Identifying negative keywords associated with advertisements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, from a first data storage device, data encoding an advertisement item and a log comprising a plurality of previously submitted search criteria,
• wherein each search criterion comprises one or more terms, and
• wherein when the search criterion was evaluated, the advertisement item was presented in a corresponding search result webpage;
• analyzing the plurality of previously submitted search criteria to identify one or more negative keywords including:
• identifying, from the plurality of previously submitted search criteria, a subset of search criteria as being off-topic to the advertisement item, and
• deriving the one or more negative keywords from the subset of off-topic search criteria;
• generating one or more files including the one or more negative keywords, the one or more negative keywords being used to prevent the advertisement item from being presented in a search result corresponding to a later submitted search criterion containing at least one of the identified negative keywords;
• and
• storing the one or more files on the first data storage device or a second data storage device.

A server for identifying negative words, comprising one or more processors, a memory coupled to the one or more processors, and a network interface, the one or more processors configured to:

• receive data encoding an advertisement item and a log comprising a plurality of previously submitted search criteria,
• wherein each search criterion comprises one or more terms, and
• wherein when the search criterion was evaluated, the advertisement item was presented in a corresponding search result webpage;
• evaluate the plurality of previously submitted search criteria to identify one or more negative keywords by:
• identifying, from the plurality of previously submitted search criteria, a subset of search criteria as being off-topic to the advertisement item, and
• deriving the one or more negative keywords from the subset of off-topic search criteria;
• generate one or more files including the one or more negative keywords, the one or more negative keywords prevent the advertisement item from being presented in a search result corresponding to a later submitted search criterion containing at least one of the identified negative keywords;
• and
• store the one or more files on computer-readable media.