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Negative Keyword Targeting

CMax is designed to give you as much flexibility, control, and transparency as possible. That is why we built the Negative Keyword Targeting feature. In this area, you can upload a list of keywords that you want to make sure your line item does not serve on or does not target.

All the promoted products selected in your line item(s) already have keywords automatically associated to them by our advanced keyword model (for more information about our model see above). 

To negate any of these automatically associated keywords, enter the term(s) in the Negative Keywords section, in step 2 of your line item workflow, below the Select Product section.


Commerce Max associates keywords to a product by looking at what keywords a shopper uses in their search, and what that shopper later purchases. Then, when you add a product to your line item, CMax determines which terms were the most successful for your product or similar products and uses those terms for your line item's targeting. Because the terms associated with your line item are all relevant to your product, it is perfectly okay to not have any negative keywords to target.

Match type

Negative keyword

Ads won’t show for  

Ads may show for

Broad match

Men’s shoes

Men shoes
Blue men’s shoes Mens shoe size 9

Shoes
Boy’s shoes
Men’s basketball shoes

Exact match

Men’s shoes

Men’s shoes
Mens shoes
Mens shoe

Shoes
Blue men’s shoes
Mens shoe size 9

Once you’ve added negative keywords, click on Continue to save step 2 of your line item workflow and continue to the next steps. Confirm that the line item is set up the way you want, click on the Launch button, and the line item will be created/adjusted.