It turns out Microsoft’s negative keywords don’t work quite as well as Google’s. On Google, a negative keyword can have any of the three match types – broad, phrase, or exact. On Microsoft, all negatives are treated as phrase match.

Here’s an example: you sell flowers on your website, and notice a lot of non-converting visits from the search query “flowers for Algernon”. On Google, you could block these searches three ways –

1.       Negative broad match “Algernon”. Any search query containing “Algernon” will block your ads from showing.

2.       Negative phrase match “for Algernon”. Now searches for “flowers for Algernon” and “flower for Algernon” will be blocked, but your ad will still appear for “Algernon flowers”

3.       Negative exact match “flowers for algernon”. Only that exact search will be blocked, but your ads could still serve for other search queries containing “Algernon”.

We realize this particular example doesn’t make a ton of sense in the real world but is meant purely to explain our point.

On Microsoft adCenter, all negative terms are treated as phrase match. This means you cannot exclude an exact search query (exact match). Translation: you don’t get quite as much control over where and how your ads appear.

If you have a question about how this applies specifically to your business, don’t hesitate to ask.