Negative keywords tell Google not to show your clinic's ads for searches that will never become patients, such as job, salary, course, free, home remedy, pdf or machine price. Load a general list before launch, add speciality-specific words, never block high-intent terms like cost or best, and review the search terms report every week to keep adding new negatives.
The first thing I open in any clinic's Google Ads account is not the bids or the ads. It is the search terms report, the list of exact searches people typed before they clicked. In one specialist clinic we took over, a big share of the budget was going to people searching for jobs, training courses and free home remedies. The ads were fine. The doctor was fine. The clinic was simply paying, every day, to talk to people who would never be patients. Negative keywords are how you stop that.
What are negative keywords in Google Ads?
A negative keyword is a word or phrase that tells Google not to show your ad when it appears in a search. If "job" is a negative, a search for "orthopaedic surgeon job in Pune" will not trigger your knee replacement ad, even though it contains words you bid on.
Your keywords decide who can see your ad. Your negatives decide who cannot. In a clinic account, the second list often saves more money than the first earns.
Why do clinic ads attract so many junk searches?
Medical words are searched by far more people than just patients. Students, job seekers, people wanting free advice, people shopping for products and people doing homework all type the same words a patient would. A loose account, especially one on broad match with no negatives, happily pays for all of them.
Here is an example of what that costs. Say your clinic spends ₹80,000 a month on Google search, and the search terms report shows ₹16,000 of it went to job, course and free-remedy searches. That is a fifth of your budget gone before a single patient called. Over a year, ₹1,92,000.
Which negative keywords should every clinic add?
Start with the general list before launch, then add the lists for your speciality. The table below shows the categories we load in almost every medical account, with examples.
| Category | Example negatives | Who they keep out |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs and careers | job, jobs, vacancy, salary, hiring, recruitment, internship | Doctors, nurses and staff looking for work |
| Education | course, training, college, admission, syllabus, notes, pdf, ppt, exam | Students and trainees |
| Free and DIY | free, home remedy, at home, naturally, exercises video | People who want to avoid a visit |
| Information only | meaning, definition, wikipedia, images, pictures, diagram | Homework and curiosity searches |
| Products and equipment | machine price, buy online, wholesale, manufacturer, chair price | Buyers of equipment and products |
| Other services | veterinary, dog, cat, ayurvedic (if you do not offer it) | People wanting a different kind of care |
Some speciality examples, to show how specific this gets:
- Dental: BDS admission, dental college, dental chair price, dental technician course.
- Hair transplant: hair transplant course, hair transplant technician job, hair oil, shampoo.
- Orthopaedics: knee brace buy online, knee pain exercises video, orthopaedic implant manufacturer.
- Dermatology: dermatology course, skin care products buy, home remedy for pimples.
- IVF and fertility: embryologist job, IVF course, IVF meaning.
Which words should I be careful about blocking?
Over-blocking is the opposite mistake, and it can quietly kill your best leads.
- Never block "cost" or "price". People searching for treatment cost are one of your four intent groups, and often close to a decision. Give them an ad about clear, all-inclusive plans.
- Do not block "best". A search like "best knee surgeon" is a patient comparing doctors. Answer with experience and proof.
- Think before blocking "government" or scheme names. If you are on that panel and want those patients, keep them. If you are not, block them.
- Decide "cheap" and "low cost" by your positioning. A premium clinic should usually block them. A volume clinic may want them.
- Do not block your own name or clinic name, even if those searches look small. That is your own-name campaign's job.
How do I find new negative keywords every week?
This is the habit that has saved more money in the accounts we take over than anything else. Block a fixed half-hour every week, open the search terms report and do not close it until:
- Every search that could never become a patient is added as a negative.
- Every good search you were not bidding on is added as a keyword in the right ad group.
- Searches that are close but wrong, such as a treatment you do not offer, are blocked at the campaign level, not the account level.
- Repeated junk patterns go into a shared negative list, so every new campaign starts protected.
- You note what you added and the date, so you can see the effect next week.
Keep keyword matching tight while you build this list. Broad match without negatives is where most of the junk comes from. Once the negative list is mature and the account has steady tracked conversions, you can loosen matching carefully.
How do I know my negative keywords are working?
Watch three things over the following weeks:
- The share of spend in your search terms report going to irrelevant searches should fall.
- Cost per lead may rise slightly, because you are no longer buying cheap junk clicks. That is fine.
- Cost per treated patient should fall. That is the only number that proves it.
If calls drop sharply after a round of negatives, check whether you blocked a word that real patients use, such as "cost" or a local area name, and undo it.
Negatives are one of three boring things that win on Google, alongside a dedicated page for every treatment and someone picking up the phone within a few rings. We cover all three in our patient acquisition work, and the full Google chapter is in Known Doctors Get Booked. Dental clinics, which attract a lot of student and equipment searches, can see more on our dental page. If you want a second pair of eyes on your search terms report, book a free growth call.
The short version
- Negative keywords stop your ads showing for searches that will never become patients.
- Load a general list before launch: jobs, courses, free, information, products, other services.
- Add speciality-specific negatives, and never block high-intent words like "cost" or "best".
- Review the search terms report every week and turn junk into negatives, good searches into keywords.
- Judge the result by cost per treated patient, not cost per lead.
Frequently asked questions
How many negative keywords should a clinic Google Ads account have?
There is no right number. A new account often starts with a general list of a few dozen words covering jobs, courses, free advice and products, then grows every week from the search terms report. What matters is that the share of spend going to irrelevant searches keeps falling and cost per treated patient improves.
Should I add negative keywords at the campaign level or the account level?
Use a shared or account-wide list for words that are never useful, such as job, salary, course and free. Use campaign-level negatives for words that are wrong for one treatment but right for another, for example blocking hip searches inside your knee campaign so each treatment's budget stays clean.
My agency says broad match works fine without negatives. Is that true?
In our experience, broad match without data and without negatives spends money on searches you never wanted, from job seekers to people looking for home remedies. Start with exact and phrase match and a negative list. Open the search terms report together with your agency and see where the money actually went.
Can negative keywords reduce the number of calls my clinic gets?
Yes, if you block words real patients use, such as cost, price, near me or your area names. Calls from junk searches should drop, but calls from patients should not. If genuine enquiries fall after adding negatives, review the latest additions and remove any that were too broad.
On a free growth call, my team traces your last month from enquiry to treatment and shows you your biggest leak in rupees.
