A mysterious change has advertisers buzzing in October 2025: multiple Google Ads accounts are successfully adding more than 5,000 negative keywords to their lists, despite the official documentation still stating a 5,000 limit. This unexpected development, combined with Performance Max's recent expansion from 100 to 10,000 negative keywords per campaign, has created significant confusion about what the actual limits are and how advertisers should manage their exclusions moving forward.
The negative keyword landscape in Google Ads has undergone dramatic transformation in 2025. With Performance Max now accepting 10,000 negative keywords (a 100x increase from its original 100), and reports of advertisers successfully exceeding the traditional 5,000 limit in regular negative keyword lists, we're witnessing the most significant expansion of negative keyword capabilities in Google's history. As AI-powered campaigns generate increasingly diverse search queries, these expanded limits couldn't come at a better time for advertisers struggling to maintain control over their targeting.
In September 2025, paid search specialist Stan Oppenheimer from Dallas SEO Dogs discovered something that shouldn't have been possible: a Search campaign with more than 5,000 negative keywords in a single list. This discovery sparked intense debate across the PPC community about whether Google has quietly doubled the limit or if this represents a technical glitch that will be rolled back.
Google's official stance remains frustratingly ambiguous. Ginny Marvin, Google Ads Liaison, stated that "The threshold remains 5,000 keywords per negative keyword list, but there may be some cases in which lists a bit over the limit are accepted." This cryptic response neither confirms nor denies an intentional policy change, leaving advertisers in limbo about how to proceed.
What we know for certain: numerous advertisers have successfully added between 5,000 and 10,000 negative keywords to their lists without encountering errors. These aren't isolated incidents but widespread occurrences across different account types and industries. The change appears consistent enough that many agencies are now building strategies around the expanded capacity, though cautiously given the lack of official confirmation.
Negative Keyword TypeOfficial LimitReported Working LimitStatus
The explosion in search query diversity driven by AI-powered matching has made negative keyword management critical for campaign success. With broad match and Performance Max generating matches far beyond traditional keyword boundaries, advertisers report seeing 3-5x more unique search queries than they did just two years ago. Without adequate negative keyword capacity, controlling this expanded reach becomes nearly impossible.
groas has observed that clients using our advanced negative keyword optimization see 31% reductions in wasted spend when properly utilizing expanded negative keyword limits. Our AI automatically identifies patterns in irrelevant queries and suggests strategic negatives that block entire categories of unwanted traffic rather than individual terms.
The most significant confirmed change in 2025 is Performance Max's massive negative keyword expansion. After years of advertiser complaints about the paltry 100-keyword limit, Google finally delivered a game-changing update in March 2025, increasing the limit to 10,000 negative keywords per campaign.
When Performance Max launched, its 100-negative keyword limit was immediately recognized as inadequate. Advertisers managing large product catalogs or operating in competitive industries found themselves unable to exclude even basic irrelevant terms. The situation became untenable as Performance Max campaigns scaled, with some advertisers reporting that up to 40% of their spend went to irrelevant queries they couldn't block.
The March 2025 update to 10,000 negatives represents a 100-fold increase in control. This isn't just an incremental improvement; it's a fundamental shift in how advertisers can manage Performance Max campaigns. Combined with the new search term insights reporting, advertisers finally have both visibility and control over their automated campaigns.
Successfully managing 10,000 negative keywords requires strategy, not just volume. The most effective approach involves creating negative keyword tiers based on impact and relevance. Start with your core exclusions - competitor brands, irrelevant product categories, and problematic terms that never convert. These might represent your first 500-1,000 negatives.
Next, analyze your search term reports to identify patterns rather than individual queries. If you're seeing irrelevant traffic around "free," "DIY," or "jobs," use broad match negatives to block entire categories rather than exact match for specific queries. This approach can block thousands of potential bad queries with just a handful of strategic negatives.
With expanded limits comes the opportunity for more sophisticated negative keyword strategies. The key is moving beyond reactive blocking of individual bad queries to proactive pattern-based exclusions that prevent waste before it occurs.
