The Complete Guide to Negative Keywords for Wedding Videography Google Ads
If you’re running Google Ads for your wedding videography business, you already know that every click costs money. What you might not realize is how much of that budget gets wasted on searches that have absolutely nothing to do with booking wedding clients. That’s where negative keywords come in—and they’re arguably the most important optimization tool in your entire Google Ads account.
This post breaks down the actual negative keyword list we use at Wildwood Wedding Films, organized into logical groupings with the reasoning behind every single one. Whether you’re building your first campaign or auditing an existing one, this guide will save you hundreds—if not thousands—of dollars in wasted ad spend.
What Are Negative Keywords?
Negative keywords tell Google Ads which searches should not trigger your ads. When someone types a query that contains one of your negative keywords, your ad simply won’t show. You don’t pay, and your budget stays focused on people who are actually looking to hire a wedding videographer.
Without a well-maintained negative keyword list, your ads will show up for job seekers, students, DIY hobbyists, people in cities you don’t serve, and competitors’ existing clients—none of whom are going to book you.
Why Phrase Match Matters
Nearly every keyword on this list uses phrase match, which is denoted by wrapping the keyword in quotation marks (e.g., "wedding wire"). This is a deliberate choice and it’s important to understand why.
Google Ads offers three match types for negative keywords, and each one behaves differently:
- Broad match negative (no punctuation): Blocks your ad only when the search contains every word in the negative keyword, in any order. This is the loosest filter. For example, a broad match negative of video chat would block “video chat app” and “chat video free,” but would NOT block “video call” or “wedding chat.” It only blocks when ALL the words are present.
- Phrase match negative (in quotation marks): Blocks your ad when the search contains your negative keyword phrase in the exact order you specified, even if there are additional words before or after it. For example, "wedding wire" blocks “best wedding wire reviews” and “wedding wire vendors near me” but would NOT block “wire for wedding decorations.” The words must appear together, in order.
- Exact match negative (in brackets): Blocks your ad only when the search matches your negative keyword exactly, with no extra words. For example, [wedding wire] would only block the exact search “wedding wire”—nothing else.
We use phrase match for nearly the entire list because it strikes the best balance between protection and precision. It blocks searches that contain the problem phrase regardless of what surrounds it, without being so broad that it accidentally blocks legitimate queries. A phrase match negative for "nashville" will block “nashville wedding videographer” and “best videographer in nashville”—but it won’t accidentally block someone searching “wedding videographer” just because Nashville exists as a word somewhere in Google’s understanding of the query.
How to Add Negative Keywords to Your Campaigns
In Google Ads, navigate to Keywords > Negative keywords in your campaign or ad group. You can add them individually or paste a list. To use phrase match, wrap each keyword in quotation marks. You can also create a Negative keyword list at the account level (under Tools > Shared library > Negative keyword lists) and apply it across multiple campaigns—this is the recommended approach because it keeps everything centralized and easy to maintain.
Review your Search terms report regularly (at least weekly when campaigns are new, monthly once stable). This report shows you the actual queries that triggered your ads, and you’ll find new negative keyword candidates there constantly.
Our Negative Keyword List, Organized by Category
Below is our complete list, grouped by the logic behind why each keyword is excluded. Every keyword is phrase match unless otherwise noted.
1. Geographic Exclusions — Cities, States, and Countries We Don’t Serve
This is the largest category, and for good reason. If you’re a wedding videographer based in Portland, Oregon, you don’t want to pay for clicks from people searching for a videographer in Nashville, Miami, or India. Geographic negatives are one of the fastest ways to eliminate wasted spend. Even with location targeting enabled, Google will still show your ads to people interested in those locations—so someone in Portland researching a destination wedding in Cancun could trigger your ad if you’re not blocking it.
U.S. Cities and Metro Areas
Add any cities you DO NOT want to work in
Example: "nashville", "austin"
U.S. States and Regions
Add any states or regions you DO NOT want to work in
Example: "wisconsin", "Idaho"
International Locations
Add any countries you DO NOT want to work in
"india", "UK"
The logic here is simple: if someone is searching for a wedding videographer in a location you don’t serve, that click is 100% wasted money. We keep a running list and add new locations every time we see irrelevant geographic searches in the Search Terms report.
