You open your search term report and see you paid for clicks on "cat svg free download". Nobody searching for a free file was ever going to buy a $19.99 shirt. Those clicks are pure waste, and on a small Merch royalty, a handful of them can wipe out a week of profit.
Negative keywords are how you stop that. They are one of the cheapest, safest fixes in Amazon advertising, and this guide shows you how to use them well.
What a negative keyword is
A negative keyword is a word or phrase you tell Amazon not to show your ad for.
Normal keywords say "show my ad when people search this". Negative keywords say "never show my ad when people search this". If you add "svg" as a negative, your ad stops appearing for searches that contain it (depending on the match type, explained below).
You can add negatives in both kinds of Sponsored Products campaigns:
- Auto campaigns, where Amazon chooses the searches. Negatives are your main way to steer an Auto campaign away from bad traffic.
- Manual campaigns, where you choose keywords yourself. Negatives stop broad and phrase keywords from matching searches you do not want.
You can set negatives at the campaign level (they apply to every ad group in it) or at the ad group level (they apply only to that group).
Negative exact vs negative phrase
Negatives come in two match types. There is no "negative broad".
| Match type | What it blocks | Example negative: "dog shirt" |
|---|---|---|
| Negative exact | Only that exact search (plus close variants like plurals) | Blocks "dog shirt" and "dog shirts". Does NOT block "funny dog shirt". |
| Negative phrase | Any search that contains the phrase, words in that order | Blocks "dog shirt", "funny dog shirt", "dog shirt for men". |
Amazon's own targeting guide describes both and recommends using phrase or exact negatives.
There are also length limits. Amazon's help pages list a maximum of 4 words for a negative phrase and 10 words for a negative exact, with an 80-character cap. Keywords also cannot contain most symbols, so you cannot add something like .png with the dot.
Which one should you use?
- Negative exact is the precise tool. Use it when one specific search wasted money but longer searches around it might still sell. Example: "dog shirt" is too general for your niche design, but "funny dachshund dog shirt" still sells.
- Negative phrase is the wide net. Use it for words that make a search worthless no matter what else is in it, like "free" or "svg".
Tip Start with negative exact, and only use negative phrase for words you are sure are always bad. A careless negative phrase can quietly block searches that were making you money.
How to find wasteful search terms
The tool you need is the search term report. It lists the actual words shoppers typed before they clicked your ad, with spend and orders for each.
You can open it in the Amazon Ads console from your campaign's Search terms tab, or download it from the Reports section. Then look for these patterns:
- Spend with zero orders. Sort by spend. Terms that cost a lot and never sold are your first suspects.
- Clearly the wrong intent. Some terms are obviously not shoppers for a finished shirt, even with few clicks: people looking for files, patterns or freebies.
- Wrong product. Searches for a different product type, like "mug" when you are advertising a shirt.
- Competitor brands and protected names. Searches for big brands or characters are rarely your buyers, and you do not want to be associated with them anyway.
How many clicks is "enough"?
Do not negate a term after two clicks. Amazon's targeting guide suggests waiting for at least 20 clicks before judging a negative keyword decision. A common seller rule of thumb works the same way: a term with 20 or more clicks and no orders is a strong candidate.
You can tighten that with your own numbers. If roughly 1 in 10 clicks on your product normally buys, then 20 to 30 clicks with no sale is unusual. If only 1 in 30 buys, you need more clicks before you know. And remember that orders can arrive a few days after the click, so look at terms with at least a week or two of data.
The exception is obvious junk. You do not need 20 clicks to know "free svg" will never buy a shirt.