N-gram analysis has become the secret weapon for efficient negative keyword management. Instead of adding "blue running shoes size 10 free shipping" as an exact match negative, identify the problematic element ("free") and add it as a broad match negative. One strategic broad match negative can block thousands of unwanted variations, making your limited keyword slots work exponentially harder.
groas's platform automatically performs n-gram analysis across all your search terms, identifying high-frequency terms that appear in non-converting queries. Our data shows that accounts using n-gram optimization achieve the same level of control with 73% fewer negative keywords, leaving room for future exclusions as your campaigns evolve.
Campaign TypeRecommended Match TypesPrimary Use CaseEfficiency Gain
The most successful advertisers in 2025 use a hierarchical negative keyword structure that maximizes coverage while minimizing redundancy. Start with account-level negatives for universal exclusions that apply across all campaigns. These 1,000 slots should contain your most critical exclusions - terms that would never be relevant regardless of campaign or context.
Next, create themed negative keyword lists for different business segments or campaign types. With 20 lists available and potentially 10,000 keywords each (if the reports are accurate), you could theoretically manage up to 200,000 negative keywords through shared lists. However, quality beats quantity - most successful accounts use between 15,000 and 30,000 total negatives strategically deployed across their structure.
The current ambiguity around negative keyword limits creates a challenging situation for advertisers. Should you build strategies assuming 10,000 keywords per list, or stick to the documented 5,000 limit? The answer depends on your risk tolerance and account structure.
For enterprise accounts and risk-averse advertisers, maintaining strategies within the official 5,000 limit per list remains the safest approach. You can still leverage the confirmed Performance Max expansion to 10,000 and create multiple lists to achieve your coverage goals. This approach ensures your campaigns won't break if Google enforces the documented limits.
Structure your lists strategically: instead of one massive list approaching 10,000 keywords, create two focused lists of 4,500 keywords each. This provides similar coverage while maintaining compliance with documented limits. Use list themes to organize your negatives logically - one list for competitor terms, another for irrelevant categories, and so on.
For accounts willing to experiment, gradually testing the expanded limits can provide competitive advantages. Start by adding negatives beyond 5,000 to a single test list applied to lower-priority campaigns. Monitor performance daily and maintain backup lists ready to deploy if the expanded list suddenly stops working.
Document everything meticulously. Track exactly when you exceeded 5,000 keywords, which campaigns were affected, and any performance changes observed. This data becomes invaluable if Google officially announces the change or if you need to quickly revert your strategy.
Different industries face unique challenges with negative keywords, and the expanded limits of 2025 create new opportunities for sector-specific optimization strategies.
Ecommerce advertisers benefit enormously from expanded negative keyword capacity. With Performance Max now accepting 10,000 negatives, retailers can finally exclude entire categories of problematic queries. Common exclusions like "free," "torrent," "crack," and "wholesale" (for B2C retailers) barely scratch the surface of the 10,000 available slots.
The real power comes from excluding competing product categories and brands systematically. A clothing retailer selling premium brands can now exclude all fast fashion competitors, wholesale terms, and knockoff indicators. groas clients in ecommerce report average ROAS improvements of 42% after implementing comprehensive negative keyword strategies using the expanded limits.
B2B advertisers face unique challenges with job seekers, students, and researchers polluting their lead quality. The expanded negative keyword limits allow comprehensive exclusion of these segments. Terms like "salary," "jobs," "careers," "internship," "entry level," and "student" can be systematically blocked across all variations.
More sophisticated B2B advertisers use the expanded capacity to exclude specific company sizes, industries, or geographic regions that don't match their ideal customer profile. With 10,000 negatives available in Performance Max, you can maintain granular control even in automated campaigns targeting broad business categories.
Local service businesses particularly benefit from expanded geographic and service-specific exclusions. A plumber in Dallas can now exclude every other city in Texas, preventing wasted impressions from users searching for services outside their service area. With potentially 10,000 keywords per list, excluding hundreds of cities and neighborhoods becomes feasible.
