Negative Keyword Hygiene

What AdGradr checks

AdGradr evaluates your negative keyword coverage across campaigns and ad groups. The same logic as the Google check applies, with one critical difference: Bing’s broad match is historically looser than Google’s. That means negatives are even more important on this platform.

AdGradr flags accounts where negative keywords are completely absent (the most significant finding), where the negative-to-positive keyword ratio is very low (a 100-keyword account with fewer than 10 negatives is almost certainly leaking budget), and where broad or phrase match keywords run with no negatives at all (a guaranteed waste generator on Bing).

Why this matters

Bing’s broad match algorithm interprets keyword intent more loosely than Google’s. A broad match keyword like “commercial cleaning” on Bing may trigger for “cleaning lady near me” or “how to clean a commercial oven.” Without negatives, you pay for every irrelevant click. On smaller Bing budgets, even a handful of bad clicks per day can consume 10-20% of your monthly spend.

What good looks like

• A negative keyword list with at least 10% as many terms as your positive keywords.
• Shared negative keyword lists applied across relevant campaigns for consistency.
• Regular search terms report reviews (at least monthly) adding new negatives.
• Campaign-level and ad group-level negatives for precision where needed.
• Negative lists ported from Google but supplemented with Bing-specific irrelevant queries.

Common mistakes

1. Importing Google negatives and stopping there. Bing’s search queries differ from Google’s. Bing’s user base skews older, more desktop-heavy, and triggers different query patterns. Your Google negatives are a starting point, not a complete list.
2. Relying only on broad match negatives. A broad match negative for “free” will block “free estimate” which you may actually want. Use exact or phrase match negatives for precision.
3. Never reviewing the search terms report. The Bing search terms report often surfaces queries that would never appear on Google. Check it monthly at minimum.
4. Adding negatives at the campaign level when ad group level is needed. If one ad group legitimately targets a term that another needs blocked, campaign-level negatives create conflicts.

How to fix it

1. Pull the search terms report for the last 30 days.
2. Sort by spend descending. Flag any query that is irrelevant to your business.
3. Add those terms as negatives at the appropriate level (campaign or ad group).
4. Create shared negative keyword lists for universal exclusions (job-related terms, “free,” competitor names you do not want to bid on).
5. Set a recurring calendar reminder to review search terms every 2 weeks.

When to ignore this check

Exact match-only accounts with a tight keyword set may legitimately have few or no negatives. Single-keyword ad groups (SKAGs) with exact match also need fewer negatives by design. If your account is under 7 days old, you may not have enough search term data to build a negative list yet.

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Want someone to handle this? The Click Makers team manages Microsoft Ads accounts for companies spending $5K+/month. Get in touch to see if we are a fit.