What Are Negative Keywords in Google Ads for Medical Practices?

Determining your most profitable keywords and building precise ad groups, ads, and landing pages around them is the foundation of any successful medical PPC campaign. It helps your practice connect with patients who are actively searching for the exact treatments or services you provide. But unless you have an unlimited ad budget, it’s just as critical to identify and eliminate search terms that attract the wrong audience.

Far too many medical advertisers waste a large portion of their budget on irrelevant clicks — from job seekers, students, or people looking for free health advice instead of booking an appointment. These clicks drive up costs without delivering any real return, which makes your campaigns feel expensive and ineffective.

So, how do you avoid this costly mistake? For which you can use negative keywords, the strategic filter that ensures your ads reach only the right patients, not the wrong searchers.

In this post, we’ll break down what negative keywords are, why they’re crucial for medical and dental PPC campaigns, how they can accelerate your ad performance and ROI, and the simple steps to find and apply them so your practice stops wasting money and starts attracting real, high-intent patients.

Let’s dive in.

What Are the Negative Keywords?

Essentially, negative keywords are a filtering method used in Google Ads to prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant search terms. The method is effective to help you control when and where your ads appear, which ensures you don’t waste money on clicks from people who aren’t looking for what your medical or dental practice offers.

Google defines negative keywords as:

Negative Keywords – These are words or phrases that prevent your ad from being triggered by certain search queries that are not relevant to your targeted service. Using these gives you tighter control over your audience targeting, allowing your ads to reach only the most qualified searchers—only those who are genuinely interested in booking an appointment or learning about your services.

Medical practices running healthcare PPC services often use negative keywords to refine targeting and ensure their ads only reach audiences with genuine intent.

Let’s say you’re running ads for teeth whitening services at your dental clinic, and you’re bidding on that keyword. But you don’t want your ad to show up when someone searches for “free teeth whitening” or “DIY teeth whitening kits.” So, you add “free” and “DIY” as negative keywords.

Now, whenever someone includes those words in their search, Google Ads knows not to serve your ad. Pretty effective, right?

So basically, negative keywords work like a smart filter. You choose terms that don’t align with your services or patient intent, and Google automatically blocks your ad from showing when someone includes those words in their search. This keeps your ad spend focused on qualified, high-value searches—helping you attract the right patients while reducing wasted clicks.

Types of Negative Keywords

Just like regular keywords, negative keywords also come in different match types—broad, phrase, and exact. Each of its types offers a different level of control over when your ads appear and when they’re blocked. Understanding how these work helps you filter out irrelevant searches without accidentally excluding valuable ones. Let’s break each down with clear, medical and dental practice–specific examples.

1. Negative Broad Match

This is the default and most flexible type of negative keyword. When you choose this option, your ad will not appear for any search query that contains all the words in your negative keyword—even if the words appear in a different order. However, your ad may still show for queries that contain only some of the words.

Example:

If you have selected "free consultation" as a negative broad match keyword, your ad won’t appear for searches like:

“dental free consultation near me”, “free consultation for Root canal”, “where can I get a free dental consultation”

Your ad could still show searches like “affordable dental consultation” or “discounted consultation,” because they don’t have “free” and “consultation” together.

When to use it:

You can add negative broad match keywords to your ad campaign when you want to block out a general idea—like “free” or “DIY”—across many related searches. Moreover, It’s perfect for filtering out low-intent users who are not willing to book an appointment or pay for your services.

2. Negative Phrase Match

Negative phrase matches give you a somewhat higher level of precision. Your ad will not show if the search query contains your negative keyword in the same exact phrase as your keyword but with inherently different words that may precede or come after it. Yet, your ad could show if the order, arrangement, or separation of the keyword differed.

Example:

If you add "cheap dentist" as a negative phrase match, your ad won’t appear for:

“cheap dentist near me”, “cheap dentist in London”, “best cheap dentist for crowns”

However, your ad could still appear for searches like:

“dentist offering cheap whitening”

“affordable dentist”

This is because the phrase "cheap dentist" does not appear as an exact string in those searches.

When to use it:

Use negative phrase match when you want to filter out searches that have specific phrases that obviously do not match your practice's brand or patient intended actions. If you are running premium cosmetic dentistry campaigns, you want to exclude phrases like "cheap dentist" or "budget veneers." If you’re also optimizing campaigns based on audience segmentation in Google Ads, this match type can help you improve overall targeting.

