Updated October 21, 2026 · 6 min read
The short answer
Negative keywords are a Pinterest Ads feature. They tell Pinterest which searches should never trigger one of your promoted pins. They live at the ad group level, and you add them in Ads Manager or the Bulk editor.
Organic pins, the normal ones you save for free, have no negative keywords. Nothing on a pin, board or profile tells Pinterest where not to show it. If that is what you came here for, skip to the section on keeping a pin out of the wrong searches. The method is different, but it works.
How negative keywords work in Pinterest Ads
When you run a search campaign, you give each ad group a list of keywords. Pinterest matches those keywords against what people type, using one of three match types:
| Match type | How you write it | What it matches |
|---|---|---|
| Broad (default) | slow cooker chili | The keyword plus related terms, synonyms and misspellings, in any word order |
| Phrase | "slow cooker chili" | Searches that contain the phrase in that order, plus close variations |
| Exact | [slow cooker chili] | The keyword or a close variation, with the word order kept |
Broad match is where the waste comes from. "Slow cooker chili" on broad match can show your ad for "chili recipe", "slow cooker", "white chicken chili" and a long tail of searches you never asked for. Some of those are fine. Some will never buy what you sell.
Negative keywords trim that tail. There are two negative match types:
| Negative match type | How you write it | What it blocks |
|---|---|---|
| Negative phrase | -"vegetarian" | Any search containing the word or phrase, in that order |
| Negative exact | -[vegetarian chili] | Only a search that is exactly that phrase or a close variation |
In Ads Manager you type them with a minus sign in front, with quotes for phrase or brackets for exact. You can also open an ad's Keywords tab and use the option to create negative keywords from the list of search terms that have already triggered your ad. That report is the best source of negatives you will find, because every term on it cost you money.
In the Bulk editor there are no symbols. You fill in the match type column with NEGATIVE_PHRASE or NEGATIVE_EXACT. The Bulk editor also offers campaign-level negative types, which apply to every ad group in the campaign at once.
Pinterest recommends at least 25 keywords per ad group and allows up to 20,000. There is no published limit for negatives, but a long list of them is usually a sign that the positive keywords are too broad.
When negative keywords are worth setting
Not every campaign needs them on day one. Three situations where they pay for themselves quickly:
You sell something and the search is about doing it for free. If you sell knitting patterns, searches for "free knitting pattern" bring people who have already decided not to pay. The same goes for "DIY", "homemade", "template free" and "printable free" in most product niches.
A neighboring niche shares your words. "Cake topper" covers wedding cakes and birthday cakes. "Nursery" covers baby rooms and plant nurseries. "Planner" covers paper planners, digital planners and wedding planners. If you only serve one meaning, block the others.
Brand and competitor terms. If people search for a specific brand that is not yours, your ad is unlikely to convert and the click is expensive. Blocking brand names you do not carry keeps the budget on generic, high-intent searches.
Two things not to do. Do not block words just because they are common; "ideas" and "easy" are in a large share of Pinterest searches and blocking them would hide your ads from most of your buyers. And do not copy a negative list from a Google Ads account without reading it; Pinterest searches are shorter and more visual, so many Google negatives never occur here.
Example negative keyword lists
Two starting lists for two kinds of account. Treat them as a first draft to check against your own search terms report after a week.
An Etsy shop selling printable wedding invitations
| Negative keyword | Why |
|---|---|
-"free" | Blocks every search for free templates and downloads |
-"diy" | People planning to make their own |
-"canva" | Looking for a template in a specific editor, not a finished design |
-"birthday" | Wrong event |
-"baby shower" | Wrong event |
-[wedding invitation wording] | Looking for text to copy, not a product |
A food blog promoting a slow cooker recipe collection
| Negative keyword | Why |
|---|---|
-"instant pot" | Different appliance, different audience |
-"air fryer" | Different appliance |
-"recall" | Searches about appliance safety, not recipes |
-"vegan" | Only if the collection has no vegan recipes |
-"keto" | Only if the collection does not fit the diet |
-[slow cooker] | The bare appliance search, mostly shoppers comparing models |
Notice that the last row in each list uses negative exact match. You still want "slow cooker chili" and "wedding invitation printable", so you block only the bare term, not every phrase that contains it.
