Last Updated on: 22nd November 2023, 12:33 am
The success in any Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign lies in proper keyword research. It simply means choosing the best keywords that are clickable, searched by users, and can result in conversions. Naturally, you also have to understand your market or customers and analyse the keywords that they will most likely type in the search box. It’s the most effective way to make sure that your ads will show up when they look for the kind of products or services you offer.
Keyword research is a challenging task; it requires time and in-depth analysis. As much as possible, you shouldn’t settle for the most common keywords you can find because there’s fierce competition out there. To get you started smoothly, here are four keyword research tips for PPC campaigns.
Come up with a list of PPC keywords
Every goal needs a plan, and so does keyword research. The first thing you need to do is to decide the landing page/s (or regular web pages of some kind) that your ads will link to. To do that, analyse each web or landing page and gather relevant keywords found on that page/s. Let’s say that your website has high-quality, written content. Once the scanning is through, you should be able to come up with a comprehensive list of keywords that are related to your business.
Generally, there are four categories of keywords, and these are the following:
- Brand Keywords – Contain brand names and trademarked keywords.
- Generic Keywords – Product-related or service-related terms.
- Related Keywords – Don’t necessarily relate to your business, but what users use when searching for products or services related to what you’re offering.
- Competitor Keywords – Competitors’ brand names; businesses with similar products or services like yours.
Don’t be afraid to use keyword research tools
Keyword research tools sometimes seem a bit complicated to use, but they’re actually quite helpful. They make your searches faster and more convenient, and you get to harvest unique keywords for your campaigns. For your guidance, the most common keyword research tools are Google AdWords’ keyword planner, MOZ Keyword Explorer, SpyFu, UberSuggest, and SEMRush.
Make use of long-tail keywords
This type of keywords is not necessarily the perfect choice since it only gets fewer searches. However, in many cases using long-tail keywords drives specific laser-targeted web traffic. When users search with these terms, they know what they are looking for, hence, leading them to your web or landing page might be easier and faster. Additionally, there is less competition with long-tail keywords.
Utilise negative keywords
Negative doesn’t always mean bad; sometimes you can actually benefit from it, that’s why it’s good to utilise negative keywords from time to time. Using negative keywords is an effective way to protect your brand by preventing ads from showing up on irrelevant or offensive search queries.
For instance, if your business is about milk-tea, and you use the word “bubble,” it is best to place keywords related to bubble laundry or the likes in the negative keyword list. You don’t want your ads to appear on laundry-related searches.
Final Thoughts
There is no perfect formula when it comes to keyword research. It’s more of a trial-and-error basis; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The trick is doing it regularly while applying the mentioned tips to guide you along the way. Once you discover the ideal combinations – the perfect mix of your keywords – you can have more relevant and effective paid advertising campaigns online (if you’re new to PPC, you can also try other user-friendly marketing platforms such as Click2sell.co).
