The same pattern repeats every month like clockwork. Your ad costs keep rising, but your phone line stays quiet and your schedule stays empty.
Most Minnesota service businesses waste hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars every month on clicks from people who will never hire them. They’re paying for job seekers and DIY enthusiasts, only to get frustrated when their budgets disappear without results.
We get it, you want leads that book appointments and become paying customers. But lucky for you, our team at Matter Solutions helps Minnesota businesses cut wasted ad spend through negative keyword strategies.
In this article, we’ll share exactly how to stop wasting money on the wrong clicks. We’ll explain:
- What negative keywords are, and why they save money
- How irrelevant searches waste your ad budget
- Two simple ways to find budget-killing keywords
- The exact negative keyword list Minnesota service businesses need
Let’s stop the waste and get your ads in front of actual customers.
What Are Negative Keywords for Minnesota Service Businesses?
Negative keywords are terms you add to Google Ads to stop your ads from showing up in irrelevant searches. Think of them as a filter that keeps the wrong people from clicking your ads and draining your budget.
When someone in Minneapolis searches “HVAC repair,” you want your ad to show up first.
But when they search “HVAC repair jobs Minneapolis” or “free HVAC repair tips,” those clicks cost you money without bringing in customers. Here, the first person wants a paycheck, not a furnace fix. And the second person wants to learn how to do it themselves. So they’re never going to call you for business.
That’s where negative keywords come in. They prevent wasted ad spend on clicks that never convert into sales. This means your Google Ads campaigns only reach people ready to hire your business.
Why Do Service Ads Waste Money Without Negative Keywords?
Small businesses waste 25% of their ad budgets on poor PPC campaign management, according to a WordStream study of 500 businesses. That’s $1,250 out of every $5,000 going straight down the drain.
So, instead of reaching your target audience, your digital marketing goes to the wrong people. You pay for clicks from people who never become customers or book jobs.
Here are three major ways this drains your advertising efforts:
Job Search Keywords Kill ROI
As we’ve covered before, people searching for HVAC jobs drain your advertising budget with zero conversion rates. The reason is that career seekers aren’t potential customers hunting for furnace repair or AC installation. Someone looking up “plumber salary Duluth” won’t call you to fix their leaking pipes.
The same goes for all job-related terms like salary, careers, and training. They waste money on irrelevant traffic.
Pro Tip: Add these terms as negative keywords to keep your targeted advertising focused only on homeowners who need your service.
Wasting Budget with Free and DIY Terms
Ever notice clicks from people who never call or book appointments with your business? Those are probably from DIY enthusiasts or bargain hunters, who are likely never going to hire you.
They’re looking for YouTube videos on “how to install a water heater yourself,” not a licensed contractor. These free seekers click your ads, then bounce and leave without converting, which results in poor campaign performance and lower conversion rates.
We recommend working with a Google Ads partner that blocks terms like “free,” “DIY,” and “how-to” automatically. This keeps your ad spend focused on customers ready to pay for professional services.
Wrong Location Clicks Add Up Fast
When you set up wrong location targeting, your ads reach people hundreds of miles outside your service area. If someone in Fargo searches “furnace repair near me” and sees your Duluth business, they might click, but they’re located 250 miles away. They are not part of your right audience or client base that you can actually serve.
That’s why you need proper location settings to protect your customer base and keep costs down. Even your social media marketing needs geographic boundaries to work effectively.
Now that you understand how ads waste money without negative keywords, let’s look at how to find the terms killing your budget.
How Do You Find Negative Keywords for Google Ads?
You can find negative keywords in your search terms report, through manual Google searches, and by analysing what’s already costing you money.
We know finding these terms might sound time-consuming or technical. But it’s not that complicated once you know where to look. You just have to use basic Google Ads management tools like search term reports and Google Analytics to spot what’s hurting campaign performance.
Let’s cover two simple ways to protect your investment in PPC advertising:
- Search Terms Report Shows Wasted Spend
This free Google Ads tool shows exactly which search phrases triggered your ads in the past 30, 60, or 90 days. So the report helps you catch the sneaky budget killers sabotaging your Google Ads campaigns (you know, the ones you didn’t even know existed).
Helpful Tip: Filter by high cost and low conversions to spot money wasters fast. You’ll see terms like “HVAC training programs” or “electrician jobs in Minnesota” eating up hundreds of dollars monthly.
- Manual Google Searches Reveal Problems
Even a quick five-minute Google search of your main keywords reveals job boards and DIY sites competing for the same searches.
Here’s how to search: Type your main keywords into Google to see what search ads appear alongside yours. Then look for job sites, DIY blogs, and tutorial pages in digital advertising results nearby.
These unrelated sites show you exactly which terms need blocking. If Indeed or YouTube shows up next to your ad, those job and tutorial searches are costing you money right now. So add these as negatives to attract more leads that actually convert into paying customers.
Once you know how to find negative keywords, it’s time to build your list with the most common terms Minnesota service businesses should block.
What Negative Keywords Should Minnesota Service Businesses Use?
Service businesses from Minnesota should include negative keywords like jobs, free, DIY, and out-of-state locations in every campaign. Use these categories to clean up your advertising strategy and stop wasting money:
- Avoid Job-Related Terms: Jobs, careers, salary, hiring, employment, and resume postings.
- Block Free and DIY Seekers: Free, DIY, how-to, tutorial, yourself, and instructions.
- Exclude Informational Searches: Cost, price, pricing, definition, “what is,” guide, and article.
Also, add out-of-state locations, but never use the MN abbreviation as a negative keyword. The reason is simple: MN appears in common words and phrases, so blocking it will prevent your ads from showing for legitimate searches. Instead, try spelling out “Minnesota” or using specific city names from other states.
In our experience, small or mid-sized businesses that optimize their landing pages and practice continuous optimization see outstanding results within 60-90 days. Their successful Google Ads campaigns finally attract customers who actually pick up the phone and book appointments.
Stop Paying for Clicks That Never Convert
Negative keywords protect your advertising budget from job seekers, DIY hunters, and out-of-state searchers who drain money without booking appointments. But you can fix this and save hundreds monthly by blocking these irrelevant terms before they cost anything.
We covered what negative keywords are and why ads waste money without them. We also showed you how to find budget killers in your account and which specific terms Minnesota contractors should block immediately.
Getting this right means every dollar goes toward homeowners ready to hire you. And our team will walk you through every step you need to get started today.