Service-specific exclusions also become more powerful. A residential plumber can exclude all commercial and industrial terms, while an emergency plumber can exclude routine maintenance queries. The expanded limits mean these businesses can be incredibly specific about the types of customers they want to attract.
Managing thousands of negative keywords manually is impractical. Successful advertisers in 2025 leverage automation and specialized tools to identify, implement, and maintain their negative keyword strategies at scale.
Modern negative keyword tools use machine learning to identify patterns in non-converting queries automatically. Rather than reviewing thousands of search terms manually, these tools surface the highest-impact negative keyword opportunities based on waste potential and pattern frequency.
groas's AI continuously analyzes search term performance across all your campaigns, identifying negative keyword opportunities that would save the most budget. Our system considers not just conversion data but also engagement metrics, identifying queries that generate clicks but never meaningful interactions. Clients using our automated negative keyword suggestions see immediate waste reductions of 25-35% on average.
As your negative keyword lists grow, conflicts become increasingly likely. A negative keyword intended to block irrelevant traffic might inadvertently block valuable queries in other campaigns. With potentially 200,000 negative keywords across an account (using maximum limits), manual conflict checking is impossible.
Advanced tools now provide real-time conflict detection, alerting you when a proposed negative keyword would block existing positive keywords or high-performing search terms. This prevents the common mistake of over-aggressive negative keyword implementation that constrains growth rather than eliminating waste.
MetricBefore ExpansionAfter ImplementationImprovement
The availability of more negative keyword slots doesn't mean you should use them all. Strategic deployment remains more important than volume, and several common mistakes can undermine your optimization efforts.
The most dangerous mistake with expanded negative keyword capacity is over-aggressive broad match usage. A single poorly chosen broad match negative can eliminate thousands of valuable queries. For example, adding "free" as a broad match negative would block "free shipping," "hassle free," and "free returns" - all potentially valuable queries for ecommerce advertisers.
Instead, use phrase match for terms that might appear in valuable contexts. "free shipping" as a phrase match negative blocks that specific term while allowing variations like "fast free shipping" or "free shipping code" to still trigger ads if they're valuable for your business.
With thousands of negative keywords, regular audits become even more critical. Search behavior evolves constantly, and negative keywords that made sense six months ago might now block valuable traffic. Schedule monthly reviews of your oldest negative keywords, checking whether they're still relevant and necessary.
Focus audits on your broad match negatives first, as these have the widest impact. Use search term reports to verify that your negatives aren't blocking converting queries. groas's platform automatically flags negative keywords that might be blocking valuable traffic based on industry trends and account performance changes.
With 20 potential negative keyword lists, duplication becomes a real problem. The same negative keyword appearing in multiple lists wastes valuable slots and complicates management. Maintain a master spreadsheet documenting which negatives appear in which lists, and regularly audit for duplicates.
Use list themes to prevent natural overlap. Instead of generic lists like "List 1" and "List 2," create purposeful lists like "Competitor Brands," "Free/Cheap Terms," and "B2C Exclusions." This thematic approach naturally reduces duplication while making management more intuitive.
Whether the reported limit increases become official or remain in limbo, preparing for a future with expanded negative keyword capabilities is essential for maintaining competitive advantage.
Design your negative keyword management systems to scale efficiently regardless of limit changes. Use automated tools that can handle whether you're managing 5,000 or 10,000 keywords per list. Document your processes clearly so team members can maintain consistency even as limits potentially fluctuate.
Implement version control for your negative keyword lists. Save weekly snapshots of your lists, allowing quick rollback if limit changes cause issues. This protection becomes critical if you're testing the expanded limits and need to revert quickly to documented limits.
As Google's AI becomes more sophisticated at understanding intent beyond keywords, negative keyword strategies must evolve accordingly. The future likely holds intent-based exclusions rather than just keyword-based ones. Preparing for this shift means thinking about why certain queries don't convert rather than just which ones don't convert.
Start categorizing your negative keywords by intent type: research queries, competitor searches, DIY intentions, educational content, etc. This categorization will position you to adapt quickly when Google potentially introduces intent-based exclusion options alongside traditional negative keywords.
