adwords promoting his own products) and both times I lost money.
I’d love to see an article on Adwords that looks in depth into the question of when Adwords is worth using and when it is not (based on product, target user base, price of product, etc.)!
October 14th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Thank you Dan for your comment,
I don’t know exactly the situation of your AdWords account managers, so I won’t comment on it, but from what I have noticed, there are a few ways of testing whether a product can be advertised through AdWords or not.
I would recommend testing AdWords for a month with a minimum investment, let’s say 100$: set tracking codes on the BUY action (make sure you add the code on the Thank you page) and set your goal to have a cost per conversion smaller that the actual price of the product and make sure to follow the account daily.
After the first month, if you choose to continue and notice that things don’t go as planned, you can just pause the campaign until you rethink your strategy (this is one of the most beautiful parts of AdWords, unlike most of the other advertising channels – that you can pause it in the moment you feel like it:).
Of course, AdWords performance also depends on the product quality, on the need for it on the targeted market, on how well is the campaign targeted and so on.
We will try to create a report on industries that don’t mix well with AdWords from our experience. In the meantime, if you want to, I would be happy to take a look at your AdWords account (no strings attached) and offer you my opinion on your specific case. Contact me at adriana dot iordan @ avangate dot com if you’re interested.
October 14th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I actually get quite a lot of conversions for searches including the word “free”, so I don’t have it as a negative keyword.
October 14th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Andy, thanks for adding your comment. I believe that when targeting downloads for a software, especially when the trial converts to sale is useful to add keywords around the “free trial”, “free download” etc.
But then again if the cost per conversion (tracking sale) on the keywords including “free” is higher than the price of the software, I would add it as a negative keyword. It is all about testing and measuring of course.
November 18th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Hi
Good Information about the negative keywords.
January 25th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
That list was awesome! Thanks so much. Another way to find negative keywords is to start typing your target keywords and see what Google automatically suggests for you.
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Jessica at Bill4Time.com