Straight answers for local service businesses
Block "cheap" in most cases. Do not block "free" as a broad negative keyword, because "free estimate" and "free quote" are two of the highest-intent searches a homeowner can type. Instead, add phrase negatives around the bad uses of free, like "free repair," "for free," and "free service." And before you block "cheap," check whether you actually have a low-ticket job you're happy to sell.
Short answer: block "cheap." Be very careful with "free."
These two words get lumped together in every negative keyword list floating around the internet, and that's a mistake. They behave completely differently in the trades. One of them signals a price shopper who will never book you. The other one shows up in some of the best searches a homeowner can type.
If you copy a generic negative keywords cheap free list into your account without thinking, you will save a few dollars on junk clicks and quietly turn off a chunk of your real leads. Let's go word by word.
Because of two phrases: free estimate and free quote.
Think about who types "free estimate roof replacement" or "free quote for water heater install." That is not somebody looking for a handout. That is somebody who has a problem, is ready to talk to a contractor, and is checking that they won't get billed for a visit. That is a buyer. They are further down the road than the person searching "roof replacement cost."
Now here's the part that trips people up. In Google Ads, a negative broad match keyword blocks any search that contains that word. Add "free" as a negative and you have just blocked:
A landscaper who blocks "free" is now invisible to every homeowner in town who wants a free estimate for a patio. That's not a rounding error. That's the best traffic in the account.
The bad uses of "free" are real, but they're narrower than people think. They look like this:
Notice the pattern. It's not the word "free." It's "free" attached to the work itself. Free estimate means free visit. Free repair means free labor. Those are opposite people.
Use phrase negatives instead of a single word. Phrase negatives block searches that contain those words in that order, so you keep control.
A solid starting set for most trades:
Then leave the standalone word "free" alone. You want "free estimate" running. You may even want to build an ad group around it.
Most of the time, block it. Someone searching "cheap plumber near me" has already decided price is the only thing that matters. They will call four companies, pick the lowest number, and argue about it anyway. If your business runs on doing the job right, that click is a donation.
But there are real exceptions, and this is where the copy-paste lists fail you.
Ask yourself: do I have a small job I'm genuinely happy to sell? A gutter cleaning. A drain snake. A one-room interior paint. A single-zone mini-split service call. If you have a well-priced, high-volume, low-drama service, a price shopper is not a bad customer. They're your customer.
A cleaning company with a $130 standard clean can absolutely take the "cheap house cleaning" click. A remodeler quoting $40,000 kitchens cannot. Same word, opposite decision.
The other exception: "cheap" as a competitor comparison. Some people type "cheapest way to fix a leaking pipe" while sitting under a leaking pipe. That's an emergency dressed up as a price question. If you run emergency service and your phone answers 24/7, you might let those through and let your ad copy do the filtering. Put your price posture right in the ad: "Flat-Rate Pricing. No Overtime Charges." Or the opposite: "Licensed, Insured, Not the Cheapest."
Here's the thing nobody tells you: negative keywords are literal. Google does not apply close variants to negatives the way it does to your regular keywords. Adding "cheap" does not block "cheapest." It does not block "cheep" from someone typing fast on a phone.
So if you decide to block the price-shopper family, block the family:
I'd leave "affordable" off that list. It's softer. Plenty of homeowners searching "affordable fence installation" have a normal budget and are just being polite about it. Watch it in your search terms report before you cut it.
Don't guess. Read.
Most local accounts have fewer weird searches than the owner fears and more good ones than they expect. You'll usually find that "free" is mostly "free estimate" and "cheap" is mostly noise. That single check saves people from turning off their own lead flow.
Block words that describe what the customer wants to pay for the work. Keep words that describe how they want to start the conversation.
"Free estimate" is how they start. "Cheap install" is what they want to pay. That's the whole distinction.
One last thought. If "free estimate" traffic is coming in and not converting, the problem usually isn't the keyword. It's that your landing page doesn't say "free estimate" anywhere on it, so the visitor lands, doesn't see what they searched for, and bounces. Match the page to the search and that traffic gets a lot better in a hurry.
Yes. A negative broad match keyword blocks any search containing that word, so adding "free" blocks "free estimate," "free quote," and "free inspection" too. Use phrase negatives like "for free" or "free repair" instead.
No. Unlike regular keywords, negatives are matched literally with no close variants. If you block "cheap," you still need to add "cheaper" and "cheapest" separately.
Yes. If your average job is in the thousands, price-shopper clicks almost never convert into work you'd want. Add the whole family: cheap, cheaper, cheapest, lowest price, bargain.
Blocking saves budget up front, which matters most on small daily spends. Ad copy filtering works better when you have volume to spare and want to catch the occasional emergency search hiding behind a price question.
The search terms report inside Google Ads, under the Keywords section. Set it to the last 30 to 90 days and read it before adding any negatives, not after.
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