Using the right keywords is an important element of any Google Ads campaign. Having the right keywords for your business can make a huge impact on the success of your Google Ads.
Keywords will directly impact attracting the right high quality traffic with a higher intent to buy. The aim ideally is to have keywords bringing in high traffic, with low competition. Keywords can also have an impact on using your ad budget effectively to maximise the ad spend for your ad campaigns.
In our blog post, we will look firstly at what we mean by keywords and the important elements to consider when choosing your keywords for your Google Ads to help make a keyword plan. This includes using the right approach to your keywords, keyword research and utilising negative keywords amongst other important areas to take into account.
Keyword Ideas
Firstly when referring to keywords this means the words or phrases related directly to the products or services that your business offers. There are different types of keywords which we cover in depth below in our blog post.
The first stage is doing your relevant research to compile a keywords list eg. in a csv file to consider for using for your Google Ads. This should be a mixture of keywords that have high search volumes and keywords that are more specifically related, as this search intent will likely have a higher buyer intent.
Doing your homework to research keywords will make a big difference to the success of your Google Ads. To generate new keyword ideas some areas that will help to do this include looking at your website to see the main words and phrases already used, as likely you would also be using these on the intended landing page for the ad campaigns. This is a good starting point.
There are keyword research tools that can aid in this, such as using the Google Ads Keyword Planner which generates a list of keyword suggestions, search volume and forecasts based on keyword ideas the user inputs. However, these keyword research tools often lack the in-industry knowledge required to pick the most appropriate related keywords.
It is also worth doing some competitor research to identify the keywords they are targeting and also not targeting. Your business may offer something more specific or different which makes it worthwhile to target keywords which your competitor isn’t.
It is a good method to find keyword ideas related to your products or services which likely have a high search volume, so could be worthwhile attributing ad budget to.
Cut The Jargon
When choosing the keywords for your Google Ads account, it is recommended to consider the way your audience would likely search for your products or services. They are unlikely to use uncommon jargon that would only relate to those working in the industry.
Take the time to research and consider how your potential customers would use search engines to find the solution to their problem. This will help to make sure your adverts and business are being shown at the right time, when they are looking for a business just like yours which offers the right products or services.
Within your audience, there will be variations for each given keyword on how people search on Google. For example spelling, synonyms or product names. Therefore it is beneficial to find popular keywords likely to be used by your potential customers to include. This will help to ensure your ads are shown at the right time.
Keep It Relevant
When looking to generate keyword ideas an essential element is using relevant keywords for each ad group, advert and landing page. It is important that the keywords used for targeting a Google Ad are also used on the landing page users would click through to.
For example, if the landing page focused on different words and phrases to the keywords used within the advert in the search bar, it would likely result in bounce back. This would be due to the landing page not providing the solution to their problem, causing them to look for the answer elsewhere, most likely your competitors.
Having relevant keywords throughout the ad campaign between the advert and landing page will also have an impact on your ad budget. Google assigns a quality score and ranking for Google Ads which impacts the cost per click. Therefore enabling an ad budget to be maximised further for your Google Ads.
If aiming to target specific audiences, products or services from your keyword research can be grouped into appropriate ad groups. This ensures that the adverts delivered for each ad group are targeted to the relevant keywords related to the specific product or service, without targeting irrelevant keywords for each advert running in the Google Ad campaign.
With this approach, whilst potentially the average monthly searches may be lower due to being more specific, the high level of relevant keywords could mean the number of enquiries is actually higher.
Broad Match Keywords
When looking at the in depth keyword research to find keywords relevant for your business. It is recommended to include a mixture of types of keywords for your Google Ads campaign. The initial setting are broad match keywords.
This will show Google Ads when the search relates to the keywords. Broad match keywords usually are the high volume keywords, helping to generate high traffic to your website due to likely having a high search volume. However, some users clicking through may be at an early stage in the sale funnel, therefore with lower buyer intent. Or it may mean they haven’t found their exact solution.
For example, your keyword could be ‘shoes’ which would have a high search volume, however, it could be shown for many related searches on Google. This could include ‘kids shoes’, ‘male sports shoes’ or ‘female shoes for a wedding’. If you offer a specific range of shoes, then having traffic click through for all of these searches could waste ad spend.
Broad Match Keywords are best utilised by more automated campaigns and ad groups due to their less specific nature. Platforms like Google Ads can base the information collected by your Broad Match keywords to help show ads at specific times of the day, or to certain demographics.
Long Tail Keywords
Broad match keywords are needed within a Google Ad campaign, however, it is useful to also include long tail keywords related to your products or services. These are usually several words that match to quite a specific search.
In the example above, this could be ‘wedding shoes female’. Due to these long tail keywords, it could result in the Google Ad being shown when a visitor on Google searches ‘female shoes for a wedding’. Whilst the search volume will likely be lower, it could be less competitive and therefore cheaper for bid costs.
Not only this, but due to the specific search the search intent is likely much higher and therefore would expectedly have a higher conversion rate, even though the overall search volume is lower than the broad match keywords.
We would recommend considering a mixture of both broad match keywords and long tail keywords for your Google Ads. This can then be tested and optimised based on the results to identify if this needs adjusting. The aim is to refine keywords to achieve a high volume, with low competition achieving the best click through and conversion rates.
Negative keywords
To help keep your keywords as relevant as possible, accounting for negative keywords is also important. This is identifying keywords that you do not wish your advert to appear for. It could be for products or services you do not offer but are related to other relevant keywords.
Utilising negative keywords can help to save ad budget by preventing adverts from being shown to an audience which is not going to convert to sales for your business. That saved ad budget can then be used elsewhere to benefit the ad campaign.
It is important to constantly review this to make needed adjustments, ensuring you are not including too many negative keywords and if any further ones need to be added as a result of your testing and optimisation.
How Can We Help?
We hope our blog post was useful to help advise on how to conduct your keyword research and choose the right keywords for your products and services. There are many factors involved in selecting the right keywords which should be regularly reviewed.
When chosen correctly this can help to deliver an impactful Google Ads campaign which maximises the ad spend and delivers high click through rates and conversions, to ultimately help grow your business.
At 1PCS Creative we are a Google Partner and have the right knowledge and experience to deliver impactful Google Ad campaigns. Please feel free to get in touch with one of our team to see how we can help.
Ben Webster
Creative director at 1PCS. Addicted to design, SEO, pizza and helping companies big and small succeed online.