Keywords for PPC

How to Choose the Right Keywords for PPC

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The return on investment of any successful pay-per-click (PPC) campaign heavily depends on keyword research. The better and more accurate the keywords are, the better are the chances of getting more clicks and conversions.

If done wrong, then you will be simply throwing your money away. However, choosing the right keywords for your upcoming PPC campaigns is not rocket science. To display your ads to the right audience at the right time, you will have to learn keyword strategies and techniques for efficient and successful campaigns.

In this guide, we will be discussing some points that you should keep in mind while selecting your paid search keywords.

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1. Have a Brainstorming Session

Brainstorming Session
Brainstorming Session

Brainstorming is important for any marketing campaign and PPC is no different. Take your time to write down all the relevant terms and phrases related to your products or brand. You can create different sections or categories of products that you offer and list the keywords for each.

You should think about brand terms that contain your brand name, generic terms that are often searched by users, and related terms to what you’re offering. This will ensure that you are not missing anything related to your brand and services.

2. Understand the Difference Between Good & Bad Keywords

Difference between good and bad keywords
Difference between good and bad keywords

Keywords and phrases must be highly relevant and specific to the products/services you are offering. From the pool of keywords you gathered in the first step, filter out the ones that are likely to display businesses exactly like yours.

Why so? Because the audience that comes through these keywords is already inclined towards buying those specific products. The bad key words are irrelevant to the content and the target, which deviates the visitor from the main aspect of content.

3. Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes

Put yourself in customers' shoes
Put yourself in customers’ shoes

To get the best keywords, you will have to think like your customers. Think about what you would search for on Google if you want to purchase gym equipment. Simply go in and type the phrase or words on Google that strikes your mind. You will see some results and that will help you target the right keywords for your audience.

4. Check Out Your Competitors

Check out the competitors
Check out the competitors

You can learn a lot from your competition. Check what keywords they are bidding most on, what they are ranking for, and what other things they are doing in the PPC world. There are certain great competitor PPC keyword research tools to gather this data.

From there, look for high-value keywords that could benefit you the most. This helps you outbid them to capture some high-value traffic. Pick up some keywords from here and add those to your refined pool.

5. Expand Your Pool with Keyword Research Tools

Expand your pool with keyword research tools
Expand your pool with keyword research tools

From Google’s own keyword planner to many more top-class tools such as Semrush and Ahrefs, you can use these to expand your list with some high-value keywords. By entering the terms you think that your audience might be searching for, you will get some really good suggestions along with their average monthly searches and bidding rates to compare.

By using this data, you can find the most relevant keywords as per your budget and add those to your target list to have some great potential keyword options.

6. List Different Variations of Keywords

Different variations of keywords
Different variations of keywords

Not all customers are the same and they use different terms while searching for your products or services. That is why it is important to have variations in your keywords. Variations can include different synonyms, singular/plural versions, alternative spellings, product names, etc.

What’s more? You can even include common mis-spellings as users might type some words wrong.

7. Refine Your List with Keyword Analysis Tools

Refine your list with keyword analysis tools
Refine your list with keyword analysis tools

It is important to expand your list so that you have a lot of good options available. After that, you need to refine it to narrow down the good to best. Using keyword research tools such as Keyword Planner, you can upload the list you created to get a detailed comparison of all your keywords. You can look at the number of monthly searches, potential impressions, average CPC, estimated CTR, and more.

You will find some high-value keywords, low/high-cost keywords, and more for your products and services. Take everything into consideration and start trimming the list of keywords as per your goals and budget.

8. Focus on Long-tail Keywords

Focus on long-tail keywords
Focus on long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are more specific and accurate phrases that users generally search. For example, a short-tail generic keyword could be “order cakes”, while a long-term keyword similar to this would be like “order cakes in Dallas”.

Approximately 70% of Google searches have 4-6 word long-tail keyword phrases. Such keywords are less competitive and are cheaper to get. As these are highly targeted, consumers searching for such keywords are more ready to make the purchase. So, craft some long-tail keywords as well in your PPC keywords pool.

9. Make Sure to Exclude Negative Keywords

Make sure to exclude negative keywords
Make sure to exclude negative keywords

Negative keywords are the terms and phrases that you don’t want your paid advertisements to show up in. In your Console, you can add negative terms to the list so that those are excluded.

For example, if you are selling cakes and using the keyword – delicious chocolate cakes, you can then add “recipes” to the negative keywords list to ensure that chocolate cake recipes don’t bring up your ad. In general, figure out the terms that are related to your keyword that you do not sell or offer and exclude those as negative keywords.

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10. Track Results, Spending & Measure Your ROI

Track results, spending, and measure your ROI
Track results, spending, and measure your ROI

The results should define how successful your PPC campaign is. By setting up proper tracking on your site, you can see how the keywords you selected are performing. You can set criteria of performance like how many number of clicks are converted into sales for a particular keyword.

By effectively tracking all the keywords, you can calculate the bidding amount, return on this investment, and other expenses. This will help you in modifying the keywords and you can also stop bidding on underperforming keywords based on the results.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Brainstorming session?

Brainstorming is important for any marketing campaign and PPC is no different. Take your time to write down all the relevant terms and phrases related to your products or brand. list the keywords for each. You should think about brand terms that contain your brand name, generic terms that are often searched by users, and related terms to what you’re offering.

What are good keywords?

The good keywords are highly relevant to the content, to the products and services what you provide. It also helps to engage the visitors.

Name the ways to choose the right keywords for PPC

1.Have a Brainstorming Session
2.Understand the Difference Between Good & Bad Keywords
3. Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes
4.Check Out Your Competitors
5.Expand Your Pool with Keyword Research Tools
6.List Different Variations of Keywords
7.Refine Your List with Keyword Analysis Tools
8.Focus on Long-tail Keywords
9.Make Sure to Exclude Negative Keywords
10.Track Results, Spending & Measure Your ROI

Time & Patience is the Key to Right PPC Keywords

As mentioned earlier, keyword research is one of the most crucial phases of any PPC campaign. If you don’t target the right keywords, you will be wasting a lot of money and time. But, if you follow the proper steps to find the pool of best keywords, PPC can be a game-changer!

Do not try to rush the process that we discussed above. Give adequate time to each point and be patient while creating your list. The efforts that you put into finding the perfect keywords will definitely pay off and you will see it in the form of increased conversions, sales, leads, and greater brand awareness.

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