TLDR;
- Stop downloading generic negative keyword lists. They're a waste of time and don't account for the unique search behaviour in a market like London. A bespoke list is the only way.
- The majority of your wasted ad spend comes from five distinct types of searchers: 'Freebie Seekers', 'DIY Learners', 'Job Hunters', those looking for the 'Wrong Format', and 'Competitor Noise'.
- Your Google Ads Search Terms Report is the single most valuable tool for finding these budget-draining keywords. You need to be checking it weekly, no excuses.
- Focus on the *intent* behind a search, not just the keyword itself. Adding phrase and exact match negatives gives you precise control to filter out users who will never buy your course.
- This article includes an interactive 'Wasted Ad Spend Calculator' to show you exactly how much money you could be saving each month by implementing this strategy properly.
If you're running Google Ads for your online course in London, you've probably felt that frustrating sting. You see the clicks rolling in, your budget is definitely being spent, but the student enrolments just aren't keeping pace. You're left scratching your head, wondering where the money is going. I can tell you with near certainty: it's being siphoned away by people who were never, ever going to buy from you in the first place.
The common advice you'll hear is to "use negative keywords". So you'll go online, find a generic list with a thousand terms, upload it, and think the job's done. That's a massive mistake. It's like trying to navigate the London Underground with a map of the Paris Métro. The idea is right, but the execution is completely wrong and won't get you where you need to go. Every pound you spend on an irrelevant click is a pound you can't spend on finding a genuine student. In a market as competitive and expensive as London, that's a leak that can sink your entire marketing effort.
So, why do those generic lists fail so badly?
Every business is different. Every course is different. And crucially, every city's search behaviour is different. A generic list can't possibly understand the nuance of your specific course – whether it's a beginner's coding bootcamp or an advanced financial modelling masterclass. It doesn't know your price point, your target student, or the unique ways people in London search for education.
Worse still, these massive lists often contain broad match negative keywords that can accidentally block high-potential customers. For example, adding the broad negative `free` could stop your ad showing for someone searching "how to get my company to pay for a hassle-free excel course". You've just blocked a potential corporate client because your negative keyword list was too clumsy. The only real solution is to build a custom list based on one thing and one thing only: search intent.
Search Intent: The Only Metric That Actually Matters
Before we build your financial firewall, you need to understand the four types of search intent. Your entire job with negative keywords is to filter out the first two and attract the last two.
- Informational Intent: The searcher wants an answer to a question. "how to learn python", "what is digital marketing", "javascript examples". These are people looking for blog posts or YouTube tutorials, not a paid course.
- Navigational Intent: The searcher wants to go to a specific website. "udemy login", "coursera", "facebook". They already know where they're going, and it isn't your site.
- Commercial Intent: The searcher is researching a purchase. "best online python course uk", "financial modelling course reviews", "coding bootcamp london comparison". These people are weighing their options. You absolutely want to be in front of them.
- Transactional Intent: The searcher is ready to buy. "enrol in data science course", "buy advanced photoshop course", "sign up for project management certificate". This is the bullseye.
Your negative keyword strategy is simply the process of building walls to keep the 'Informational' and 'Navigational' searchers out, so your budget is spent exclusively on the 'Commercial' and 'Transactional' ones. Getting this right is the difference between a campaign that costs you money and one that makes you money. Many course creators struggle with this, getting plenty of traffic that simply doesn't convert. Addressing this problem requires a deep look into your ad creative and landing page alignment to fix ads that aren't converting.
The 5 Horsemen of the Adpocalypse: Negative Keyword Categories to Save Your Budget
Alright, let's get practical. Almost every single wasteful click you're paying for in London will fall into one of these five categories. By tackling them systematically, you can plug the leaks in your budget and redirect that cash towards actual growth.
Category 1: The 'Freebie Seekers'
This is the most obvious but also the most common money pit. These individuals are philosophically opposed to paying for information. They have zero intention of ever giving you their credit card details. Their searches are a clear signal of non-commercial intent.
