Negative keyword conflicts manager (MCC level): find the negatives blocking your own traffic

A negative keyword added for a good reason in one campaign can silently block a keyword, or worse, converting search terms, in another. It is one of the quietest ways an account leaks traffic, because nothing in the interface flags the conflict; the impressions simply never happen. This script scans for exactly that, at MCC level, across every linked account.

Why it made the cut

Negative keyword conflicts are a classic, well-documented cause of unexplained traffic loss, and checking for them by hand across a handful of campaigns is tedious; across a whole portfolio of client accounts under an MCC it is impractical. Running one scan across every account instead of visiting each individually is the kind of time saving that actually changes whether an agency does the check at all.

How to run it

1. Get the script from the source page and open it inside your MCC, not an individual account, since it needs manager-level reach.
2. Set up the Google Sheet the script expects and paste its URL into the script configuration.
3. Paste the script into Tools, then Bulk actions, then Scripts, at the MCC level, and authorise it.
4. Preview the run and review the flagged conflicts in the Sheet before deciding what to change.

Worth knowing

The script finds and reports conflicts; it does not remove negatives for you, and that is the right design. A negative keyword conflict is sometimes intentional (you may genuinely want one campaign to take priority over another for a term), so treat the output as a list to review, not a list to action automatically. It is free to run via Google Sheets, but confirm current access terms on the source page before relying on it for a client portfolio.