This article explains the three different negative keyword match types that you can use to reach the right audience when you create your campaigns in TikTok Ads Manager: Exact match, Phrase match, and Broad match. Negative keywords exclude those terms that are not relevant to your campaign and you don’t want your ads to show against in search queries. This helps you optimize your campaigns' performance and brand safety on TikTok Ads Manager.

Negative match types

Negative exact match

When you set a list of negative exact match keywords in TikTok Ads Manager, your ads will not show in user search queries for these specific keywords. To indicate to the system that you are using exact match, you will need to put [brackets] around the added negative keywords.

Let's say you added [fleece jackets] as a negative keyword for exact match, enclosed in square brackets.

To help you understand how your ads are served in a negative exact match type scenario, we have compiled a wide range of users' typical search terms that include the singular or plural form of the keyword, reversed keyword order, keywords with additional words in the search, and synonyms in place of the keyword.

Negative phrase match

When you set a list of negative phrase match keywords in TikTok Ads Manager, your ads will not show for these specific keywords if users search these keywords in the same order. Note: If users include extra words or characters in their search term in addition to keyword terms in the same order, your ad will not show. To indicate to the system that you are using phrase match, you will need to put "quotations" around the added negative keywords.

Let's say you added "fleece jackets” as a negative keyword for phrase match, enclosed with double quotation marks.

To help you understand how your ads are served in a negative phrase match type scenario, we have compiled a wide range of users' typical search terms that include the singular or plural form of the keyword, reversed keyword order, keywords with additional words in the search, and synonyms in place of the keyword.

Negative broad match

When you set a list of negative broad match keywords in TikTok Ads Manager, your ads will not show in user queries for any of the words you included, even if the words are in a different order. This is the most restrictive type of match. To indicate to the system that you are using broad match, you do not need to add any additional syntax when adding in negative keywords.

Let's say you added fleece jackets as a negative keyword for broad match.

To help you understand how your ads are served in a negative broad match type scenario, we have compiled a wide range of users' typical search terms that include the singular or plural form of the keyword, reversed keyword order, keywords with additional words in the search, and synonyms in place of the keyword.