Why are search terms not negated?

1. You evaluate performance using a different date range from the algorithm's evaluation period.

By default, the negative algorithm skips the past 2 days of data and looks back 60 days from there.

By default, other pages, such as Ads Insights > Search Terms, aggregate performance in the last 90 days.

2. You evaluate performance using a different data set from the algorithm's aggregation scope.

For example, you may find a search term in an ad group with lots of clicks with 0 sales, wondering why didn't the negative rules add a negative keyword for that.

However, suppose the negative rules evaluate performance at the campaign level or across multiple ad groups. 

In that case, it may have picked up search terms with sales in other ads, causing the search term to be ineligible for negation.

3. The keyword has already been negated in the ad group.

The negative algorithm negates at the ad group level, not at the campaign level.

4. The keyword has been whitelisted.

The negative algorithm will not negate keywords that are in the Whitelist. 

The Exact Whitelist prevents the whitelisted keywords from being negated as negative-exact and as negative-phrase for keywords in the Phrase Whitelist.