DocumentationAdvertisingAdvertising Search, Social, & Commerce Guide

Manage keywords

Last update: November 11, 2026

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Beta feature

Google Ads, LY Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Yandex, and existing Baidu accounts only

A keyword is a word or phrase associated with an ad. Keyword settings include the keyword match type, the maximum bids to be used when your ad is triggered by the keyword, and (for some ad networks) optional tracking parameters. Keyword-level settings override the ad group or campaign settings. Negative keywords prevent ads from being displayed for matching searches.

Once you make an ad network account accessible via an API connection and Search, Social, & Commerce has synchronized the account data with the ad network, you can create keywords for search ad groups in supported campaign types. You also can edit and change the status of keywords, and create and delete negative keywords.

For details about the functionality available for each ad network, see “Supported Inventory.”

About the Keywords view keyword-view-about

The Manage > Keywords view includes two tabs for the selected advertiser account:

  • The Keywords tab lists all biddable keywords in the filtered view.

  • The Negatives tab lists all negative keywords in the filtered view.

Available actions

View and download bid unit history bid-unit-history

When the Bid Unit ID column is available in the keyword data table, you can open the bid unit’s history directly from the ID.

  1. In the main menu, click Manage > Keywords.

  2. On the Keywords tab, click the value in the Bid Unit ID column for the keyword.

  3. In the Bid Unit Details dialog, click the History tab.

  4. (Optional) From the device menu above the table, select a device type for which to view history. By default, data for all devices is shown.

  5. (Optional) When history data is available, click Export as csv to download the displayed history.

The file is downloaded according to your browser’s normal procedure.

You can also open the bid unit details from a portfolio’s performance details. For information about the other tabs in the dialog, see “View portfolio performance details.”

Create keywords keyword-create

TIP
To create a large number of keywords at once, use campaign bulksheets.

  1. In the main menu, click Manage > Keywords.

  2. On the Keywords tab, click Create Keywords.

  3. In the Basic Settings step, select the network, the account, the campaign, and the ad group.

  4. Enter the Baidu keyword settings, Google Ads keyword settings, LY Ads keyword settings, Microsoft Advertising keyword settings, or Yandex keyword settings.

    You can enter or paste up to 2000 keywords in one operation. Separate multiple keywords with commas, or enter them on separate lines.

    note
    NOTE
    If the account or campaign settings specify tracking only at the ad level, then Search, Social, & Commerce doesn’t generate tracking for keywords.

  5. Click Review and Save.

  6. Review the settings. To change any settings, click Edit Edit in the applicable section and change the settings.

  7. Click Create.

Edit keyword settings keyword-edit

Changing the keyword text or match type can delete the existing keyword and create a new one, depending on the ad network. See the keyword settings for your ad network for details.

TIP
To edit a large amount of keyword data at once, including keywords on different ad networks, use campaign bulksheets.

  1. In the main menu, click Manage > Keywords.

  2. On the Keywords tab, select the check box next to each keyword to edit.

  3. In the bulk actions toolbar, click Edit.

  4. Edit the Baidu keyword settings, Google Ads keyword settings, LY Ads keyword settings, Microsoft Advertising keyword settings, or Yandex keyword settings.

    For multiple keywords, you can edit only the fields that are common to all of the selected keywords, and your changes are applied to all of the selected keywords. For some alphanumeric fields, you can change existing values to a specified value, replace an existing string with a specified string, add a prefix, or append a suffix. For some monetary fields, you can change existing values to a specified value or increase or decrease the amount by a specified percentage or monetary amount, with a limit.

  5. Click Review and Save.

  6. Review the settings. To change any settings, click Edit Edit in the applicable section and change the settings.

  7. Click Update.

Create negative keywords keyword-negative-create

Google Ads, LY Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and existing Baidu accounts only

You can create negative keywords for a search ad group or campaign that targets the search or display/native network.

NOTE
You also can create and edit negative keywords in the ad group settings and campaign settings.
TIP
To create a large number of negative keywords at once, use campaign bulksheets.

