---
title: "Why are search terms not negated?"
slug: "why-are-search-terms-not-negated"
updated: 2023-05-03T05:40:35Z
published: 2023-05-03T05:40:35Z
canonical: "docs.scaleinsights.com/why-are-search-terms-not-negated"
---

> ## 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.

# 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**.