Prepping Your Keywords for Adwords

[Kirk]

[Lynn Terry]

Here's what Google has to say about :


Broad Match - This is the default option. If you include general keyword or keyword phrases-such as tennis shoes-in your keyword list, your ads will appear when a user's query contains tennis and shoes, in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads will also automatically show for expanded matches, including plurals and relevant variations. Because broad matches are sometimes less targeted than exact or phrase matches, you should create keyword phrases containing at least two descriptive words each. You can also try the Keyword Tool and the other three matching options to further refine your targeting. Finally, keep in mind that other advertisers may have bid for the same broad-matched keyword combinations that trigger your ads, increasing your actual CPC amounts. Using exact, phrase, or negative matches can help you keep your costs low.

Phrase Match - If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, as in "tennis shoes," your ad will appear when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and possibly with other terms in the query. For example, your ad will appear for the query red tennis shoes but not for shoes for tennis. Phrase matching is more targeted than broad matching, but slightly more flexible than exact matching. To ensure your ads are as targeted as they can be, you may want to include at least two descriptive words in your keyword phrases.

Exact Match - If you surround your keywords in brackets-such as [tennis shoes]-your ads will appear when users search for the specific phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and without any other terms in the query. For example, your ad won't show for the query red tennis shoes. Exact matching is the most targeted option. Although you won't receive as many impressions with exact matching, you'll likely enjoy the most clicks, because users searching for terms in this manner typically want precisely what your business has to offer.

Negative Keyword - If your keyword is tennis shoes and you add the negative keyword -red, your ad will not appear when a user searches on red tennis shoes. You can apply this option for a keyword at both the Ad Group and campaign level.


Using neither quotes or brackets would be considered "broad match". You can test these, of course, and it depends on just how specific or targeted you want your campaign to be. Personally I like to use phrase match and exact match in my own campaigns.

By the way, once you create your keyword list you can use this FREE tool to 'wrap' all of your keywords in either quotes or brackets: . It's a HUGE time saver

[WAHumor]

Hey, Lynny!

How'd you know I was looking for that Wrapper link?!?

Sure beats doing it by hand!!

[Lynn Terry]

[Kirk]

[Anita Chaperon]

[Kirk]

Anita and Lynn,

Here's another question that just cropped up related to keywords.

I just started building campaigns in a new niche and various keywords are immediately inactivated *before* the ads even have a chance to run - along with a suggested min CPC that's 300% to 500% higher that my activated keywords.

Any suggestions on handling this other that paying the min CPC?

This feels like a newbie question, but I've never seen it before

[Anita Chaperon]

Hi Kirk,

You'd need to consider the niche you're tackling - that would define competition and volume of searches for your kwds. Then I’d see if the kwds in question are some of the obvious, high-volume kwds in that niche, i.e. one or two word phrases. Then you need to decide if you want your ad to appear for these words and what are the pro's and con's of your decision...

If for example, you decide the min CPC is too high to justify in terms of ROI (which may be difficult to decide outright, since you're new to the niche) - then what will you be missing?

If I were you, I would decide how important it is for me to appear for those kwds, then see what my estimated max CPC is, and if the min CPC and my max affordable CPC are anywhere near each other, than I’d run a controlled test campaign just for those terms(keep your positions lower than the top 3). How long you run the test for will depend on many factors, but it needs to be long enough - if you know what I mean.

If you take that approach you will know what those terms can deliver - in my opinion, very often (but not always) there's a good reason for the expensive kwds to be expensive . The competition is high on those terms because it is most likely converting - unfortunately there’s only one way to find out - spending your hard earned cash(actually you could have a very good friend in the same niche that could let you know his/her top secrets... ).

Anyway, the second option I see, is to go for more targeted cheaper kwds, and see how that goes for you - it may be very lucrative even though slower going.

It's your decision really I can't be more specific as there are too many unknowns for me

[Kirk]

Anita,

Thanks for the detailed reply.

In the past, I've gotten pretty good CPC estimates from Google's keyword tool, but maybe these aren't as accurate as I thought. If I put in these *inactivated* keywords, I get estimates of .05 for a 1-3 position, but in the actual campaign, the min CPCs are set at .40 (broad/exact/phrase).

The real kicker is the ad placement when the min CPCs are activated. As you mentioned in your post, I typically like to be somewhere between 3.5 and 6.0 in my placement, but at the min CPC, I'm typically at 2.5 or higher. Because of the minimum, I've got no way to drop my position...frustrating.

[affiliates]

I generally avoid broad match unless it's 3+ words.

One tip I have though if you're going to use broad match is this:

1. carry out your keyword research.
2. open the results, i.e. list of phrases in your favourite text editor
3. search and replace (remove) your keyphrase
4. review the list of remaining words
5. add those that don't match your target market as negative keywords

This helps to minimise wastage.

[giftsolution]