Earlier in the series of articles, you will have read how important it is to have a strong keyword plan when it comes to your PPC campaigns. It can be rather time consuming, but worth the investment if you’re going to build an entire campaign based on them!
The most successful businesses who use Google Ads regularly will always have a growing list of keywords that gets refined over time, particularly taking into account the learnings from campaigns that have already run.
We think there are 3 main areas to consider when pulling together your PPC keyword list:
RELEVANCE
We’ve mentioned it before, but essentially you don’t want to be bidding on words that have nothing to do with your business. Your keywords should be closely related to the product or services you sell.
EXHAUSTIVE
Your list shouldn’t just include the most popular keywords (as these are likely to be more expensive too!) but you also want to consider ‘long tail’ keywords or phrases. These can be more specific and less common but they do account for the majority of search-driven traffic. They are also less competitive and so less expensive. By way of our cupcake example, ‘Cupcakes’ might be one of your keywords, however, ‘Chocolate cupcakes vanilla icing’ is an example of a ‘long tail’ keyword.
EXPANSIVE
This is a moving feat, you should never really ‘settle’ on your list of keywords, it’s important to look for ways to improve and expand your campaigns. A successful keyword list is constantly growing and adapting alongside popularity and competition.
How to do keyword research
BRAINSTORM
Put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes, what would they search for if they were looking for your product or service?
KEYWORD SEARCH TOOLS
There are lots of free keyword search tools online that you can use to test your brainstorm results. This one from Wordstream is handy and shows how high the competition is and what costs you might expect to pay.
Of course, our consultants here at Activ can take all this heavy load right off your shoulders or work directly with you and your business to devise the very best PPC campaigns. You need only ask!
