Skip to main content
All CollectionsAdvertising OptimizationKeyword & Targeting Actions
How to use Auto-negate When Accepting Keywords
How to use Auto-negate When Accepting Keywords

Understand the strategy behind Flywheel's Auto-negate feature and how to turn the feature on and off

Updated over a week ago

In this article, we will dive deep into Flywheel's auto-negate feature, a powerful tool designed to enhance your keyword discovery and management process. When you accept a keyword recommendation sourced from an Auto campaign, the Auto-negate feature automatically creates a negative keyword in the source Auto ad group. This prevents double spending on the same search term, ensuring your budget is utilized effectively.

Understanding and implementing this feature can significantly improve the efficiency of your advertising campaigns, ensuring optimal budget allocation and maximizing your ROI.

Learn more about this feature and strategy with the article and videos below!


Understanding the strategy behind auto-negate

Auto campaigns serve a fundamental purpose in the world of online advertising: keyword discovery. Their primary objective is to find new keywords from search terms that generate efficient and relevant clicks, spend, and sales. These search terms are perfect to add as new keywords to your Manual campaigns their historical data has proven

Flywheel's Keywords to Add tool uses Auto campaigns to source new keywords for Destination manual ad groups.

Here's where auto-negate comes in.

When you create a new keyword for your Manual campaign that is sourced from an Auto campaign, you should also create a negative keyword in the source Auto ad group at the same time the keyword is created (hence the name "Auto-negate”)

There are numerous benefits to implementing the Auto-negate strategy:

  1. Budget Allocation for Exploration:
    Allocate your daily Auto campaign budget exclusively for exploration. After adding a search term from Auto to Manual, the keyword is considered discovered. Adding it as a negative in the Auto campaign ensures that your budget isn't used on keywords you're already targeting manually. This strategic allocation empowers you to discover fresh, high-converting keywords as efficiently as possible.

  2. Precision Control Over Ad Spend:

    Search terms in Auto campaigns lack bid control, which leads to overspending. Auto-negate restores this control; by negating search terms that are already in your Manual campaigns, you manage your ad spend more effectively in Auto and Manual campaigns to improve your return on ad spend.

  3. Efficient Workflow Automation:

    The beauty of Auto-negate lies in its automation. It simplifies your workflow by automatically adding negative keywords to Auto campaigns, eliminating the need for manual intervention. This automation not only saves time but also ensures your campaigns remain optimized without constant micromanagement.


Feature walkthrough: How to use Auto-negate in Flywheel

There are 2 places to enabled/disable Auto-negate in Flywheel: the Keywords to Add page and the Keyword & Targeting Actions Dashboard.

On the Keywords to Add page:

  • Navigate to the Keywords to Add page for a merchant

  • Click on the 'Settings' icon

  • Keyword & Targeting Actions Settings panel will appear

  • To turn the feature on: Flip the toggle to the 'Enabled' state > notification that confirms Auto-negate has been enabled for the Merchant

  • To turn the feature off: Flip the toggle to the 'Disabled' state > notification that confirms Auto-negate has been disabled for the Merchant

On the Keyword & Targeting Actions Dashboard:

  • Navigate to the Keyword & Targeting Actions Dashboard

  • Click on the 'Settings' icon to view the Settings page

  • Under the 'Auto-Negate When Accepting Keywords' header, you'll see a list of merchants in your Flywheel Account

  • To turn the feature on: Flip the toggle to 'Enabled' > notification that confirms Auto-negate has been enabled for the Merchant

  • To turn the feature off: Flip the toggle to the 'Disabled' state > notification that confirms Auto-negate has been disabled for the Merchant


Which recommendations will be auto-negate on Keywords to Add?

After you turn the feature on, you may want to double check which recommendations will be Auto-negated on the Keywords to Add page.

  • Simply add a filter to the table for 'Source Campaign Targeting Type' is Auto.

  • Every row in the table will be auto-negated in the Source ad group.

For example, if Auto-negate is enabled:

  • ceramic knives - Exact will be created as a new keyword to the destination ad group Ceramic Knife in the Ceramic Knife - Manual campaign

  • ceramic knives will be created as a Negative exact in the Source ad group Ceramic Knife in the campaign Ceramic Knige - Auto


How to view the negative keywords that were created from Auto-negate

  • Navigate to Ads Manager > Sponsored Products > Keyword targets

  • Add a filter for 'Added by' is 'Flywheel auto-negate'

  • Every negative keyword in the table has been created via Flywheel Auto-negate

Did this answer your question?