Indian search volume on B2B software terms carries a much higher share of non-buyer intent than the equivalent US query set. Without a negative list built for it, a meaningful share of budget goes to people who will never buy.
The four intent clusters to exclude
Job intent. India has enormous search volume around roles and careers. Terms such as jobs, vacancy, salary, hiring, recruitment, internship, resume and career will pull traffic on almost any tool or industry term.
Education intent. Course, tutorial, training, certification, syllabus, notes, pdf, ppt, question paper, and the ubiquitous free download.
Free-seeker intent. Free, crack, torrent, alternative to paid, open source, and lifetime deal. These convert to trials that never upgrade.
Research intent that is not buying intent. What is, meaning, definition, full form, and wikipedia. Useful for content targeting, wasteful for a conversion campaign.
Where these do belong
Do not treat them as universally negative. Definition and meaning queries are exactly what your content should target organically. They are negatives for a paid conversion campaign specifically, because the searcher is not in market.
Build it from your own data, not a template
Run the search terms report weekly for the first two months. Sort by cost with zero conversions. That list, not a generic template, is where your money is actually leaking.
The order of operations
Add negatives at the account level rather than per campaign, or you will maintain the same list in five places and they will drift apart. Reserve campaign-level negatives for genuine cross-campaign separation.
General information, not legal advice. Rules current as of July 2026.