How does the effective use of negative keywords specifically improve the ROI of a paid search campaign?

The effective use of negative keywords improves the ROI of a paid search campaign by preventing ads from showing to users who are searching for terms irrelevant to the advertised product or service, thus reducing wasted ad spend and increasing the campaign's efficiency. Negative keywords are terms that you exclude from your paid search campaigns. This ensures that your ads don't appear when users search for those terms, even if they contain your target keywords. For example, if you are selling new running shoes, you might add "used," "cheap," or "free" as negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing to people looking for secondhand or discounted shoes. By excluding irrelevant searches, negative keywords reduce the number of unqualified clicks your ads receive. This means you are only paying for clicks from users who are genuinely interested in your product or service, increasing the likelihood of a conversion. This directly lowers the cost per conversion and improves the overall return on investment (ROI) of the campaign. In summary, negative keywords focus your budget on relevant searches, increasing conversion rates and optimizing campaign performance, which ultimately leads to a better ROI.