Keyword Research Tips for Your Paid Search Campaigns

In the spirit of optimization, we often sit in on online seminars about new technologies or topics important to our industry. Gotta keep this machine well-oiled! I recently sat in on a search marketing web seminar that was all about keyword research. Now, as these things tend to be, it was largely a sales pitch. Hrmpf. But, it did provide a nice reiteration of some best practices (so quick nod to the host of the webinar, paid search reporting platform, ClickEquations).

This inspired me to spread the continuing education love and share some small steps you must be taking in your keyword research and selection to make your paid search advertising campaigns successful.

Before you set up a campaign, you always start with your planning phase—the volume research, the competitive analysis, etc. This is an important phase. More important, though, is what comes after you launch your campaign: the keyword optimization. It’s important that you keep an eye on your keywords, measure performance, and use your findings to perfect your paid efforts.

Things to look for during the keyword optimization phase:

Absolutely review your search query reports regularly

• This tells you what detailed searches your visitors are actually finding you through and can drive a lot of your decisions regarding bidding strategies, budgets, negative keywords and more.

Look for themes and opportunities to break out campaigns or ad groups

• Your search query reports should start to reveal some behavioral trends among your visitors and give you ideas about how to narrow down your messages into more targeted ad groups.

Implement Exact Match on well-performing words

• Noticing standout data on a few keywords in particular? First, nice work! Now make those words work harder for you. This is a good time to implement exact match if you’re not already, and break it out into its own group so you can bid with a little more freedom and confidence.

Finally, just generally remember to think like the consumer. Remember, you are one yourself! Consider how people outside of your industry think and the language they might choose. Look at your keywords and consider alternate ways to say them. Are there any detailed keyword phrases that you could bid on that might not attract volume but just may pull in highly qualified traffic?

While simple concepts, there’s no denying that these steps aren’t quick. They do take patience and a bit of a time investment. But apply the TLC, and the return should be rewarding.