The Right Words
Keywords are the seedlings of a search campaign – with just the right keywords, your campaign can grow into a success. So what are the right kinds of keywords?
Create a Keyword List
Let’s say, for example, you’re advertising a brand of organic coffee beans. As you build your campaign, start with ‘low hanging’ branded and generic keywords – they’re the ones that users are searching for with the intent to purchase and, therefore, the easiest to sell. Low hanging generic keywords, such as “buy organic coffee beans” are action-specific and will achieve higher ROI while search impressions will be lower. With branded low hanging keywords, the user is already searching for offers from your brand, so these terms will lead to the high conversion rates. Be sure to include ‘high hanging’ keywords as well, such as “organic coffee” which are research-based and require more work on your part to sell your offer. These keywords can bring in new business that will benefit your brand over time. Invest in a wide range of low and high hanging keywords to maximize the number of people you reach and meet your goals; not just for one campaign, but for the lifetime of the brand.
Refine Your Keyword List
Once you have a basic keyword list of branded and generic terms, remember to modify that list based on actual search queries. A great tool to use is Google’s Keyword Tool, where you can plug in a keyword and find matching search queries along with monthly search data for each. Knowing what users are actually searching (locally or globally) is helpful in pruning your keyword list.
Another way to refine your list is by using Google’s Insights For Search. Using “coffee” as the product for example, we can see that the top search term in 2011 is “coffee maker” and that a rising search for “coffee” includes “McDonald’s” (a possible competitor). These insights into what’s trending can help you tailor your keyword list to what users are looking for in their searches.
For a campaign to be a success, you don’t necessarily need a thousand keywords; you need the right kind of words.
