15 Tips: Comprehensive PPC Keyword Research Pay Per Click Marketing
According to the subject matter experts over at runrex.com, creating an effective keyword list is one of the most important parts of any successful PPC campaign as this is what will enable you to attract more clicks and appeal to your target audience, allowing you to achieve your marketing and business goals. This is why keyword research is the most important part of any successful PPC campaigns, and why this article will look to highlight 15 tips that will help you with the same.
- Start at your website landing page
According to the gurus over at guttulus.com, the first place to start when conducting keyword research is your website landing page. Here, you should go through each page and harvest any relevant keywords from the text, allowing you to put together a list of keywords directly related to your products or services.
- Know the categories of keywords
It is also important to know the various broad categories that keywords can be categorized into. These include brand terms which are the keywords containing your brand name and trademark terms, related terms which are the terms that don’t directly relate to what you are selling, but users who want your products or services may be searching for, generic terms which are terms relating to products or services you are offering, and competitor terms which are the brand names of competitors who are offering similar products and services to yours.
- Be careful with competitor terms
Now that you know the different categories of keywords, the experts over at runrex.com point out that bidding on a competitor’s brand terms can get quite expensive, and could lead to you quickly exhausting your budget. This means that, unless you have a big budget to play with or are running a campaign that is all about “conquering” your competition, you should think carefully before going ahead with this strategy.
- See things through the eyes of your customers
When in the initial brainstorming stage of your PPC keyword research, it is also recommended that you put yourself in your customers’ shoes for the best results. This means thinking of the kind of words and queries they are likely to type into the search box to bring them to your website.
- Start with broad keywords and move to specific ones
According to discussions on the same over at guttulus.com, another important tip when carrying out PPC keyword research is starting with broad keywords and then moving to the most specific ones. So, if you are selling women’s shirts, start with “shirts”, then move to “women’s shirts” and then go more specific with something like “women’s short-sleeves” depending on the shirts you sell.
- Don’t forget about variations and synonyms
Another tip that will help you carry out comprehensive PPC keyword research is making sure that you include variations and synonyms in your keyword list. This is because, while search engines may sometimes connect related terms, this is not always guaranteed. For the example above, variations and synonyms include “women’s long-sleeve shirts”, “women’s long-sleeve tees”, “women’s long-sleeve Ts” and so forth.
- Long-tail keyword phrases can bring specificity
Broad keywords, as explained over at runrex.com, can sometimes bring in users who don’t find your products or services to be relevant to them. For example, if you are selling women’s long-sleeved shirts, the broad term “shirt” can be used by people searching for other products like kid’s shirts or men’s shirts. This is why you should consider adding long-tail keyword phrases which, although they will get you fewer searches, the specificity they provide means that users will be more likely to click your ad and make a purchase. Additionally, they are also less costly given that they are less competitive.
- Include keywords that are related to your product or service
Another important tip that will help you with comprehensive PPC keyword research is making sure that include keywords that are related to your product or service. This will help you attract as many of your target audience as possible as you will be able to attract customers who are likely to be interested in your products or services.
- Concatenation
This technique, as explained over at guttulus.com, will help you to quickly expand your keyword list by merging columns of words with the help of tools like mergewords, Found’s Ultimate PPC Keyword Concatenation Tool, or the =CONCATENATE() command in Microsoft Excel.
- Include misspelled words
It is also important that people don’t always type in perfect English, which is why another tip is to include misspelled words as well as alternate spellings. However, if you are using Dynamic Keyword Insertion in your ad copy, don’t include misspelled keywords as this will lead to the misspelled keyword being included in your ad copy which will leave you looking unprofessional.
- Don’t forget about keywords that reflect how people speak
As explained over at runrex.com, given the increase in voice-led queries from people speaking into their mobile phones while searching for things on the go, it is also important that you include terms that reflect how people speak. For example, while “Chinese restaurants in Houston” may be the more traditional search query, someone searching on a phone may say, “where can I get Chinese food in Houston?”.
- Use keyword research tools to expand and refine your list
Once you have created a decent list of the terms you want to bid on, you should move to refine and expand the list with the help of the keyword research tools that are at your disposal. This will help you know which keywords to keep and which to discard. Examples of tools to use include Google’s Keyword Planner, WordStream’s Keyword Suggestion Tool, among others.
- Look for high-volume, low-competition keywords
According to the subject matter experts over at guttulus.com, you should be aiming for high-volume, low-competition keywords as these will drive significant traffic without costing you a lot, which is the sweet spot as far as this is concerned.
- Sort and organize your keywords
Once you have refined your list, you must sort it out into small, targeted groups of keywords closely related to each other. It is these groupings that will correspond to your ad groups in Google Ads, Bing Ads, and so forth.
- Don’t forget about negative keywords
Last, but not least, you should make sure that you don’t forget about negative keywords when creating your keyword list. These search terms will ensure that your ads only show up for relevant searches, helping you keep costs under control and ensure that your targeting is as accurate and relevant as possible.
The above discussion covers some of the tips that will help carry out comprehensive PPC keyword research. However, if you need more information on the same, or even help with your campaign, then don’t forget that the highly-rated runrex.com and guttulus.com have got you covered.