How to Exclude Criteria from campaigns/ad groups (2 Ways)?

When you exclude certain criteria from our campaigns or ad group, it means you actually provide suggestions for negative criteria.

– – – A quick reminder on what is “criteria”: criteria is an umbrella term for everything that can be bid on: keywords, products, categories, and so on. – – –

There are two ways how to exclude criteria:

Practical Example:

If you are running a generic and a brand campaign side-by-side, you can exclude your brand name from the generic campaign. This is just one of the use cases – tailor the use of the “Exclude” option to your business objectives and effectively manage your PPC campaigns.

In this article, I will explain how to set criteria exclusion in two different ways.

❌Careful: “Exclude” is not the same as “Ignore”! Exclusion is a negative addition. “Ignore” means that specified keywords will not be suggested. If you want to ignore certain criteria, then read this article.

Exclude Criteria via Suggestions Review (All Plans)

If you want to exclude specific keywords or criteria, you can do so on the Suggestions page:

1. Find the Suggestion: Locate the keyword (or criteria) suggestion you want to exclude.

2. Edit the Destination: Click on the suggestion to edit its destination.

3. Change the Ad Group (if needed):

Ensure the keyword (criteria) is assigned to the correct ad group.

4. Select 'Negative' + Match Type: Choose the 'Negative' option and select the appropriate match type (e.g., Negative Exact, Negative Phrase).

5. Save: Save your changes, and Adspert will add the keywords as negative in the next job run.

Create a Custom Rule to Automatically Exclude Criteria (Only Enterprise Plan)

Alternatively, you can create custom rules with specific filters to automatically exclude selected criteria:

1. Find the Rules: Decide at what level you want the keyword to be excluded (e.g., all accounts, all campaigns).

2. Click Edit Rule: Access the rule you want to modify.

3. Create a Filter Rule: Follow the steps outlined in this article on how to create a filter rule.

4. Define the Filter as 'Contains': Specify the keyword that triggers the exclusion.

5. Set Destination Match Type as Negative:** Ensure that the destination match type is set as 'Negative,' and choose the appropriate match type (e.g., Negative Exact, Negative Phrase).

6. Save your rule

Conclusion:

Adspert's 'Exclude' rules are a valuable feature for managing negative keywords in your PPC campaigns. Whether you prefer making manual adjustments on the Suggestions page or automating the process with rules, you can effectively optimize your campaigns by excluding keywords that aren't performing well. This proactive approach helps ensure cost-efficient advertising while still generating positive results.