Reviews search terms and adds negative keywords automatically using AI-evaluated rules you configure in a companion admin panel, with email summaries of every change.
by Charles Bannister (shabba.io)·shabba.io/google_ads_scripts/ai-auto-negative-keywords
Uses Claude AI to analyze your search terms and recommend negative keywords with clear reasoning. Each term is evaluated for business relevance, intent, and conversion potential — then exported to a Google Sheet with actionable suggestions.
Sheet-driven negative keyword automation: define rules in a spreadsheet and the script adds negatives and emails alerts about irrelevant search terms without manual monitoring. Supports MCC.
Finds brand search terms leaking into non-brand campaigns (inflating their stats and misleading Smart Bidding) and generic traffic riding in brand campaigns — with the misrouted spend quantified.
Measures how much of your exact-match spend actually flows through close variants and lists the zero-conversion variants — the most surgical negative keyword candidates in the account.
Reads negative keywords and placement exclusions from a Google Sheet and syncs them to multiple campaigns via shared negative keyword and placement lists. Optionally filters to campaigns with a specific label.
Quantifies spend on search queries containing competitor names, with conversion performance and a period-over-period trend — whether competitor bidding is your strategy or your broad-match accident.
Pulls recent search terms and evaluates each against rules you define, using an LLM to decide whether a term is irrelevant, then adds negatives at the level you choose. Rules and API keys are managed in shabba's admin panel (autoneg.shabba.io) and read into the script via a linked Google Sheet. Use it to keep wasteful queries out of Search, Shopping and Performance Max without hand-reviewing every term.
| Variable | Default |
|---|---|
SPREADSHEET_URL | YOUR_SPREADSHEET_URL_HERE |
NEGATIVE_MATCH_TYPE | EXACT |
DEBUG_MODE | false |
OBFUSCATE_SEARCH_TERMS | false |
TEST_MODE | false |
Fetched N search terms; evaluated against your rules. Added "cheap free download" as EXACT negative to Campaign X. Skipped "buy widgets online" (matched keep rule). Email sent summarizing added negatives.
THIRD-PARTY DEPENDENCY: this script relies on shabba.io's own hosted service — rules are configured at autoneg.shabba.io and the script calls autoneg.shabba.io APIs plus an external LLM provider (Claude/ChatGPT/Gemini). It requires a copied Google Sheet template and an LLM API key. If shabba changes or retires that service, the script may stop working. It also self-reports version/error info to shabba by default.