Step 1: Select n-grams
Use the checkboxes on the left to select one or more n-grams from the table. You can select as many as you like before proceeding — they'll all be added as negatives in one go.
To select n-grams using a natural language instruction, click Select with AI. For example: "select all n-grams with an nScore above 80" or "select n-grams with more than £200 in potential savings and a red nScore". This is faster than selecting rows manually when working through a long list.
Step 2: Review search terms and keywords
Before adding a negative, it's worth checking exactly what you'd be blocking. Each n-gram has two panels available from its row:
Search terms
Opens a list of the individual search terms that contain this n-gram. This shows you the actual queries your ads matched against — useful for confirming the n-gram is genuinely irrelevant and understanding the scale of what you'd block.
From this panel, you can also select individual search terms to add as exact match negatives instead of the n-gram itself. This is helpful when the n-gram is mostly fine but a handful of specific search terms are causing problems.
Keywords
Opens a list of the keywords in your account that would be affected by adding this negative. This helps you spot potential conflicts — for example, if a negative would interfere with a high-performing keyword that happens to contain the same phrase.
Review this panel if you're unsure whether blocking an n-gram could have unintended consequences elsewhere in the account.
Step 3: Choose a destination
Once you're happy with your selection, click Add as Negative Keyword. You'll be taken to a screen where you can configure exactly how and where the negatives are applied.
Match type
Choose the match type for each negative keyword. Broad match negative is the most common choice — it blocks any search term containing the n-gram in any order. Phrase and exact match negatives are more precise and are useful when you only want to block specific patterns.
Where to add the negative
You can add negatives to one or more destinations at the same time:
Account level — applies the negative across all campaigns in the account, including Performance Max
Campaign level — applies the negative to a specific campaign
Ad group level — applies the negative to a specific ad group within a campaign
Negative list — adds the negative to an existing shared negative keyword list
New negative list — creates a new shared list and adds the negative to it. Once created, you can continue adding to the list through N-Gram Finder without any additional setup.
You can add to multiple destinations in a single action — for example, adding a negative to both a specific campaign and a shared list.
Step 4: Confirm
Review your selections and click Add Negative Keywords to apply. The negatives are pushed directly to your ad account. Once applied, they'll appear in your Change History and the affected search terms will be excluded from future n-gram analysis (assuming Search Terms Blocked by Negatives is enabled in Filters).