Common Negative List

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.

Shopping

Display

negatives

keywords

placements

shared lists

Overview

Common Negative List reads two sheets from your spreadsheet — Keywords and Placements — and creates or updates corresponding shared negative keyword and excluded placement lists in your Google Ads account. It then adds the lists to all enabled/paused campaigns (or only those with a specified label), removing the lists from any campaigns that no longer qualify. On each run it sends a summary email of keywords, placements, and campaigns synced.

Setup

1Make a copy of the template spreadsheet (link in Google Ads Scripts documentation).
2Paste the URL into CONFIG.spreadsheet_url.
3In the spreadsheet, fill in the Keywords sheet (column B) with negative keywords using standard match type syntax ([exact], "phrase", broad).
4Fill in the Placements sheet (column B) with URLs to exclude.
5Optionally set a campaign label in cell C3 to restrict which campaigns receive the lists.

Ready to Use This Script?

Configuration Variables

Variable	Default	Description
`CONFIG.spreadsheet_url`	'INSERT_SPREADSHEET_URL_HERE'	URL of your copy of the template spreadsheet.
`Campaign Label (spreadsheet C3)`	blank	Label to filter which campaigns receive the negative lists. Leave blank for all enabled/paused campaigns.
`Keyword List Name (spreadsheet C4)`	Common Negatives	Name for the shared negative keyword list that will be created/updated.
`Placement List Name (spreadsheet C5)`	Common Placement Exclusions	Name for the shared excluded placement list.

Expected Output

The Common Negative List script successfully processed Customer ID: 123-456-7890 and synced a total of 48 keywords and 12 placements.
(Email sent to configured address)

Notes

The script handles match type syntax in the spreadsheet: wrap keywords in quotes for phrase match, square brackets for exact match, or leave bare for broad match. On the first run with a new list name, the script creates the list automatically.