The negative keyword expansion of 2025, whether fully official or not, signals Google's recognition that advertisers need more control even as automation increases. This balance between AI-driven efficiency and human strategic control will define the next era of Google Ads.
We're likely to see continued expansion of negative keyword capabilities, potentially including audience-based negatives, intent-based exclusions, and dynamic negative keywords that adjust based on performance patterns. Advertisers who build robust negative keyword management systems now will be best positioned to leverage these future capabilities.
groas continues to innovate in negative keyword optimization, with our upcoming updates including predictive negative keyword suggestions that identify problematic queries before they waste budget. Our machine learning models analyze patterns across millions of search terms to predict which new queries are likely to be irrelevant, allowing proactive rather than reactive optimization.
The official documented limit remains 5,000 negative keywords per shared list, but numerous advertisers report successfully adding up to 10,000 keywords without errors. Google's response has been ambiguous, stating the limit is 5,000 but "some cases" may accept more. For Performance Max campaigns, the limit is officially 10,000 negative keywords per campaign (increased from 100 in March 2025). Account-level negatives remain limited to 1,000 keywords. Until Google provides clear confirmation, it's safest to plan around the documented 5,000 limit while potentially testing higher amounts in non-critical campaigns.
Performance Max underwent a massive expansion from 100 to 10,000 negative keywords per campaign in March 2025. This 100x increase addressed the biggest advertiser complaint about Performance Max since its launch. The change applies to all Performance Max campaigns globally and is fully documented and supported. You can add these negatives directly through the Google Ads interface without contacting support. Negative keyword lists aren't yet supported for Performance Max, though Google has indicated this feature is coming later in 2025.
Your match type strategy should align with your campaign type and goals. For Performance Max and broad match Search campaigns, prioritize broad match negatives for pattern-based exclusions, as one broad negative can block thousands of variations. For exact match Search campaigns, use more phrase and exact match negatives for precision. Broad match negatives are powerful but risky - terms like "free" would block "hassle free" and "free shipping." Generally, use broad match for single words that are never relevant, phrase match for specific problematic phrases, and exact match sparingly for very specific terms.
Currently, many advertisers successfully run campaigns with negative keyword lists exceeding 5,000 keywords (up to around 10,000) without issues. However, this isn't officially supported, and Google could enforce the documented limit at any time. If you exceed 5,000, monitor your campaigns closely for any errors or sudden changes. Keep backup lists ready with under 5,000 keywords each that you can quickly deploy if needed. Document when you exceeded the limit and any impacts observed. For mission-critical campaigns, stay within the official 5,000 limit to avoid potential disruptions.
Quality matters more than quantity. Most successful accounts use between 15,000 and 30,000 total negatives strategically deployed across all lists and campaigns, not the maximum possible. Start with core exclusions (500-1,000 keywords) for obvious irrelevant terms, then expand based on search term analysis. Use n-gram analysis to identify patterns - one strategic broad match negative can be worth hundreds of exact match negatives. Regular audits are crucial; remove outdated negatives that might now block valuable traffic. Focus on ROI impact rather than trying to use all available slots.
Not yet. As of October 2025, Performance Max doesn't support negative keyword lists - you must add negatives directly at the campaign level (up to 10,000 per campaign). Google has announced that negative keyword list support for Performance Max is coming later in 2025, but no specific date has been provided. In the meantime, you need to manually add negatives to each Performance Max campaign individually. Consider using scripts or the Google Ads API to manage negatives across multiple Performance Max campaigns more efficiently until list support arrives.
Account-level negatives apply across all eligible campaigns in your entire account and are limited to 1,000 keywords. They're best for universal exclusions that would never be relevant regardless of campaign or context. Campaign-level negatives apply only to specific campaigns and can include up to 10,000 keywords (for Performance Max) or unlimited keywords through multiple lists (for Search campaigns). Use account-level for critical, universal exclusions like adult content or competitor names you never want to appear for. Use campaign-level for more specific exclusions that might be relevant for some campaigns but not others.
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