  1. In the main menu, click Manage > Keywords.

  2. On the Negatives tab, click Create Negatives and then either Campaign Negative Keyword or Ad Group Negative Keyword.

  3. Select the network, the account, the campaign, and (for ad group-level negative keywords) the ad group.

  4. Enter the negative keywords. Use the following syntax, without a minus sign (-):

    • Negative broad match: keyword (not supported by Microsoft Advertising)

    • Negative phrase match: "keyword"

    • Negative exact match: [keyword]

    Separate multiple values with commas, or enter them on separate lines. You can enter or paste up to 2000 negative keywords in one operation. The following requirements and restrictions apply:

    • Maximum character lengths: Baidu: 30 single-byte or 15 double-byte; Microsoft Advertising: 100 single-byte or 50 double-byte; Google Ads and LY Ads: 80 single-byte or 40 double-byte.

    • Baidu allows only one match type per keyword per ad group. For example, Ad Group 1 can’t include both "keyword" and [keyword].

    • Google Ads: Each keyword can consist of no more than 10 words and can include only letters, digits, and the following special characters: space # $ & _ - " [ ] ' + . / :

  5. Click Review and Save.

  6. Review the settings. To change any settings, click Edit Edit in the applicable section and change the settings.

  7. Click Create.

Change the status of keywords and negative keywords keyword-status

You can pause an active, biddable search keyword to disable bidding on it. You can later resume bidding by changing the status back to active.

You also can delete active or paused search keywords or negative keywords. Deleted keywords are deleted from the ad network. They’re still visible when you include them in the data filter, but you can’t change them.

Activate or pause keywords

  1. In the main menu, click Manage > Keywords.

  2. On the Keywords tab, optionally filter the list, and then select the check box next to each keyword whose status you want to change.

  3. In the bulk actions toolbar, change the status:

    • To activate paused keywords, click Activate.

    • To pause active keywords, click Pause.

Delete keywords or negative keywords

  1. In the main menu, click Manage > Keywords.

  2. On the Keywords or Negatives tab, optionally filter the list, and then select the check box next to each keyword or negative keyword to delete.

  3. In the bulk actions toolbar, click Delete.

  4. In the confirmation message, click Confirm.

Copy all data in selected rows to your clipboard copy-to-clipboard

Copy the visible information in selected rows, according to the applied filters and columns visible in the view. The information is saved as tab-separated values (TSV).

  1. Select the check box next to each row whose data you want to copy.

  2. In the bulk actions toolbar, click Copy.

Manage constraint assignments for keywords keyword-constraints

You can assign and remove bidding constraints for campaigns, ad groups, keywords, placements, unit-level product groups, and dynamic search targets. Each entity can have only one constraint.

Constraints are inherited by child entities, so you don’t need to assign constraints for child entities unless you want to override the inherited values.

Unassigning a constraint removes the association with the account components and all of their child components, and report data for the constraint is no longer available for those components. Unassigning a constraint doesn’t delete the constraint or the account components themselves.

NOTE
  • If you later edit a keyword or the ad copy for a non-mutable ad — thereby creating a new keyword or ad — then the constraint isn’t assigned to the new entity.
  • Active constraints restrict bidding only for assigned bid units in optimized legacy keyword-level portfolios. They’re ignored for bid units that are in active portfolios, are in hybrid portfolios, or aren’t in portfolios.

Assign a constraint to keywords keyword-constraint-assign

You can assign a single constraint to one or more keywords.

  1. In the main menu, click Manage > Keywords.

  2. On the Keywords tab, select the check box next to each keyword to which you’ll assign a single constraint.

  3. In the bulk actions toolbar, click + Assign > Constraint.

  4. Select the constraint.

  5. Click Assign Now.

Unassign constraints from keywords keyword-constraint-unassign

Unassigning a constraint doesn’t delete it. To delete a constraint, making it unavailable for future use, see “Delete constraints for search bid units” in the Optimization Guide chapter on “Bid Constraints,” which is available from within Search, Social, & Commerce.

  1. In the main menu, click Manage > Keywords.

  2. On the Keywords tab, select the check box next to each keyword from which you’ll unassign constraints.

  3. In the bulk actions toolbar, click - Unassign > Constraint.

  4. Click Confirm.

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