Generating Sales: Selecting Keywords
- Top 5 guidelines for creating keywords
- Advanced techniques for generating keywords
- Organizing keywords into campaigns and ad groups
Top 5 guidelines for creating keywords
- Try to predict what your customers will type in as a search query when searching for what you sell. (e.g. customers looking for a book might search for “Da Vinci Code” or “paperback special offer”).
- Choose more keywords than less to improve your chances of being found.
- Generate keywords with multiple words (e.g. “buy diamond ring online”).
- Periodically add new keywords and remove the non-performers to keep your account administration at a manageable level.
- Use the Find Keywords panel in the Choose Keywords page.
Advanced techniques for generating keywords
Use the buying cycle: Customers perform searches while they are at every stage of the buying cycle (from researching to shopping to purchasing). Think about keywords that will attract customers at each stage (from “car” to “sports car” to “German sports car”).
Select niche keywords:Strike a balance between popular (frequently searched) keywords and niche keywords. Niche keywords with little or no competition generate a small amount of traffic, but the traffic can be targeted and may come at a very low price. (e.g. ”8 megapixel digital camera”) or “12x zoom digital camera”.
Analyze your site:One of the best places to look for ideas is your own web site.
- Look through all the pages of your site and identify the words that are most relevant and interesting to your customers.
- Review your product names and descriptions for ideas.
- Check your web server logs to identify the keywords that are leading visitors to your site.
- If you want to sell products online the destination for your ad should be the online shopping area of your web site—even better would be the deep link to the product the user was searching for.
Organizing keywords into ad groups and campaigns
To keep your account organized, you can pool your keywords into ad groups and your ad groups into campaigns. An ad group contains a set of keywords that apply to a single ad (title, description and URL).
Example: How to organize keywords into ad groups and campaigns.
| Keywords | Ad Group | Campaign |
|---|---|---|
| DVD recorder HD DVD recorder |
DVD recorder | DVD devices |
| DVD player Portable DVD Pocket DVD |
DVD player | |
| SLR Digital SRL Affordable SLR |
SLR | Digital Cameras |
| Digital Camera Digicam 8 Megapixel |
Digicams |
Example: How to associate keywords with ads (title, description and URL)
| Keywords | Ad |
|---|---|
| DVD player Portable DVD Pocket DVD |
5% Discount on DVD Players Portable and stationary players. 5% discount when you order online. www.electronics-planet.com |
| SLR Digital SRL Affordable SLR |
5% Discount on Digital SLRs Digital SLRs from 5 to 10 megapixels. 5% discount when you order online. www.electronics-planet.com |
Ad groups help improve efficiency by enabling you to manage one ad for multiple keywords. You can even start testing multiple ads within an ad group to determine which message attracts the most leads and/or converts at the highest rate. Learn more about ad testing.
Determining how many campaigns and ad groups you need depends on the size and complexity of your business. Consider the following divisions when organizing your account:
- Product variations (DVD player, DVD recorder, DVD HD recorder).
- Product class or family (books, hardcover, soft cover, thriller, sci-fi).
- Products (shoes) vs. services (shoe repair).
- Products that have one attribute in common (shipping region, price, discount).
- Buying cycle for a particular product.
- Trials of new keywords.
- Seasonal keywords.(Christmas, summer clearance)