Add negative keywords

On this page you can detect the search terms that are driving wasted ad spend as negative keyword candidates and approve those candidates to add them as negative keywords. This page is for separating “search terms still worth keeping” from “search terms that are clearly wasted spend,” and taking the latter out of delivery. Detecting candidates is the focus — the actual exclusion happens only once you approve.

About this page

Item	Details
What you can do	List high ACoS, zero-sales, and overlapping-delivery search terms as negative keyword candidates, save a decision rule, and add negative keywords through the approval flow
Applies to	Sponsored Products (SP)
Data & connection needed	The search-term and campaign performance data of your connected account (no additional setup required)
Scope	Mainly proposal only. Most prompts just build a list of exclusion candidates, and nothing is actually excluded until you approve it. Saving a decision rule (Prompt 3) is a “record” and does not change ad settings

Search terms … the words shoppers actually typed into Amazon. Analyzed to decide what to exclude.
Negative keywords … a setting you register on your ad to stop delivery for a given term. Distinct from search terms; once you approve and add them, that term is dropped from delivery.
Match type … the matching condition for the exclusion. You can choose to exclude on exact match, or to broadly exclude anything containing a phrase.
ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) … ad spend ÷ ad-attributed sales. Lower is more efficient.
CVR (conversion rate) … the share of clicks that led to a purchase.
CPC (cost per click) … the ad spend per click.
Cannibalization … the state where several of your own campaigns compete over the same search term, resulting in wasted overlapping delivery.

When to use this

You want to detect, with evidence, search terms that greatly exceed your target ACoS as exclusion candidates
You want to organize search terms that get clicks but produce no sales
You want to find the same search term being delivered redundantly from multiple campaigns
You want to save a decision rule so you can produce exclusion candidates under the same conditions every week
You want to extract only the search terms with high spend but zero sales
You want to audit keyword duplication (internal competition) across all SP campaigns

Before you run

Target account … if you handle multiple accounts, confirm the target account is correct first.
Target period … such as “the past 30 days.” Same-day and previous-day data may not be finalized, so a recently finalized period is safer.
Target ACoS … if you have registered it in Set targets for sales, ad spend, and ACoS, it is auto-referenced as the basis for judging exclusion candidates, so you can omit it in the prompt.

Quick reference

Goal	What you get	Changes	Prompt
Detect high ACoS / zero-sales search terms as exclusion candidates	A list of candidates with evidence (type, performance, recommended match type)	Proposal only (added after approval)	Prompt 1
Find overlapping delivery of the same search term and build cleanup candidates	A list of the side to keep, the side to exclude, and the wasted ad spend	No change (proposal only, added after approval)	Prompt 2
Save an exclusion decision rule to skip specifying it every time	A confirmation of the registered rule plus a list of exclusion candidates	Saves a decision rule + proposal	Prompt 3
Extract high-spend search terms that aren’t selling	A list of exclusion candidates ranked by ad spend (with performance)	No change (proposal only, added after approval)	Prompt 4
Audit keyword duplication across all SP campaigns	A list of duplicate pairs with recommended actions and expected savings	No change (audit only)	Prompt 5

Prompt 1: Detect high ACoS / zero-sales search terms as exclusion candidates

Lists, with evidence, search terms that greatly exceed your target ACoS and search terms that get clicks but produce no sales, as negative keyword candidates.

When to use — when you want to gather both the search terms that badly miss your target and the search terms with clicks but no sales into a single set of exclusion candidates.

What you need — the target ACoS (can be omitted if registered in KPI targets), and the click-count and ACoS-multiple thresholds used for the judgment (defaults below).

From the most recent finalized data over the past 30 days, against a target
ACoS of 15%, list search terms that have 20 or more clicks and an ACoS above
2x the target (30%), or search terms that get clicks but have zero sales,
as negative keyword candidates.

Note: If your target ACoS is already registered in your monthly KPI targets,
you can drop the "15%" above. Feel free to reword the click and ratio
conditions however you like.

What you can change — the target ACoS (can be omitted if registered in KPI targets) / the target click-count threshold (e.g., 20 or more) / the allowed ACoS multiple (e.g., 2x the target).

What you get back — a table listing, per search term, its type (high ACoS or zero sales), clicks, ad spend, sales, ACoS, and the recommended negative match type (usually negative exact). The prompt specifies that a single registration stays within 50 items.

Changes — proposal only. Nothing is actually excluded until you approve it.

Next steps — when you want to approve and add exclusions, you can pass this list straight into the approval flow in Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns.

