What is a good negative keyword strategy on Amazon?
Run negatives weekly using two rules: negative-exact any search term with 10+ clicks and zero orders, and negative-phrase any recurring irrelevant modifier (free, cheap, competitor brand names when you cannot rank). Applied consistently, this cuts 15% to 30% of wasted spend within 60 days without hurting sales.
Jul 26, 2026 · 3 min read
Negative-exact vs negative-phrase
Use negative-exact for specific unconverting terms you have proven waste money. Use negative-phrase for modifiers you know are always off-target ('free', 'cheap', 'kids' if you sell adult items, competitor brand names when you cannot legally target them). Negative-phrase is a scalpel with a wide blade; test one at a time.
Build the negative list from measured waste, using keyword-level spend and sales.
The weekly workflow
Pull the search term report for the last 14 days. Sort by clicks descending. Any term with 10+ clicks and zero orders becomes a negative-exact on the ad group that served it. Any modifier that recurs across many terms becomes a negative-phrase at campaign level.
Guardrails
Never negative your own branded terms. Never negative competitor terms in categories where you legally can bid. Never negative a term after 3 clicks; the sample is too small.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use campaign or ad-group negatives?
Ad-group for term-specific negatives. Campaign-level for modifiers that are universally off-target.
Can negatives hurt my ranking?
No. Negatives only prevent your ad from showing on specific queries; they do not affect organic rank.
How many negatives is too many?
There is no hard cap that hurts performance, but past a few hundred negatives per campaign, maintenance gets messy. Consolidate similar modifiers into phrase negatives.
Does Nova generate negative keywords?
No. Nova reports ad spend at SKU level. Keyword tuning happens in Amazon Ads console or a bid tool.
See this in Nova
Nova surfaces this metric per SKU so you can act before your next monthly close catches it.
Try Nova free for 14 days