Keywords to add as negatives:
freetorrentdownloadfree downloadpdfyoutubefree trial(unless you offer one, in which case be careful)cracknulled
By adding these, you immediately filter out a huge chunk of traffic that only ever would have increased your bounce rate. It’s the easiest win you'll get.
Category 2: The 'DIY Learners'
This group is slightly different from the freebie seekers. They're willing to invest time, just not money. They want to piece together their own learning path from articles, forums, and documentation. They aren't your target market because they don't value the structure, support, and certification a paid course provides.
Keywords to add as negatives:
tutorialguidehow toexampledocumentationforumresourcestack overflowdiy
Someone searching "python tutorial" is not looking to enrol in your £1,500 Python bootcamp. Let them go to YouTube; you go find the person searching "best python bootcamp london".
Category 3: The 'Job Hunters & Academics'
In a hyper-competitive job market like London, this category is a massive budget drain. These people aren't looking to learn a skill; they're looking for a job that requires a skill they already have. Or, they're students looking for university degrees, not online professional certificates. The intent is completely misaligned.
Keywords to add as negatives:
jobssalarycareercvindeedlinkedin(the platform, not ads on it)internshipdegreeuniversitymastersphdUCLImperial
Paying for a click from someone searching "digital marketing salary london" is pure waste. They don't want your course; they want a paycheque.
Interactive: Wasted Ad Spend Calculator
Category 4: The 'Wrong Format & Level' Seekers
Your course is online. It's for beginners. It's for adults. Any search that specifies a different format, level, or audience is a wasted click. This is about precision. You need to repel anyone for whom your course is fundamentally a bad fit.
Keywords to add as negatives:
in personclassroomface to facein shoreditch(or any London area)beginners(if your course is advanced)advanced(if your course is for beginners)for kidsfor dummiesworkshop
This seems simple, but I see accounts wasting hundreds of pounds a month on clicks for "in-person coding classes London" when they only offer a remote course. It's a completely unforced error.
Category 5: The 'Competitor & Brand Noise'
This is a slightly more debated category, but for most course creators starting out, it's a budget-saver. People searching for your direct competitors by name are usually either existing customers of that competitor or are in the final stages of choosing them. While you *can* run campaigns to try and poach them, it's an expensive, low-conversion game. It's often better to exclude them and focus on people who are still undecided.
Keywords to add as negatives:
udemycourseraskillsharegeneral assembly[competitor brand name]reviews(can be low intent, people just browsing)vsorversus(e.g. "my course vs competitor course")
Once you're at scale, you can build specific campaigns with landing pages that compare you to these competitors. But when you're trying to be efficient, it's often best to just let those clicks go. Your entire negative keyword strategy should work within a logically organised campaign structure for your education business to be truly effective.
Your Treasure Map: How to Find Negative Keywords in the Search Terms Report
Theory is nice, but where do you actually find these terms? Google gives you the exact tool you need. It’s called the Search Terms Report, and it is the most important screen in your entire Google Ads account. It shows you the *actual* search queries people typed into Google that triggered your ads. This isn't guesswork; it's hard data.
Here’s how to use it:
- Log in to your Google Ads account.
- On the left-hand menu, click on 'Keywords'.
- In the sub-menu, click on 'Search terms'.
- Set your date range to the last 7 or 30 days.
- Now, start reading. Go through the list line by line.
As you read, ask yourself one question for each query: "If a person searching this exact phrase landed on my course page, would they be a good fit?"
If the answer is no, tick the box next to that search term and click 'Add as negative keyword'. It's that simple. This shouldn't be a one-off task. You need to make this a weekly ritual. Every Monday morning, grab a coffee and spend 20 minutes panning for gold in your search terms report. It will be the highest ROI activity you do all week.
Review Search Terms Report weekly
If YES, add as Phrase or Exact Match Negative
If NO, consider adding as a new positive keyword
Continuously refine and optimise your lists
Match Types Matter: Don't Use a Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut
When you add a negative keyword, Google gives you three options, or 'match types'. Using the right one is critical for maintaining precision and avoiding costly mistakes.
