What are negative keywords in OTTO ads?
Last updated: 31 October 2026 · The MargenOptimierer app is in German. Button and menu names are shown exactly as you see them, with the English meaning in brackets.
Negative keywords are search terms on which OTTO shouldn't show your ad.
You create them when you exclude a search term in an automatic campaign, because OTTO doesn't accept negative keywords in manual campaigns. In the ad console they're in the Negatives (negative keywords) tab. They have no bid, and they get no clicks and no costs.
Example: Excluding “gartenstuhl kinder”
Say the search term “gartenstuhl kinder” had 30 clicks and 12 € of ad spend in “Automatic – Garden furniture”, but no sale. If you exclude it with the match type Exakt (exact) on all 298 items in the campaign, that creates 298 negative keywords at OTTO.
Once you've sent them, OTTO no longer shows the items in this campaign on the search “gartenstuhl kinder”.
What else matters for negative keywords
Which match type you choose
When you exclude a search term, you also choose a match type. Exakt is preselected. With Exakt the exclusion applies only to exactly this search term, with Phrase or Breit (broad) also to longer or similar searches.
On all items or on one
OTTO stores negative keywords per item. That's why you choose An allen Artikeln der Kampagne (on all items in the campaign) or Nur an einem Artikel (on one item only) when you exclude a search term. You queue the exclusion like any other change. How to send it to OTTO is covered in How do I send my changes to OTTO?
Negative keywords when you create campaigns
If you create an automatic and a manual campaign at the same time in Kampagnen-Setup (campaign setup), you can exclude the manual campaign's keywords in the automatic one. To do that, tick the box at the automatic campaign in the preview.
Next
- How do I add search terms as keywords or exclude them?