3. Negative Exact Match

Negative exact match allows you to have the tightest level of control. Your ad will not show if someone makes a search for the exact keyword phrase, with no variations before or after. If there is a new word in the query, your ad may still show.

Example:

If you add "Pediatric dentist job salary per hour" as a negative exact match, your ad won’t appear for:

“Pediatric dentist job salary per hour”

But it might still appear for:

“dental nurse jobs in London”, “jobs in dental marketing”, “part-time dental Clinic jobs near me”

This is useful when you only want to block one very specific search but don’t want to risk excluding related terms that might still be valuable.

When to use it:

Use this type of negative keyword in your ads if you’re confident that one particular keyword is irrelevant to your campaign goals. For example, if your clinic is advertising dental implant treatments, you can exclude the exact term “dental implant jobs” without blocking searches like “best dental implant clinics.” Consider referring to this dental Google Ads guide for further insights.

Benefits of Using Negative Keywords

Alongside filtering out irrelevant traffic, adding negative keywords to dental paid ad campaigns is one of the highly effective methods to improve ad performance, reduce wasted spending, and reach genuinely interested patients. Let’s look at how they make a measurable difference to your campaigns:

Saves Money on Wasted Clicks

Every click costs money, and in competitive healthcare niches like dental implants or cosmetic treatments, those clicks can get expensive fast. In that scenario, negative keywords ensure you’re not paying for visitors who will never become patients, like people searching for “free check-ups,” “DIY teeth whitening,” or “dental jobs.” When you filter out those low-intent searches, you spend your budget only on qualified leads, such as patients who are actually looking for the services you offer.

Want tips to maximize your ad spend? Check out this guide on maximum ROI from dental Google Ads.

Improves Targeting and Relevance

Your practice’s ads should appear only when someone’s search intent truly aligns with the services your practice offers, and yes, that’s what negative keywords make happen. For example, if your clinic focuses on Invisalign and not traditional braces, excluding terms like “metal braces” or “orthodontic wires” will ensure your ad reaches people who are looking for clear aligners specifically. This results in better targeting, better engagement, and an increased likelihood that searchers end up converting into booked appointments.

To go a step further, you can also incorporate behaviorally targeted ads for dentists to improve user engagement.

Increases ROI (Return on Investment)

By eliminating irrelevant traffic, you make every click count. Each impression and visit to your website comes from a user who’s more likely to take meaningful action—like calling your clinic or booking a consultation. Over time, this tighter control on where your ads appear translates into higher conversion rates and stronger returns for every dollar you spend on Google Ads.

Boosts Ad Quality and Performance

Clearly and foremost, Google Ads rewards relevance. When your ads keep appearing for the right search terms and get higher clickthrough, Google recognizes them as valuable to your targeted users. This translates to higher Quality Scores, lower cost-per-click (CPC), and improved ad rank, which means your clinic can outsell your competitors for less. Basically, negative keywords indirectly improve both visibility and efficiency in ad spend.

Avoiding PPC errors is just as important—explore some common Google Ads mistakes to avoid to further enhance your campaign performance.

Enhances Ad Group Relevance

When you remove keywords that aren't relevant, your ad groups become more focused and cohesive. This allows you to write ad messages that speak to the direct needs of your audience. For example, you'll be able to write an ad for a dental implant campaign with ad copy that targets "missing teeth" solutions without fearing irrelevant searches such as "dental implant training." The more relevant your ad groups become, the better the ad experience for potential patients.

Protects Your Brand Image

Your reputation as a clinic is one of your greatest assets, and negative keywords help you maintain that reputation. By screening out undesired or misleading searches, you can ensure that your ads will not show next to words that do not reflect your quality of care. It will keep your brand aligned with professionalism and trustworthiness—two traits that most patients consider when selecting a medical provider. In the long run, it will likely help you attract the right kind of attention while keeping your practice's image strong and credible.

Raises Your Conversion Rate

Ultimately, the goal of any PPC campaign is to turn clicks into appointments booked. By ensuring that your ads show only to the people with high intent, negative keywords are weeding out those who were never going to convert. This increases your conversion rate and allows your campaigns to produce measurable long-term growth for your practice.