Prompt 2: Find overlapping delivery of the same search term and build cleanup candidates

Detects duplicates where the same search term is delivered from multiple campaigns, and organizes the lower-CVR side as an exclusion candidate.

When to use — when you want to find and clean up duplicates where your own campaigns compete on the same term and waste ad spend.

What you need — the target period (default is the past 30 days) and the number of items to show (default is the top 30).

From the most recent finalized data over the past 30 days, find duplicates of
the same search term being delivered from two or more campaigns. List up to 30
candidates for registering a negative keyword on the lower-CVR side.
Also include an estimate of the ad spend being wasted.

What you can change — the target period / the number of items to show (e.g., the top 30).

What you get back — a table listing, per search term, the campaign to keep (the higher-CVR side), the campaign to exclude (the lower-CVR side), and the estimated wasted ad spend.

Changes — no change (proposal only). This detects only and does not register automatically. Actual exclusions go through the same approval flow as Prompt 1.

Next steps — when you want to approve and add exclusions, do so in the approval flow in Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns.

Prompt 3: Save an exclusion decision rule to skip specifying it every time

Register a per-account exclusion decision rule so you don’t have to write the parameters each time, leaving future detections callable in a single line.

When to use — when you want to stop writing judgment criteria such as target ACoS, minimum click count, and allowed multiple every time, and fix them as a rule.

What you need — the target ACoS, minimum click count, and allowed ACoS multiple (registered if not yet set).

Check whether an exclusion decision rule for negative keywords is registered.
If it is, apply it as-is. If not, register the target ACoS, minimum click count,
and allowed ACoS multiple first, then list the negative keyword candidates.

What you can change — the target ACoS / minimum click count / allowed ACoS multiple.

What you get back — a confirmation of the registered rule’s contents, plus an exclusion-candidate table in the same format as Prompt 1. From next time on, you can invoke the same conditions with just “list the exclusion candidates.”

Changes — saves a decision rule against your account (a record; does not change ad settings). The exclusion candidates are proposal only, and nothing is actually excluded until you approve it.

Next steps — to systematize recurring monitoring and proposals using the saved rule, use Save rules to systematize proposal approval and monitoring.

Prompt 4: Extract high-spend search terms that aren’t selling

Lists every search term with high spend but zero sales (zero orders), ranked by total spend, highest first.

When to use — when you want to see the wasted, high-spend search terms in order of amount and prioritize cleaning them up.

What you need — the target period (default is the past 30 days) and the ad spend floor (default is over ¥5,000).

Analyze the search term data from the past 30 days and table every search term
where ad spend exceeds ¥5,000 but sales are zero.
Include each item's ad spend, clicks, and cost per click, and rank them by
ad spend, highest first.

Note: You can change the "¥5,000" threshold to any amount you like.

What you can change — the target period / the ad spend floor (e.g., over ¥5,000).

What you get back — a table listing, per search term, the ad spend, clicks, cost per click, and recommended negative match type, ranked by ad spend, highest first.

Changes — no change (proposal only). Actual exclusions go through the approval flow.

Next steps — when you want to approve and add exclusions, do so in the approval flow in Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns.

Prompt 5: Audit keyword duplication across all SP campaigns

Analyzes keyword duplication across all active SP campaigns and ad groups, detecting internal competition (cannibalization).

When to use — when you want to audit all campaigns together rather than one at a time, and surface keywords competing internally (the whole-account version of Prompt 2).

What you need — the scope is all active SP campaigns and ad groups (period and count are optional).

Analyze keyword duplication across all active SP campaigns and ad groups.
Estimate the duplication rate and flag pairs that compete with each other
internally on the same search term.
Recommend which keywords to add as merges or exclusions, and show the
expected cost-per-click savings.

What you can change — the scope of campaigns to target (all active SP is the default).

What you get back — a table listing, per duplicate pair, the keyword, the competing campaigns, the recommended action (merge or exclude), and the expected cost-per-click savings.

Changes — no change (audit only). This produces the audit results only and does not apply merges or exclusions.

Next steps — add exclusions via the approval flow in Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns, and revise the bids of overlapping keywords in Adjust bids.

Adjust bids — use as a complement to lowering or stopping bids on search terms that don’t lead to sales
Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns — approve and add the exclusion candidates you detected (Prompt 4)
Set targets for sales, ad spend, and ACoS — pre-register a target ACoS and you won’t need to specify it each time
Save rules to systematize proposal approval and monitoring — register automation rules including the exclusion decision rule
Move search terms from Auto to Manual — use alongside cleanup of overlapping delivery originating from Auto