If you’re preparing for the Google Ads Measurement Certification, you’ll come across questions about improving ad performance when traffic is high but conversions are low. A key concept is how using negative keywords can help refine your audience and boost conversion rates.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the correct answer, share real-life examples, and provide a handy comparison table. You’ll also see why other common options don’t work as well. By the end, you’ll understand why adding negative keywords is crucial for conversion optimization, and be confident answering related questions on your exam. Let’s dive in!
Question and Correct Answer
A business owner is getting a good amount of traffic from their ads but not enough conversions. What action can they take to improve their conversion rate?
- Reduce campaign budgets.
- Turn off the ads to stop traffic.
- Use more general keywords.
- Add more negative keywords.
Correct Answer:
✅ Add more negative keywords
Why the correct answer is right
The best action to improve your conversion rate when you have good traffic but low conversions is to add more negative keywords. Let’s explore why this strategy works so well:
What are negative keywords?
Negative keywords are specific words or phrases that you tell Google Ads not to show your ads for. Think of them as a filter that helps you block irrelevant or low-intent searches from triggering your ads.
How negative keywords improve conversion rate
When you add negative keywords, you prevent your ads from being shown to people who are unlikely to be interested in your product or service. This means:
- Less wasted clicks: You stop paying for people who aren’t your ideal customers—those who might click your ad out of curiosity but won’t buy or convert.
- More targeted traffic: Your ads are shown only to people whose searches closely match what you offer, increasing the chances they’ll take action.
- Better use of budget: Since you’re paying for fewer irrelevant clicks, your advertising budget goes further with better-quality traffic.
- Higher conversion rates: With more relevant visitors coming to your site, the percentage of visitors who convert naturally goes up.
Real-world example
Imagine you sell high-end kitchen appliances. Without negative keywords, your ads might show for searches like “cheap kitchen appliances” or “kitchen appliance repair.” People searching for those terms aren’t your target customers, so they might click your ad but won’t buy. By adding “cheap” and “repair” as negative keywords, you prevent your ads from appearing for those searches.
After adding these negative keywords, you may see fewer clicks overall, but the clicks you do get are from users more likely to purchase, leading to a higher conversion rate.
Why this is more effective than other strategies
Unlike cutting budgets or stopping ads—which reduce traffic without improving quality—or using more general keywords—which attract less qualified visitors—negative keywords refine who sees your ads. This makes your campaign smarter and more efficient.
By filtering out unwanted searches, you ensure your ads reach the right people at the right time. This targeted approach is why adding negative keywords is the most effective action to improve conversion rates when you already have good traffic but low conversions.
Why the other options are wrong
When trying to improve your conversion rate, it’s important to understand why some common actions don’t actually help—or might even hurt—your campaign’s success. Let’s break down why the other options aren’t the best choices:
1. Reduce campaign budgets
At first, it might seem logical to reduce your budget if your ads aren’t converting well. You think, “If I spend less, I won’t waste money on unproductive clicks.” However, this approach has some serious downsides:
- Reduced visibility: Lowering your budget means your ads will show less often or not at all during peak times. Fewer people will see your ads, which could reduce potential customers.
- No improvement in traffic quality: Reducing the budget doesn’t solve the core problem—your ads might still be shown to irrelevant audiences who are unlikely to convert.
- Slower data collection: With less traffic, it takes longer to gather data and optimize your campaigns effectively.
Example: Imagine your daily budget is $100, but you reduce it to $50 because your conversions are low. Now fewer people see your ads, but the same uninterested audience clicks on them. Your conversion rate remains low, but you also miss out on potential high-quality customers.
2. Turn off the ads to stop traffic
Turning off your ads is the most drastic step. While it stops wasting money on poor conversions, it also completely cuts off all traffic and opportunities to make sales.
- Stops growth: You lose all exposure, leads, and sales chances while your ads are paused.
- Missed learning opportunity: Ads generate valuable data about who’s interested in your business and how they behave. Pausing ads means you lose this insight.
- May delay recovery: Starting ads again after a pause can take time to regain momentum and audience trust.
Example: A business owner who turns off all ads because of low conversions might stop losing money temporarily. But their competitors keep advertising and capturing market share, making it harder to recover later.
3. Use more general keywords
Using broader or more general keywords might seem like a way to get more traffic. But general keywords often attract visitors who aren’t really looking for what you offer.
- Attracts less targeted audience: People searching with generic terms are often in early research mode, not ready to buy.
- Lower conversion rates: General keywords increase clicks but usually decrease conversion percentages.
- Higher costs without better returns: You pay for clicks that don’t convert, wasting your budget.
Example: If you sell “luxury watches,” bidding on a general keyword like “watches” will show your ads to many people who want cheap or sports watches. These users might click but won’t buy your luxury products, lowering your overall conversion rate.
Real-life example
Imagine you run an online store selling organic skincare products. Your Google Ads campaign brings 5,000 visitors every month, but only 50 people make purchases. Looking into the search terms report, you notice lots of clicks come from people searching for “free skincare samples” or “cheap skincare products.”
You add “free,” “samples,” and “cheap” as negative keywords to your campaign. After a few weeks, your site gets fewer clicks—around 3,500—but sales rise to 70. This means your conversion rate improved because your ads now attract people genuinely interested in buying organic skincare, not just browsing or looking for freebies.
Comparison Table
| Action | Helps Conversion Rate? | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Add more negative keywords | ✅ Yes | Filters out irrelevant traffic, improving visitor quality. |
| Reduce campaign budgets | ❌ No | Lowers traffic without addressing conversion problems. |
| Turn off ads | ❌ No | Stops all traffic, ending ad opportunities. |
| Use more general keywords | ❌ No | Brings less targeted visitors, decreasing conversion rate. |
Resource Links
- Google Ads Help: About negative keywords
- Google Ads Help: Improve conversion rates
- WordStream: How Negative Keywords Improve Google Ads
Conclusion
If your ads bring lots of visitors but few convert, don’t rush to cut budgets or pause ads. Instead, add more negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic and focus on quality visitors. This targeted approach saves money and improves your conversion rate.
Finally, I can say that if you are ready, you can take the exam on Skillshop – Google Ads Measurement Certification. If you want more real exam questions and answers like this one, which have already been covered, follow along. I’ll be breaking down more Google Ads Measurement Certification exam questions with full solutions in the next posts on Google Ads!
FAQs
What exactly are negative keywords?
Negative keywords are words or phrases you add to your campaign to prevent your ads from showing for unrelated or unwanted searches.
How do I find the right negative keywords?
Use Google Ads’ search terms report to see what queries triggered your ads. Identify irrelevant ones and add those as negatives.
Will adding negative keywords reduce my overall traffic?
Yes, but the traffic you keep will be more targeted and more likely to convert, which is more valuable.
Can reducing budget help conversion rates?
No, it just limits exposure. Focus on improving traffic quality instead.
Should I pause ads if conversions are low?
Not unless you’re redesigning your campaign. Pausing stops all traffic and potential customers.
- About the Author
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Bhupati Barman is a Co-founder of Mite Art, as well as an Entrepreneur, SEO Optimizer, and Blog Writer, covering a variety of interesting topics.