Real Examples of Negative Keywords for Medical Ads

Here are categories and terms we regularly include as negative keywords in campaigns for healthcare and medical practices to eliminate irrelevant traffic and attract genuine patients:

Unqualified Searchers

free consultation

cheap clinic

low-cost doctor

no insurance

bulk billing (if not applicable)

Medicaid/Medicare (if not accepted)

Non-Medical or Misdirected Traffic

medical assistant jobs

nursing jobs

cosmetic surgeon jobs

hospital careers

doctor salary

dental implant doctor salary

medical equipment for sale

Educational or Research-Based Queries

how to treat illness at home

medical procedure videos

how to become a doctor

medical research papers

symptoms of diseases

Services You Don’t Offer

cosmetic surgery (if not applicable)

urgent care (if appointment-based only)

pediatric (if adult-only practice)

fertility (if not offered)

dental/sedation dentistry (if not provided)

Every medical practice is different, so your negative keyword list should reflect your specific services, target audience, and goals—helping you avoid wasted spending and focus only on high-intent, conversion-ready patients.

How to Find Negative Keywords

Negative keywords and their uses are an important aspect for every medical practice. In this section, we will explore how medical practices can identify and use negative keywords effectively. This will help them to refine their ad targeting, minimize spending, and maximize relevant patient inquiries.

Check your Search Terms Report

The Search Terms Report inside Google Ads is one of the most valuable tools for identifying negative keywords. The report helps you identify the actual search phrases people used before clicking on your ad. For medical practices, this helps in spotting irrelevant searches—like users looking for “teeth whitening kits” or “dental assistant jobs”. It helps you identify and exclude these keywords to trigger ads only from potential patients who truly need your services.

Use Google Keyword Planner or third-party tools

Low-quality or unrelated search terms are discovered by tools like Google Keyword Planner and other third-party platforms. They often drain your ad spend. For example, if you’re running a campaign for “teeth whitening services,” these tools might reveal terms like “DIY teeth whitening” or “free whitening at home” that don’t align with your services. One of the strategies to deal with them is adding them as negative keywords. This helps your ads to target the right audience effectively and appear only for users genuinely looking for professional treatments.

Brainstorm manually

In addition to data-driven tools, manual brainstorming plays a key role. Think about all the terms that might attract the wrong type of audience to your practice. Words such as “cheap,” “training,” “job,” “home remedies,” or “DIY” often lead to clicks from users who have no intent to book an appointment. Identifying these beforehand from the start is an effective way to refine your campaign and save time and ad budget both.

Build a Negative Keyword List

Creating and maintaining your negative keyword list globally helps you maintain consistency across all your campaigns. It's a good alternative for adding exclusions individually to each ad group, making it more manageable and maintainable. For example, if you’ve identified words like “free” or “course” as irrelevant, you can add them to a single shared or global list. This list you can now apply to every campaign. This method keeps your targeting cleaner and your ad performance more consistent.

Review and refine regularly

Like every other aspect of digital marketing, negative keyword optimization is an ongoing process. As your campaigns run, new irrelevant search queries will naturally appear. It's a must to review and update your negative keyword list from time to time. This ensures that your ads remain focused, relevant, and cost-efficient. Over time, this consistent refinement improves the overall traffic quality and helps medical practices attract relevant leads and maximize ROI.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Negative Keywords in Medical PPC Campaigns

Even the best PPC strategy can lose its effectiveness if not handled carefully. That’s why selecting and managing negative keywords in your ad campaigns is a crucial step that requires proper attention and strategy. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid when optimizing your medical practice ads:

Overloading Your Campaign with Negative Keywords

Adding too many exclusions can limit your visibility and stop your ads from showing to genuine patients. This can reduce visibility, lower your click-through rate, and hurt conversions. So make sure you keep your filters balanced so you reach the right audience without cutting off valuable opportunities.

Relying Only on Broad Match Negatives

While broad match negatives can filter out irrelevant clicks, they often cast too wide a net. In a competitive healthcare market, this could mean missing out on qualified patients actively searching for your services.

Ignoring Regular Updates and Reviews

Your medical practice evolves, and so does patient search behavior. Failing to review and refresh your negative keyword list regularly can result in excluding relevant search terms or missing new irrelevant ones, which might hurt both your ad performance and ROI.

By maintaining a balanced, up-to-date negative keyword strategy, your medical PPC campaigns will stay focused, efficient, and fully aligned with patient intent.