Pay Per Click Marketing Basics, Focused Keywords

Patrick Yuan - 1.10.2011 5:00 PM

The most important aspect of your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign is always getting conversions whether they are direct sales, leads, or even views of a key page. Without properly focused keywords you are probably throwing a lot of money away. Here are some tips to help you start your campaign with a clear keyword list and continue to refine it into a well-oiled machine.

Your initial keyword research should revolve closely around your products and services, the more focused the keyword is the more likely it will lead to a conversion. Lets say you are an animal shelter with puppies for adoption based in Denver, CO. For simplicity purposes we will say you are using geo-targeting of the Denver metro area (if you have questions about geo-targeting please feel free to contact us!). The keyword “puppies” is going to have a lot of tempting search traffic, however many of them are not looking to adopt a puppy. They could be looking for images or videos, wanting to learn more about puppies, or even looking for breeders. Bringing these people to your site is a waste of money.

Focusing your keywords to be more specific will help you bring in the traffic that you are looking for. A keyword like “puppies for adoption” or “puppies who need a home” may not have nearly as much search traffic but it is all relevant search traffic. This will cut your cost per lead down astronomically.

Also having a list of negative keywords that don’t match your products and services will help spare you from spending on irrelevant clicks. While your keyword may be “puppies for adoption,” if you don’t set parameters then it will show up for searches like “kittens and puppies for adoption” or “puppies for adoption Texas.”  If you don’t have kittens then they should not be part of your PPC campaign. For locations that you don’t serve, it makes sense to block this traffic as well (you can do this through geo-targeting as well).

From your initial list of keywords you will start getting relevant data back about how well they are performing. While click through rate (CTR) is an important metric, you shouldn’t get too absorbed in it. If the keyword is converting at a high percentage with a low cost per lead then maybe you need to rework the ad copy to try to increase the CTR. If a keyword is getting a lot of clicks but has a low or non existent conversion rate you may want to consider getting rid of it.

Another great way to improve your keyword list is by viewing the keywords that people are using to find you. If you view the search terms and see words that don’t make sense to your services, add them as negative keywords. Conversely if there are keywords in this list that are bringing in conversions that are not actual targeted keywords, ad them to your campaign to make sure you appear every time someone makes that search.

While this is a rather simplistic view to focusing your keyword list, it is a great start. Keep in mind that there are other factors involved, and the longer you let your keyword data collect, the more accurate your numbers will be. While PPC is more immediate than search engine optimization (SEO), it still takes time to get everything fine tuned. If you would like to learn more about PPC or any have any questions about this information, please contact Webolutions!
 

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