Keyword research strategies for PPC success
Keyword Research is the heart of any good PPC campaign.
When it comes to creating a new pay per click campaign, keyword research is one of the most important, valuable and high return activities in the whole process. Through the detective work of determining which keywords are most relevant and have the most demand, you learn not only which terms and phrases to target, but also more about your target audience as a whole.
Effective keyword research not only ensures that you are driving the most relevant web traffic to your website, but also, enables you to quickly respond to changing market conditions and predict shifts in demand. In the history of marketing, there has never been such a low barrier to entry in understanding the motivations of consumers in virtually every niche.
Every search phrase that’s typed into a search engine is recorded in one way or another. Today’s cutting edge keyword research tools allow you to retrieve this information efficiently and easily.
However, those tools cannot show you (directly) how valuable or important any given keyword might be to a website. To understand the value of a keyword, you need to research further, make some hypotheses, test, and iterate – the classic web marketing formula.
Think strategically when creating keyword lists
Keyword research tools provide valuable insight into the thinking of your potential customers. When users go to search engines and type out their search queries, they often use language that is entirely different from what you might expect.
Even if your product or service provides a solution they can use, they may start with a description of their problem instead. For example, someone looking for a new dress might simply type dress in the seach box first, and the next search might be for evening dress or black cocktail dress.
Searchers often go through a progression, with users trying certain searches, checking out different sites, refining their searches, and repeating this process until they finally find what they want. Taking the time to understand the typical search sequences will impact your keyword strategy and ultimately determine if you are capturing the best traffic.
Take the time to go beyond the surface and use keyword research to learn how your customers think, get your thinking in alignment with your target audience, and then build your PPC strategy around that.
Tips for building effective keyword lists
- Identify your target audience so you can determine what they are searching for. Think like a customer and try to use keywords that would match the search queries they would use.
- Group similar keywords into themes. This will help to show more relevant ads to potential customers by giving you better control of who sees specific ads. For example, if you add all your keywords and ads to one ad group, a customer searching for women’s evening shoes may see your ad about men’s tennis shoe
- Start with the right number or keywords. Start a handful of well-targeted keywords, 5 to 25 will do in most cases.
- Always include negative keywords. This will help block traffic from unwanted searches and make your campaign more targeted.
Get the help of a PPC professional
Pay-per-click advertising has become an important part of online marketing and it can be a highly effective way to drive traffic to your site. However, it takes a considerable amount of time and expertise to master. If you are new to the world of pay per click, consider hiring a PPC expert to help you avoid the many pitfalls that come with pay per click advertising. Silverback Marketing PPC experts can help to create profitable campaigns that generate high quality traffic and garner the best ROI.
Please contact us to learn how to maximize your PPC strategy today!
