Negative keywords for manufacturers: 100 to add before you launch

A Google Ads campaign for a fabrication shop doesn't only show up for buyers. Bid on "laser cutting" and you'll also appear for people looking for laser cutting jobs, laser cutting files for a hobby machine, a used fiber laser, and laser hair removal. Every one of those clicks costs the same as a click from an engineer with a drawing.

Negative keywords tell Google which searches to skip. In fabrication accounts, the same four groups of irrelevant searches come back again and again: job seekers, hobbyists, machine buyers and unrelated meanings. This article gives you 100 negatives, 25 per group, ready to copy into Google Ads before you launch.

How negative keywords work

A negative keyword blocks your ads from searches that contain it. Two details matter:

• How you write it decides what it blocks. A single word like jobs is a broad negative: it blocks any search containing that word, in any order. Several words in quotes, like "for sale", form a phrase negative: it blocks searches containing those words in that order.
• Negatives don't match close variants. Unlike regular keywords, a negative for job won't block "jobs". That's why the lists below include plurals and common spellings.

Job seekers and students

Process names are also job titles and trades. "Welder", "cnc machinist" and "sheet metal" searches are full of people looking for work, training or a salary figure. These are the most common wasted clicks in fabrication accounts.

job
jobs
career
careers
hiring
employment
salary
wage
hourly
resume
apprentice
apprenticeship
internship
course
courses
class
school
college
training
certification
exam
"red seal"
"how to become"
"job description"
indeed

DIY, hobby and consumer projects

Desktop laser cutters and home CNC routers have created a huge consumer market. Those searchers want files, materials and gift ideas, not a supplier for 500 brackets.

diy
"do it yourself"
"how to"
tutorial
youtube
hobby
homemade
cricut
glowforge
xtool
svg
"free files"
"free dxf"
wood
plywood
acrylic
wedding
gift
christmas
ornament
"wall art"
"metal art"
jewelry
keychain
etsy

Machines, tools and software

People researching or buying equipment use exactly the same words as your buyers: "laser cutting", "press brake", "plasma". The difference is in the extra words: for sale, used, rental, a machine or software brand.

"for sale"
used
"second hand"
rental
rent
lease
"laser cutter"
"laser engraver"
"fiber laser machine"
"cnc router"
"plasma table"
"press brake for sale"
"welding machine"
"tube bender"
"metal brake"
"harbor freight"
"princess auto"
software
nesting
autocad
solidworks
gcode
"replacement parts"
consumables
"welding wire"

Unrelated meanings

Several fabrication words mean something completely different elsewhere. Laser is also a medical and cosmetic treatment, plasma is also blood, stamping is also a hobby and a passport office, and sheet metal shows up in roofing and auto body searches.

hair
"hair removal"
tattoo
lasik
"eye surgery"
"laser tag"
"laser pointer"
"laser level"
"laser printer"
"laser therapy"
"skin care"
clinic
dentist
"blood plasma"
"plasma donation"
"plasma tv"
"rubber stamp"
"stamp collecting"
passport
"sheet metal screws"
roofing
gutters
siding
"auto body"
muffler

Negatives specific to your shop

The four lists above work for almost every shop. A few negatives depend on your business and belong at campaign level:

• Processes you don't offer that share words with yours. A laser-cutting shop without engraving: engraving, engraver, etching. A sheet metal shop that doesn't do roofing: flashing, soffit.
• Places outside your territory that people add to searches: other cities, provinces or countries.
• Materials you don't work with: titanium, inconel, copper or brass, if you don't cut or machine them.
• Your own company name in non-brand campaigns, so brand searches don't inflate their numbers.
• Competitors' names, if they appear in your search terms and don't turn into requests.

How to add them in Google Ads

1. Go to Tools → Shared library → Negative keyword lists. If the menu has moved, search "negative keyword lists" in the Google Ads search bar.
2. Create one list per group above, named the same way ("NEG — Jobs and training").
3. Click Copy on the block, paste it into the keyword box and save. Quotes are kept, so phrase negatives stay phrase negatives.
4. Open each list, click Apply to campaigns and select every campaign.

Shared lists are easier to maintain than negatives added campaign by campaign: when you add a word once, it protects every campaign.

Keep the lists growing

No starting list catches everything. For the first month, open the search terms report two or three times a week and add a negative for every irrelevant search. Add the word that makes the search irrelevant (salary), not the whole search ("cnc machinist salary laval"), so you block the whole family of searches at once. After the first month, a weekly check is usually enough.

If you serve Quebec, run French negatives alongside these: French searchers use emploi, à vendre and bricolage, with and without accents. The French version of this article has 100 of them.

The complete lists in the Fabricator's Google Ads Playbook have 336 negatives in French and English, with a CSV download, and the rest of the campaign setup step by step. For the full picture of how a fabrication campaign fits together, read Google Ads for metal fabrication shops: the complete guide.