- Negative Broad Match: The most dangerous. If your negative keyword is `-course`, your ad won't show if the word `course` appears anywhere in the search query, in any order. This is too broad and you'll almost certainly block good traffic. I rarely recomend using this.
- Negative Phrase Match: Much more useful. If your negative keyword is `-"free course"`, your ad won't show if the search query contains that exact phrase, in that order. It can have words before or after it (e.g. "download a free course on python"). This is your workhorse.
- Negative Exact Match: The most precise. If your negative keyword is `-[free course]`, your ad will only be blocked if the search query is *exactly* "free course" and nothing else. Useful for very specific, low-performing queries.
My advice? Stick to Phrase Match for 90% of your negatives. It gives you the perfect balance of control and coverage. Use Exact Match to weed out specific, individual queries that are wasting money but don't represent a broader theme.
A Quick Look at the Results: How This Impacts the Bottom Line
This isn't just a theoretical exercise in tidying up your account. It has a dramatic and immediate impact on your profitability. I remember one campaign we worked on for a medical job matching SaaS platform using Google Ads. They were acquiring new users, but their Cost Per Acquisition was a staggering £100, which was simply unsustainable. After a deep dive into their search terms report, we found they were spending a huge portion of their budget on broad medical and job-seeking terms that had nothing to do with their specialised service. We built a robust negative keyword list focusing on the five categories I've outlined. Within a few weeks, their wasted spend plummeted. All that budget was automatically reallocated by Google to the highly specific, profitable keywords. The result? Their Cost Per Acquisition dropped to just £7. They didn't spend a single extra pound; they just stopped wasting the money they were already spending. While their business was SaaS and not an online course, the principle is identical. That's the power of this process. It is the most direct way to stop wasting money on your London Google Ads campaigns.
Your Action Plan: A Summary
I've thrown a lot of information at you. To make it easier to implement, here is a summary of the main advice I have for you. This is your blueprint for taking back control of your ad spend.
| Category | Example Keywords | Why It's a Problem | Action To Take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freebie Seekers | free, torrent, pdf, youtube |
These users have zero intent to ever purchase a course. They are looking for free resources only. | Add these as phrase match negatives to your campaign or ad group level lists immediately. |
| DIY Learners | tutorial, how to, guide, forum |
They want to learn on their own, not pay for a structured curriculum and expert support. | Add to your negative keyword lists to focus budget on those seeking structured education. |
| Job Hunters & Academics | jobs, salary, degree, university |
Their intent is employment or academic qualification, not professional development via your course. | Exclude these terms to avoid paying for clicks from job seekers and university applicants. |
| Wrong Format/Level | in person, classroom, beginners, for kids |
These searchers are looking for a course that is fundamentally different from what you offer. | Be specific. If your course is online and for advanced users, add all other formats and levels as negatives. |
| Ongoing Maintenance | N/A | New, irrelevant search terms will always appear as market behaviour changes. | CRITICAL: Review your Search Terms Report every single week and add new negatives. This is not a one-time fix. |
When DIY Is No Longer Good Enough
You can, and should, implement everything I've discussed here. It will undoubtedly improve your campaign performance and save you money. But it's also a time-consuming, ongoing process. You have a course to run, students to support, and a business to build. Poring over spreadsheets of search terms every week might not be the best use of your time.
This is where expert help comes into play. A specialist doesn't just know which keywords to add; they understand the subtle nuances of search intent, they can spot trends before they cost you money, and they can structure your entire account to maximise profitability. They can turn your Google Ads from a necessary expense into your most powerful engine for student acquisition.
If you've read this far and feel a bit overwhelmed, or if you'd simply rather have an expert handle this for you so you can focus on what you do best, then it might be time for a chat. We offer a free, no-obligation consultation where we can take a look at your campaigns and give you some actionable advice on the spot. It's a chance to see what's possible when your campaigns are run by people who live and breathe this stuff every single day.
Hope this helps!
