In this installment of Breaking Down Google AdWords, I am going to be focusing on the root of the AdWords campaign, the keyword. As defined by Google: “keywords are words or phrases you choose to match your ad with corresponding user search terms and relevant web content on the Google Network.” Selecting high quality, relevant keywords for your advertising campaign can help you reach the customers you want, when you want. To get your ads to appear when people search for your product or service, the keywords you choose need to match the words or phrases that people use or should be related to the content of the website your customers visit.
Most people ask, “How many keywords should we have?” My answer to that is, let’s start with a great base of around 20 keywords. From that base we can start to make the necessary adjustments to optimize how your campaign runs. There are many ways to optimize your keywords which I can explain further. One way to make keywords work harder for you is the use of things called “keyword modifiers” or “match types.” You can use match types with your keywords to help control which searches can trigger your ad. There are four main match types: broad match, phrase match, exact match and negative match. Using broad match means the more traffic potential that keyword has; while the narrower the keyword matching option, the more relevant that keyword will be to someone’s search. Understanding the differences in these can greatly improve your return on investment (ROI).
While we use all of these match types at Baer Performance Marketing; we feel negative keywords can greatly help your campaign reach to the most interested customers, reduce your costs, and increase your return on investment.
With negative keywords, you can:
· Prevent your ad from being shown to people searching for or visiting websites about things you don’t offer.
· Show your ads to people who are more likely to click them.
· Reduce costs by excluding keywords where you might be spending money but not getting a return.
How about an example of negative keywords?
Let’s say you are a CNC machine shop looking for new clients and contracts. You have keywords which relate to your business and relate to searches that potential “money spending” clients are going to be searching to find you. On the other hand, if someone searches for “CNC Machine Jobs,” your ad will show up since it has the base keyword “CNC Machine” in it. “Jobs” would be a fantastic negative keyword in this case. This will help bring the type of people you want to your site and increase the effectiveness of your campaign.
As I’ve stated before, AdWords is the new age of advertising, however, if you don’t have a good grasp on it, it can be a big waste of time and money. Understanding the entire process is key to running a successful campaign which will bring back a ROI. Baer Performance Marketing understands the ins and outs of AdWords and is here to help. Contact us with questions or if you would like us to help customers find you using AdWords. Stop back for the next installment of Breaking Down Google AdWords when I explain the different types of campaigns which can be used.
