Google Digital Garage Certification Practice Exam

When optimizing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns, the inclusion of negative keywords is a strategic approach to improve the efficiency and relevance of your advertisements. Negative keywords are specific terms that you can indicate to search engines which should not trigger your ads. By doing so, these keywords prevent your ads from appearing in search results for queries that do not align with your business objectives or target audience. This practice helps to refine the audience accessing your ads, ensuring that only those who are actively searching for relevant products or services will see your advertisements. As a result, using negative keywords can significantly enhance your return on investment (ROI), save on costs, and increase the click-through rate (CTR) by limiting exposure to irrelevant searches that do not lead to conversions or desired outcomes. In contrast, positive actions like allowing, encouraging, or enhancing generally imply a broadening or improvement of visibility, which does not capture the specific function of negative keywords in filtering search activity. Thus, the focus is on the preventive role that negative keywords play in optimizing ad performance within SEM campaigns.