Keeping an organic pin out of the wrong searches
This is what most people searching for negative keywords actually need. Pinterest decides which searches a pin is eligible for from the text on and around it: the title, the description, the alt text, the board name and description, the text it detects in the image, and the page the pin links to. Then it ranks eligible pins by how people respond to them. You cannot subtract searches, but you can make the pin so specific that it only matches the right ones.
Narrow the title. "Chili" matches everything. "Slow cooker white chicken chili" matches one thing. Put the full, specific topic in the title and keep the title under 100 characters.
Clean the description. A description that mentions "also great for the instant pot" or "works as a dip too" tells Pinterest the pin is about those things as well. Write 800 characters at most, keep the first sentence on the main topic, and only mention variations you actually want to rank for.
Save it to the right board first. The first board a pin is saved to tells Pinterest what the pin is about. A chili recipe saved to a board called "Dinner" inherits "dinner". Saved to "Slow cooker chili recipes" it inherits exactly what you want. Fix the board names if they are vague; the board name generator gives keyword-based options under the 50-character limit.
Match the overlay to the topic. Pinterest reads the text in your image. A big "EASY DINNER" overlay on a chili pin pulls it toward every easy dinner search. Make the overlay say what the pin is.
Pick tagged topics that match. When you create or edit a pin you can add up to 10 tagged topics from Pinterest's own list. Choose the specific ones and leave out the general ones. The tagged topics finder shows which of Pinterest's topics match your pin's text.
Check the landing page. If the pin links to a roundup of 30 recipes, Pinterest sees 30 topics. Link each pin to the single page that matches it.
A quick way to check your work is to search Pinterest for the term you do not want and see whether your pin's text contains that word anywhere. If it does, remove the word or make it clearly secondary.
How this fits with the rest of your Pinterest SEO
Negative keywords, for advertisers, and precise pin text, for everyone, are both about relevance. Pinterest rewards pins that get saved and clicked by the people who see them, so the goal is never to appear in as many searches as possible. It is to appear in the searches where your pin is the best answer. The Pinterest SEO guide covers the positive side of that, from finding the right keywords to writing the pin.
Where to go next
- Pinterest SEO: how search works and how to get your pins into it
- Pinterest keywords: how to find the ones worth using
- Where to add keywords on Pinterest
Frequently asked questions
- Do organic pins have negative keywords?
- No. There is no field on a pin, board or profile that tells Pinterest where not to show it. Negative keywords only exist in Pinterest Ads, at the ad group level. For organic pins you control where they show up by being precise about where they should show up: title, description, board and tagged topics.
- Where do I add negative keywords in Pinterest Ads?
- In Ads Manager, open the ad group, go to the keywords section and add them with a minus sign, using quotes for negative phrase match or brackets for negative exact match. In the Bulk editor, set the match type column to NEGATIVE_PHRASE or NEGATIVE_EXACT instead of using symbols.
- What is the difference between negative phrase and negative exact?
- Negative phrase blocks any search that contains your phrase in that word order, so -"free printable" blocks "free printable planner" too. Negative exact blocks only a search that matches the keyword on its own, so -[free printable] leaves "free printable planner" alone. Use phrase when you want to be safe and exact when you want to be surgical.
- Can negative keywords hurt my ad reach?
- Yes, if you add too many or add broad ones. A negative phrase match on a common word like "ideas" would block a large share of Pinterest searches. Start with a short list of terms you can see wasting money in your search terms report, and add more only when the data shows a problem.
- My pin keeps appearing in the wrong searches. What can I do?
- Make the pin more specific. Put the exact topic in the title and the first line of the description, remove words that pull it toward other subjects, save it to a board named for the topic, and pick tagged topics that match. Pinterest shows a pin for the searches its text and board suggest, so narrow the text and the matches narrow with it.