Common negative keywords for Merch
Watch out These are common examples, not a list to paste in blindly. Check each one against your own search terms first, because one of these words could be part of your niche.
| Word | Why it is usually wasteful | Typical match type |
|---|---|---|
| free | Shopper wants something without paying | Negative phrase |
| svg, png, pdf | Shopper wants a digital design file | Negative phrase |
| cricut, clipart, vector | Shopper wants files for crafting | Negative phrase |
| pattern, template | Shopper wants to make it themselves | Negative phrase, with care |
| sticker, decal | Different product (unless you sell it) | Negative phrase |
| iron on, printable | Shopper wants a DIY transfer | Negative exact or phrase |
| costume | Shopper wants a full costume, not a shirt | Negative exact first |
| wholesale, bulk | Shopper wants a large order | Negative phrase |
A few warnings:
- "Pattern" can be legit. If your design is a pattern (say, a plaid or floral print), people may search "floral pattern shirt" and buy. Check before you block.
- Product-type words depend on what you advertise. If you advertise a sticker or a mug, do not negate "sticker" or "mug" in that campaign.
- Brand and character names. Blocking searches for brands you cannot use is sensible, but the bigger issue is not using protected names in your listing in the first place.
Product targeting negatives
Ads also show on other products' pages. If you see specific products where your ad keeps getting clicks with no sales, you can add a negative product target: an ASIN (Amazon's 10-character product ID) where your ad should not appear. This works in Auto campaigns too.
A simple weekly routine
- Open the search term report for the last 14 to 30 days.
- Sort by spend.
- Mark terms with no orders that have passed your click threshold.
- Add obvious junk right away as negative phrase.
- Add specific losers as negative exact.
- Note any terms that did sell well. Those are candidates to target directly in a manual campaign.
Tip Keep a shared list of junk words (free, svg, png and so on) and add it to every new campaign at launch. It saves you paying to rediscover the same waste on every design.
Why this matters more on Merch
On Merch you earn a royalty, the part of the sale price left after Amazon's costs. That royalty is often a small share of the price, so your break-even ACoS (the most you can spend on ads before a sale loses money) is low. See break-even ACoS for Merch for the math, and Merch royalties explained for where the royalty comes from.
With a small margin, a few dollars of junk clicks can turn a profitable product into a losing one. Negatives are often the fastest way to fix that without lowering bids on the searches that work.
How MerchPPC helps
MerchPPC shows each search term's spend and orders beside your product's break-even ACoS on the Advertising page, so the wasteful ones stand out. You can add a negative keyword from a search term row, at ad group or campaign level, and it waits in the Publish queue until you approve it. Lookouts can also watch for terms that spend without selling and propose negatives, but they never apply anything themselves.
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The short version
- A negative keyword tells Amazon never to show your ad for that search.
- Negative exact blocks one search; negative phrase blocks every search containing it.
- Find waste in the search term report: spend with no orders, wrong intent, wrong product.
- Wait for enough clicks (around 20 is a common rule) unless the term is obvious junk.
- Common Merch negatives: free, svg, png, cricut, printable. Check each one before you block it.
What is sent to Amazon today. Of the changes described here, MerchPPC sends the kinds it has confirmed against Amazon: a target's bid, a campaign's budget, a negative keyword and a new Auto campaign. Not sent yet: an ad group's default bid; a campaign's placement adjustments; a campaign's bid strategy; a campaign's audience bid adjustments; pausing or enabling a target, an ad, an ad group or a campaign; a negative product; removing a negative keyword; removing a negative product; promoting a search term to a keyword; adding a product target; adding a product to an ad group; adding products to a new ad group; a new manual campaign; a new Sponsored Brands campaign; one Auto campaign per product from a selection; splitting a campaign; a Sponsored Brands keyword's bid; a Sponsored Brands target's bid; a Sponsored Brands theme's bid; pausing or enabling a Sponsored Brands campaign, ad group or ad; a Sponsored Brands negative keyword; a Sponsored Brands negative product; a price change; adding a missing product; republishing a product; deleting a product. The extension shows those as “Not available yet” and holds them back until each one is confirmed.
Amazon changes its rules, prices and tools from time to time. Check the current details in your Merch and Amazon Ads accounts.