2. Competitor and Brand Name Exclusions
When someone searches for a specific company by name, they’re looking for that company—not you. Bidding on competitor names might seem clever, but the click-through rates are terrible, the conversion rates are worse, and you’re paying premium CPCs for someone who already has a vendor in mind. These exclusions protect your budget from being drained by brand-loyal searches.
Wedding Industry Platforms and Directories
"wedding wire", "the knot", "thumbtack"
Named Competitor Businesses
Add your competitors in quotation marks “John Adams Videography”
This list is long because the wedding videography space has hundreds of small businesses. Every time a competitor’s name shows up in our Search Terms report, it gets added here. This is an ongoing maintenance task—plan on adding to this list regularly.
3. Job Seekers, Career, and Education
A huge source of wasted spend comes from people who want to become a wedding videographer, not hire one. These searches come from job hunters, students, and people exploring the career—none of whom are potential clients.
"jobs", "job", "job description", "salary", "career", "resume", "internship", "internships", "intern", "degree", "school", "high school", "course", "courses", "class", "classes", "certification", "training", "student", "film school", "become", "becoming", "started", "starting", "beginner", "wedding videographer career", "wedding filmmaker mastery", "how much do wedding photographers make", "pay", "staffing", "talent", "engineer", "majors"
Did you catch the unnecessary negative keyword? “career” will also block “wedding videographer career”
The phrase "salary" alone can save you significant money. There’s a massive volume of searches like "wedding videographer salary" and "how much do wedding videographers make"—all from people researching the profession, not looking to hire.
4. DIY, How-To, and Information Seekers
People searching for tutorials, gear advice, and “how to do it myself” content are not looking to hire a professional. These are research queries, and while they represent real search volume, they’re the wrong audience entirely.
"how to", "how-to", "how", "how do i", "how much", "do i need a wedding videographer", "do you need", "worth it", "why", "which", "tips for brides", "ideas", "types of", "diy", "best camera", "camera", "cameras", "gear", "equipment", "video equipment", "lenses", "lens", "gimbal", "gopro", "iphone", "8mm", "super 8", "lighting", "setup", "software", "best video editor", "best video editor for youtube", "editing", "editor", "adobe premiere", "download", "app", "platforms", "automated", "generated", "sample", "wedding film trailer", "production trailer"
The “how to” family of negatives is critical. Searches like “how to film a wedding” and “how to become a wedding videographer” generate significant traffic that will eat your budget if left unchecked.
5. Price Shoppers and Budget-Focused Searches
These keywords filter out searchers who are explicitly looking for the cheapest option or are doing price comparison research rather than evaluating quality and fit. If your business competes on value and craft rather than being the lowest price, these negatives protect your positioning.
"cheap", "inexpensive", "affordable", "budget friendly", "budget", "$1000", "free", "average cost", "average", "cost", "rates"
This is a business strategy decision. If you’re a premium wedding videographer, you don’t want to attract leads whose first filter is price. Someone searching “cheap wedding videographer” is unlikely to book a $5,000+ package. That said, if you’re positioned as a value option, you might choose to leave some of these off your list.
6. Unrelated Industries and Services
The word “videographer” and related terms like “films” and “production” overlap heavily with other industries. These negatives block searches for services that have nothing to do with weddings.
"music videographer", "birth videographer", "real estate", "sports", "animation", "animated", "3d", "graphic design", "manufacturing", "audio visual", "photo booth", "boudoir", "quinceanera", "funeral", "equine", "movie studios", "movie production companies", "film studios", "portland production company", "recording", "print", "store", "decoration", "stage decoration", "makeup", "planner", "registration", "ad blocker", "ad block", "stream", "live", "video chat", "tiktok", "blog", "discovery", "birdhouse", "forestry", "bottlebrush", "out of home", "buy", "rentals", "lighthouse wedding venue", "short film", "oregon film office", "best wedding video", "best wedding movies", "best wedding videography website", "best instagram accounts", "best instagram accounts for filmmakers", "film wedding photographer", "film wedding photographers", "pictures", "photos"
Some of these might seem obvious, but they’re triggered more often than you’d think. “Music videographer near me” is a common search that will absolutely trigger a wedding videography ad without this negative. “Photo booth” catches people looking for a totally different wedding service. And words like “stream” and “live” tend to pull in people looking for livestreaming services rather than cinematic wedding films.
