Invest in keywords that produce results
Choosing high quality, relevant keywords for your advertising campaign can help you reach the customers you want.
Be sure to invest in keywords that are producing results for you. To see if the keywords you’ve chosen are on the right track, answer these questions:
1. Are your keywords specific and targeted to the right people?
Your keywords should be closely related to what you’re advertising. The more relevant and specific your keywords are to what you offer, the more likely they’ll be to bring in customers for you.
Keywords of 2 or 3 words (a phrase) tend to work most effectively.
Let’s say that you’re advertising kids basketball shoes. How would you assess each of these potential keywords?
Keyword: Basketball – This is a very general keyword, and using it could make your ad appear for searches on almost anything related to basketball, like basketball scores or basketball videos. One-word keywords tend to be more competitive, might require higher bids, and—most importantly—won’t be likely to produce conversions.
Keyword: Basketball shoes – This is more specific than just basketball, but keep in mind that people searching this term might not be interested in shoes for kids. Instead, they might be searching for shoes for adults.
Keyword: Kids basketball shoes – This keyword is probably just right. It describes the specific product in question. And you can be confident that people searching this keyword are specifically interested in shoes for kids as opposed to shoes for adults.
Keyword: Cheap kids basketball shoes – This is a very specific keyword. If you sell basketball shoes at reasonable prices, this phrase could be worth including. Just keep in mind that if your keywords are too specific, they might not be searched that often.
2. Are you capturing the different ways people search?
To help you reach more customers, think of other terms and phrases people might search for to find your business. It’s a good idea to include other commonly used terms and word variations in your keyword list.
For example, customers looking for kids basketball shoes may be using words similar to kids, such as youth, boys, or girls—so you might consider adding keywords like:
- youth basketball shoes
- boys basketball shoes
- girls basketball shoes
Or, customers may be searching for athletic shoes or sneakers instead of basketball shoes, in which case you could add keywords like:
- kids athletic shoes
- kids sports shoes
- kids sneakers
3. Are you filtering out irrelevant terms?
You can filter out specific terms people might search for that aren’t related to your business. Adding a keyword as a negative keyword prevents your ad from being triggered when someone searches using that word or phrase.
For example, if you’re using the keyword basketball shoes, but you don’t sell adult basketball shoes, you probably don’t want your ad to appear when someone searches for men’s basketball shoes or women’s basketball shoes. In this case, you could add men and women as negative keywords.
We recommend having at least 3 negative keywords in each ad group. (You can also have negative keywords at the campaign level.) By filtering out searches that aren’t relevant or specific enough, you ensure that you’re only paying for clicks that bring in business for you
Do it: Add keywords
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Click the Keywords tab.
- Click the + Keywords button at the top of your keywords table.
- Select which ad group you’d like to add your keyword to.
- Add your keywords to the keyword box, one per line (your keywords can include multiple words).
Tip
You might see a list of keyword ideas to the right of the keyword box. Click the add link next to any keyword you’d like to add to your ad group. You can get an instant estimate of how many people use each keyword you add by clicking the Estimate search traffic button below the text box.
- Click Save.
Do it now: Add negative keywords
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Click the Keywords tab.
- Click the Negative keywords tab.
- You’ll see two tables: “Ad group level” and “Campaign level.”
- Add negative keywords at the ad group or campaign level by clicking the +Keywords button above either table. Use the drop-down to select the ad group or campaign that you’d like to add negative keywords to, then add one negative keyword per line in the text field.
- To add broad-matched negative keywords, you’ll need to add the plural version of these keywords in addition to the singular version, such as “wine” and “wines.”
- To add a negative phrase-matched keyword, surround the term with quotation marks.
- To add a negative exact-matched keyword, surround the term with brackets.
Keep in mind
Make sure that your negative keywords don’t overlap with your regular keywords, because this will cause your ad not to show.
- Click Save.
Automate your bidding to get more conversions
Managing your bids effectively is a big part of maximizing your return on investment.
If you’re new to online advertising, we recommend letting AdWords manage your bids automatically to bring you the most possible clicks within your budget. Automatic bidding is the simplest and most commonly used bidding strategy. It’s ideal for advertisers who don’t want to spend a lot of time setting bids.
Better yet, once you’ve set up conversion tracking, you can use automated bidding that uses your conversion data to bid even more effectively. AdWords will adjust your bids to get you the most conversions, while still staying within your budget. This can help you maximize your ROI even further.
To help you choose the right type of automated bidding, choose the option below that best applies to you:
I want to get the most possible conversions for my budget – To help drive more conversions, consider using Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature designed to get you more conversions at a lower cost. Based on your conversion history, it adjusts your bid to get you as many profitable clicks as possible. It sets higher bids for more valuable clicks and lower bids for less valuable clicks, while still staying within your budget.
With Conversion Optimizer, you set a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) goal—either the maximum or the average amount you’re willing to pay for a conversion.
I want to get more conversions, but still control my CPC – To help drive more conversions, consider using Enhanced CPC, a bidding feature designed to get you more conversions at a lower cost. It raises your maximum CPC bid by up to 30% or lowers it by as much as 100%, based on how likely that click is to lead to a conversion.If you’d like to increase your conversions, but are only comfortable paying 30% more than your existing CPC bid, then Enhanced CPC is a good choice for you.
Do it: Turn on Conversion Optimizer
To begin using Conversion Optimizer, your campaign should usually receive at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days. This conversion history enables the system to make accurate predictions about your future conversion rate.
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Select the Campaigns tab.
- Select the campaign name.
- Select the Settings tab.
- Next to “Bid strategy,” click Edit.
- Click the Focus on Conversions (Conversion Optimizer) radio button.
- Under Advanced Options, select either Max. CPA or Target CPA, and select either Start with recommended bidor select and set a custom bid. For campaigns that promote mobile app downloads, you can only set a target CPA.
- Click Save to finish.
Do it: Turn on Enhanced CPC
Note: Your campaign must have conversion tracking turned on for ECPC to work. If it’s not turned on, opting into ECPC will have no impact on your bids.
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- From your Campaigns tab, click the name of the campaign you want to work with.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Find the “Bid strategy” section. Click Edit.
- Click Advanced options, then click Enable Enhanced CPC.