---
title: "What is the negative word rule?"
slug: "what-is-the-negative-word-rule"
updated: 2026-10-01T12:14:11Z
published: 2026-10-01T12:14:11Z
canonical: "docs.scaleinsights.com/what-is-the-negative-word-rule"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.scaleinsights.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is the negative word rule?

The negative word rule splits your search terms into single words, aggregates their performance, and adds the non-performing words to your ad group as negative phrase keywords.

**Navigation:** Automation > Negative Word Rule

![negative-word-algo.png](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/negative-word-algo.png)

---

### Use Case

When we analyze the performance of single words, we can often find many irrelevant words causing unnecessary ad spending.

**Example:** If we sell spatula, our auto campaigns or broad/phrase keywords may trigger the following search terms:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/spatula.png)

Whenever "toys" or "kids" appears in the search terms, it refers to a different product, is irrelevant to the shopper's buying intent, and has 0 sales.

We found other examples when the SI team analyzed one of our products, **Resistance Bands**.

**1. "bike"** with **112** clicks and **$47.63** ad spent.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/bike.png)

**2. "choke"** with **129** clicks and **$31.05** ad spent.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/choke.png)

These 2 words triggered **241** clicks across 194 search terms and cost $78.66 with **0** sales.

If you look at the list of search terms containing these 2 words, you can see that they are unrelated to **Resistance Bands**.

---

### How do you identify non-performing words?

**Step 1:** Go to Ads Insights > Main Words.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/Automation_NegativeWR1.png)

**Step 2:** Select the **"Unique Word with 0 Sales"** filter to find words with at least 25 clicks but 0 orders.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/Automation_NegativeWR2.png)

**Note:** You can customize the filters to change the criteria.

---

### How does the algorithm work?

1. The system takes 60 days of customer search terms, skipping the past 2 days to allow Amazon data to be updated.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/retrieval-window.png)

**Note:** You can analyze up to 180 days of historical data and customize the number of days to skip.

Learn how the Negative Word Rule analyzes historical data: [How Do Algorithms Analyze Data?](https://docs.scaleinsights.com/docs/how-do-algorithms-analyze-data)

2. The system aggregates every word in the search terms for each product to identify the poor-performing words.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/Automation_SearchTermSource.png)

3. The system finds the product's ad groups with the assigned rule.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/find-product-ad-groups-with-rule.png)

4. The system adds negative phrase keywords to ad groups with the assigned rule.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/f0238742-849b-4f29-9812-9b4fe8e273b6/Images/Documentation/suppress-single-word.png)

**Note:** If the word appears in your title, the algorithm will not negate the singular/plural form of the word.