Keyword operations
Apple Ads negative keywords
Negative keywords serve two jobs: exclude irrelevant searches and prevent discovery campaigns from competing with exact campaigns. Apply them only after checking the actual search term and intended routing.
6 min readUpdated Aug 4, 2026
Use negative exact for precise traffic routing.
When a discovered search term becomes a deliberate exact target elsewhere, add it as negative exact in the discovery source to make budget and reporting cleaner.
Use negative broad cautiously.
Negative broad can exclude a wider set of searches and may block useful variants. Reserve it for clearly irrelevant concepts after reviewing search-term history.
Keep a reason and a review date.
Language, app positioning, and query economics change. Record whether the negative was added for irrelevance, overlap, compliance, or poor economics, then revisit high-impact exclusions.