A negative keyword list is how a B2B account refuses a query it will not serve. Careers, internships, salary pages, free templates, student work and the wrong country are the usual material. Sorting them out after the invoice does not return the spend.
Account list and campaign list do different jobs
A shared account list applies everywhere: jobs, training, free, consumer retail. Campaign lists protect the split. Brand terms are negatives on the service campaign. Rival names are negatives everywhere if you are not running a competitor campaign. If the level is not written down, one list quietly overrides the other.
Sales can protect a phrase
If a free site survey is part of the offer, the word free is not banned on the whole account. If “become a dealer” is a channel, that phrase is not a negative. Marketing does not prune the list alone. Phrases sales actually uses sit on their own line in the scope.
The search-terms report feeds the list
In the first month the report is read weekly. A useless term is added with one sentence of reason. After that, a new leak is written the same day it shows up. A spreadsheet exported once and forgotten is not a list.
The list lives in the company account
HED Creative writes the first list and the reason column into the scope in Berlin or Ankara. The Google Ads account stays owned by the company, so the list does not vanish in a folder when the partner changes. The shared list has a name a director can find in the account.
Write the list with the brief on the Google Ads agency page. The campaign split sits here: B2B search structure.