How to add Modified Broad Match Negative Keywords?

[Jean-Francois PEN]

Hello,

How can I modify the this script to add Modified Broad Match Negative Keywords instead of Exact Match Negative Keywords?

Thanks in advance

[Alexander Wang]

Hi Jean-Francois,

The change should be pretty straightforward.

The following section of code in the script adds the search term as a negative keyword:

if (negativeKeywords[adGroup.getId()]) {
  for (var i = 0; i < negativeKeywords[adGroup.getId()].length; i++) {
    adGroup.createNegativeKeyword('[' + negativeKeywords[adGroup.getId()][i] + ']');
  }
}

You can see that the call to createNegativeKeyword wraps the search term in brackets. i.e. [NEGATIVE_KEYWORD_TEXT] instead of just NEGATIVE_KEYWORD_TEXT. If you want to make the negative match be broad or phrase, you need to omit these brackets or use quotation marks:

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497836?hl=en

So if you want to use broad, you can simply adjust the code to look like:

if (negativeKeywords[adGroup.getId()]) {
  for (var i = 0; i < negativeKeywords[adGroup.getId()].length; i++) {
    adGroup.createNegativeKeyword(negativeKeywords[adGroup.getId()][i]);
  }
}

I don't think that modified broad match negative keywords are supported. The UI seems to indicate that negative keywords support exact, phrase, and broad.

Cheers,

Alex

[Jean-Francois PEN]

Thanks Alex.

What do you mean by "I don't think that modified broad match negative keywords are supported"?

FYI, I've been using them for years with no problem. You can add them manually in the Adwords interface and in Adwords Editor as well.

I don't know if they are "creatable" through a script. 

Did you mean that a script cannot create them?

Cheers

Jeff

[Alexander Wang]

My understanding is that modified broad match is only supported for positive keywords. I'm double-checking this with some folks internally though.

To create modified broad match positive keywords you prefix all the words in the keyword with '+' like this:

+red +apple

You can also create broad match positive keywords by simply omitting the '+' like this:

red apple

In order to create negative keywords, you prefix the term with '-' like this:

-red apple

I don't think that this is supported:

-red -apple

Or this:

-+red +apple

When I try adding the keyword -red -apple in the UI, it creates the negative keyword red -apple. I don't think this is a modified broad match negative keyword though. It's not listed as an option here:

Negative match keyword	Ads may show on searches for	Ads won't show on searches for
-women	girls' hats sun hats	hats for women women's hats
-"women's hats"	girls' hats women's baseball hats	women's hats Women's hats women's hats for sale want to buy women's hats
-[women’s hats]	buy women's hats women's hats on sale	women's hats Women's hats

How are you creating these modified broad match negative keywords in the UI? Creating a negative keyword with +red +apple as the text? You can specify whatever text you want for a negative keyword, so whatever you're setting the text to in the UI can be done in a script. I'm just not sure that the backend will handle it appropriately. Keyword match types are not my area of expertise though, so I've reached out to some folks internally to make sure I'm not misspeaking here. I'll confirm once I know more.

But again, you can specify whatever text you want when creating a negative keyword in your script. It will operate the same as if you were creating a negative keyword in the UI. So whatever you've been doing in the AdWords UI or in Editor will work in scripts.

Cheers,

Alex

[Jean-Francois PEN]

Here is an example of Modifier Broad Match Keyword used as Negative Keyword : https://www.uploady.com/download/baZWwjOp1uF/KMM0aGG9LptXnEnR

I don't think you can add them this way : -+negative +keyword

Nonetheless, you can enter them directly into the negative keyword form on Google Adwords' website or in Adwords Editor, because there you don't need to enter the minus sign in front of them.

When Scripts are concerned, I assume that createNegativeKeyword should do the job but I just don't know how to add the + sign in front of each word inside the negative keyword.

Cheers

Jeff

[Alexander Wang]

Jeff,

What I'm hearing from other folks internally is that your example is not actually operating in the way you think it is. What I'm being told is that the "+" signs are stripped out from negative keywords. While the UI will allow you to save negative keywords with "+" signs, the "+" signs get stripped out when it comes time to deal with serving. So the following two negative keywords will have the same effect on your account:

+negative +keyword

negative keyword

That said, you can specify whatever text you want to campaign.createNegativeKeyword:

function main() {
  var campaign = ...
  campaign.createNegativeKeyword("+negative +keyword");
}

I really don't think this will operate any differently than "negative keyword" though. I'd be wary of relying on the "+" sign in conjunction with negative keywords.

Cheers,

Alex

[Jean-Francois PEN]

Thanks Alex. 

I did not know that the + had no effect when used in a negative keyword.

Cheers