Pausing a Target vs. Adding a Negative Match

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Introduction
Definition Review
What Happens When You Pause/Negative Match?
When to Pause vs. Negative Match
Negative Phrase vs. Negative Exact Match

Introduction

Effectively managing your keywords is essential for achieving the best results in your advertising efforts. Two prevalent strategies for regulating the visibility of your ads include pausing and negative matching. This article will explore the fundamental differences between these two methods and offers guidance on when to employ each.

Definition Review

Aspect	Pause	Negative Match
Action Applied	Making a target inactive.	Excluding your ad when a specific keyword is searched.
Effect	Perpetua stops bidding. The ad stops showing.	Perpetua stops bidding. The ad stops showing.
Reversibility	Can enable (unpause) later. Pausing/Unpausing Targets	Can remove the negative match later, enabling the target. How to Add/Remove a Negative Match
🚨*Note*🚨	Target may still be captured by the AUTO campaign.	AUTO campaigns will not capture the excluded target.

What Happens When You Pause/Negative Match?

Aspect	Pause	Negative Match
Ad Visibility	Stops showing immediately.	Stops showing when the excluded keyword is searched when the exact negative match is applied to the keyword OR when phrase matches of the excluded keyword are searched if phrase match type is applied to the negative target.
Bid Strategy	Perpetua stops bidding on the paused keyword.	Perpetua stops bidding on the negative matched keyword.
Campaign Influence	May still be captured by an AUTO campaign.	AUTO campaigns will not capture the excluded target.
Targets in your Goal	The Status of your target(s) will switch to Pause.	If applied to a Phrase Match target within your goal, and you have targets that could potentially be included in the phrase, those targets will be archived in the Amazon Ad console. 💡 Example Negative Target: "Blue" (PHRASE) Affected Targets: "Blue Night", and "Blue Night Shade", etc.

🚨Notes🚨

If you pause in Perpetua, it will pause in Amazon's Ad Console. If you negative match in Perpetua, it will negative match in Amazon's Ad Console (What Happens When I Make Changes to My Perpetua Campaigns in Amazon?)
You cannot negative match a BROAD match keyword. If you want to stop spending on a broad match, you have to pause it. You can still show up for close variants of a keyword whether you pause or negative match it.

When to Pause vs. Negative Match

1️⃣ PAUSE

Scenario	Reasoning
No Sales Despite Spend	Pausing allows you to stop spending on a keyword that isn't converting, hence saving your budget.
High Competition and Low Sales	Pausing is effective when facing high competition on a keyword, preventing unnecessary spend while reevaluating the keyword's performance.
Broad Match Keywords	Broad-match keywords cannot be negative matched, so pausing is the only option to temporarily stop spending on such keywords.
Desire to Show for Close Variants Despite Stopping	If you still want to show up for close variants of a keyword despite stopping the main keyword, pausing allows for flexibility, as negative matching would block close variants.

2️⃣ NEGATIVE MATCH

Scenario	Reasoning
Want to Exclude Ads for Specific Searches	Negative matching allows you to exclude your ad from being triggered when a specific keyword or phrase is searched, helping to filter out irrelevant traffic.
Filtering Out Irrelevant Clicks	Negative matches can be used strategically to filter out clicks from users who may not convert. For example, excluding a term like "cotton pillowcases" for a "silk pillowcases" seller.
Avoid Blocking Too Many Search Terms	Negative matches should be used judiciously to avoid blocking too many relevant search terms. Using negative exact matches is safer than negative phrase matches for precision.

Negative Phrase vs. Negative Exact Match

1️⃣ PHRASE

Match Type	Explanation
Negative Phrase Match	Prevents your product from appearing in search queries containing words from the specified phrase, with minimal consideration for misspellings and plurals.

Example - Negative phrase match: blue

Search Query	Will your ad appear on the Search Results Page?
Blue Water Bottle	No
Blue Water Bottle for Babies	No
Water Bottles	Yes
Water bottle blue	No

2️⃣ EXACT

Match Type	Explanation
Negative Exact Match	Removes your ad from search queries with the exact negative keywords you provided, with allowance for minimal misspelt words and plurals

Example - Negative exact match: blue water bottle

Search Query	Will your ad appear on the Search Results Page?
Blue water bottle	No
Blue water bottle for babies	Yes
Water bottles	Yes
Water bottle blue	Yes

Article last updated January 2024. If you find this information to be out of date, please contact hello@perpetua.io.