7. People Names and Miscellaneous Entities
These are individual names and specific terms that showed up in our Search Terms report triggering our ads. They’re typically people searching for a specific person—a photographer, a celebrity, a family member—and not looking for our services.
Example: "danny glover", "taylor jackson"
These accumulate over time from the Search Terms report. Some of them are celebrities, some are industry figures, and some are just common names that happen to get paired with “videographer” or “wedding films” in search queries. Each one represents at least one wasted click that taught us to add the negative.
8. Forums, Review Sites, and Content Platforms
People searching for wedding videography discussion threads, Reddit posts, or review sites are in research mode, not buying mode. They’re gathering opinions, not looking for a vendor to contact.
"reddit", "wedd", "my weddin", "freeform", "doodle", "playfish", "moon and back", "today", "today's", "todays", "birds of a feather", "cool", "easy", "shadow", "third eye", "dream catcher", "poetic", "timeless", "fireside", "heartland", "ivory", "lumina", "iris", "stratus", "crate", "patch", "dvideo", "zinc", "lions eye", "all point", "rough house", "paperbird", "hello tomorrow", "just hitched", "moving pictures", "skydance media", "amature videographer", "amateur videographer", "my"
This is a catch-all group for terms that triggered our ads but clearly weren’t from people looking to hire. Some are common words that, when paired with “wedding” in a search, pull in lifestyle content or unrelated businesses. Others like “reddit” are direct platform references where someone is looking for crowd-sourced opinions rather than a vendor.
9. Wedding Industry Tools, Contracts, and Business Resources
These searches come from other wedding professionals looking for business tools, contract templates, or industry resources—not from couples looking to hire a videographer.
"wedding videographer contract", "invoice", "focal point", "advisors", "production hub", "red ring studio"
Someone searching “wedding videographer contract template” is almost certainly a videographer themselves. Same with “wedding videography invoice.” These are B2B or professional-development searches that will never convert to a booking.
10. Any type of wedding you don’t want to work
If you don’t have any experience capturing a multi-hour cultural ceremony and don’t have the desire to learn put those in quotations marks!Or if you only want to capture certain types of weddings, put the ones you do not want to capture in quotation marks.For example, a videographer that only wants to capture outdoor micro weddings and adventurous elopements should consider negative keywords for “Catholic”, “Indian”.
Best Practices for Managing Your Negative Keyword List
Start with a seed list, then build from data. Use the categories above as your starting point, but the real refinement comes from your own Search Terms report. Every account is different, and your specific campaigns will attract their own set of irrelevant traffic.
Use shared negative keyword lists. Create one master list at the account level and apply it to all campaigns. This avoids duplication and makes maintenance much simpler.
Default to phrase match. As this entire list demonstrates, phrase match gives you the best balance of protection and precision. Use broad match negatives only for specific edge cases (like a state name that overlaps with common words), and use exact match only when phrase match would be too restrictive.
Review weekly, then monthly. When a campaign is new, check the Search Terms report at least once a week. Once your negative keyword list is mature and performance is stable, monthly reviews are sufficient.
Don’t be afraid of a long list. Our list has over 500 negative keywords and it continues to grow. A long, well-maintained negative list is a sign of a healthy, optimized account—not an over-managed one.
Watch for geographic creep. Even with location targeting set correctly, Google’s “interest in” targeting means your ads can show to people searching about other locations. Geographic negatives are your backstop.
Separate brand defense from competitor blocking. Keep competitor names in their own list or group. This makes it easy to add new competitors as you discover them, without wading through your entire negative keyword list.
Final Thoughts
Negative keywords are not a set-it-and-forget-it tool. They’re an ongoing discipline that directly impacts your return on ad spend. Every irrelevant click you prevent is budget that gets redirected to someone who might actually book you.
The list above represents years of refinement for a wedding videography business running ads in a specific market. Your list will be different, but the categories and logic will be the same. Start with this framework, layer in your own data from the Search Terms report, and keep building.