Keywords – Where Pay Per Click Campaigns Begin!
© 2006 John H. Dow

The first and one of the most important aspects of PPC success is choosing the right keywords under which to place your advertisements. The PPCs are strict in their rules about the relationship of your web page content and the keywords under which you want to list. This should be your concern as well since traffic looking for information on Britney Spears will do little for your water-filter sales site. 

Even if the PPCs let you list under inappropriate keywords, you would be doing your self a disservice. The whole concept of the PPCs is to get “interested prospects”, not just traffic. You want the visitor to be a potential buyer who is interested in your product or service. That dramatically increases your chance for making a sale.

How do you come up with the best keywords to list under? 

The keywords you bid on should be the same keywords you have in your mega tags. When you developed your web site, you probably did research and analysis to come up with some good descriptions of your product or service. These are the keywords, or phrases, that people might use to find your site in the search engines.

If you are an affiliate (you sell other people’s products for a commission), the same methods apply. Look at the keywords that the product owner uses in his/her web site. This is a good starting point and can help you come up with related keywords. 

Another technique that works but is often overlooked is to grab a trusty note pad and pencil and write out the words you might use to describe the product or service you are selling.

There are also many free tools available that can help you find associated keywords to your original list. One of my favorites is Good Keywords is free Windows software tool from Softnik Technologies for finding the ideal set of keywords for targeting your web pages. Use Good Keywords to find suitable keywords sets, create your meta tags, brainstorm product ideas, etc. This is a great tool for keywords. You can download from this url: http://www.goodkeywords.com/

One of the most common mistakes most beginners make is not to drill down far enough on the keyword analysis. Dig deep, and keep it focused on your subject matter. The more you can drill down on your keywords, the more targeted the visitor will be to your site.

And since you are paying for these visitors, you better make sure that they are as qualified as you can make them with the proper keywords. Even your conversion rate can be heavily influenced by the quality and accuracy of your subject matter (conversion rate is how many visitors buy in relationship to just visit).

INSIDER TIP: Once you have a list of keywords, be sure to visit a site like Merriam Webster Online (http://www.m-w.com/home.htm) and look up the synonyms for the words you wrote down. 

Last, you can let the PPCs help you choose keywords. You can generally look at all the terms and numbers that people search under at that PPC. If the particular PPC does not offer that feature, try another. You can harvest a wealth of competitive information by seeing what keywords others have chosen and how much they consider each click to be worth.

By now you should know what keywords and phrases are searched for most often along with a breakdown of how many times a week, month, etc. each one is used. You should break them down into groups of 25 or less to better write your ad to match. 

Make a list by group of the keywords from the list you just created. Then do a request on each one to see how many searches each word generates and what the current costs are for each of the keywords. Most PPCs report not only the keyword results but also any search with that keyword in the phrase.

Keeping each group in tightly targeted keywords allows you to keep your advertisement focused on those few keywords. Often times you have 1-3 words used in many of the keyword phrases. You can then make sure that those exact keywords or phrases are actually in your advertisements. 

Your add should match the keywords as tightly as possible to increase your CTR (click through). Google Adwords will reward higher click through with lower click costs. After your adgroup has run for a while, and if you get a good click through rate (4.0 and above), your cost usually goes down.

Determining good keywords is the first step in a successful Pay Per Click ad campaign. Make sure you spend the time necessary to do proper research and analysis on your keywords. Always try and drill down as far as possible and keep your adgroups to 25 or less keywords.

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