By Martin Schneck
PPC is the primary component of online advertising. It’s a simple way to show your ads on various websites, paying based on the number of clicks the ad receives. We discuss PPC campaigns quite often here at eZanga, considering we offer online advertising services.
It’s also quite an important concept to know about in today’s marketing world. So we like to keep up on our stuff.
Success in the PPC landscape is reliant on many things, such as high-quality ads, careful choice in networks, strategic campaigns, and ad testing. But none of these things matter if your ads can’t reach the right people.
That’s where keywords come in.
Keywords?
In our main PPC article, we discussed some of the importance of keywords. But it all goes so much deeper than that.
As you already know, when you plan your ad campaign, you need to specify when you want people to see your ads. This is the purpose of a keyword. Whenever someone searches for your keyword (for example: Fish), your ad (for, let’s say, Fish Tanks) has a chance to pop up.
There are different types of keywords available when you plan your ad campaign. By default, most providers use a broad match method. So, continuing with the example above, your ad will pop up if “Fish” appears in any form or tense anywhere in the search phrase.
This way, similar searches are included in one keyword, which allows you to reach the largest audience. Hence, broad match.
How efficient!
Or maybe not. What if you are selling specifically catfish tanks, and the broad match method causes your ad to come up for someone who is searching for goldfish tanks?
This is where using exact keywords can help you.
Using Exact Keywords
By setting exact keywords, you can tell your advertising network to ignore any other variations. You can also set bits and pieces of your keyword phrase as exact, leaving the rest broad match.
Back to the fish tank thing. Let’s say you set your keyword phrase as “+fish tank” in AdWords. This way, “fish tanks” is also included as a viable option. Maybe even “fish bowl” or “large blue fish tank,” or other variations.
The important part is that the word “fish” will always be a requirement for your ad to show up.
You can also use exact match keyword phrases to really segment your searches. If you set the whole phrase “fish tanks” as an exact keyword phrase, your ad will only show up if that exact phrase, nothing more and nothing less, is searched.
I really don’t like fish, I’m not sure why I keep using this example.
Anyway, exact keywords are quite important in segmenting who views your ad. While broad outreach is always nice, it can be quite bittersweet if people clicking your ad don’t really want your product. That’s a net loss.
Optimizing Exact Keywords
Because we’re not telling you to always use them. In some instances, broad match keywords can be quite beneficial for you and your ad campaign. But we are telling you to at least consider using them, at least sometimes.
Why? As we mentioned, it can be a great way to segment your markets. If you know which people you want to cater to, and what they search, you can narrow down specific customer personas by setting exact keywords for them.
If you really want to get down to the nitty gritty, you can create different ads and landing pages for these specific customer sets.
Another common strategy is to bid higher on your exact keywords. If I search for “catfish tanks” and your goldfish tank ad comes up, I may still be interested in that. But if I search for “catfish tanks” specifically, you want to make sure I see that ad.
Do this by bidding higher. Because your ad better matches the keyword, it should garner a higher quality score. This, in addition to a higher bid, will get you much better ad placement.
So when I search for your exact keyword phrase, I’ll be more likely to see your ad, which caters to me quite well.
You should also see higher conversion rates with these people, as your advertisement matches their exact web search.
The only downside is that you have to make sure you include separate keywords for any acceptable variation in your keyword. If you have “fish tanks” as a keyword, you need to also include “fish tank” or “goldfish tanks” if you want your ad to appear on those searches.
Ultimately, there are many tools you can use to fine tune your PPC campaign and make it as efficient as you can. Keywords are definitely one of the most important tools available to you. A keyword master can produce very good results in their campaign.
And knowing the different keywords strategies is only half the battle. Different strategies work for different people. It’s up to you to test them out.
Yay for testing!
Exact Keywords in AdWords and AdPad
Each platform has a different way of utilizing exact keywords. In Google AdWords, for example, it’s a matter of using +plus signs and [brackets].
As mentioned in the Exact Keywords section above, plus signs identify specific words that you want to always appear in that specific form in a qualifying search. By identifying “+fish tanks” as a keyword, “fish” will always be required in the search field, while “tanks” can come in different variations. So your ad can appear if someone searches “fish tanks”, or even “giant purple fish bowls.” As long as “fish” is in it.
Brackets, meanwhile, are used to identify exact phrases that much be searched for your ad to appear. If you set [fish tanks] as your keyword in AdWords, then your ad will only appear if someone searches for “fish tanks.” Not “blue fish tanks,” not even “tanks fish.”
In AdPad, eZanga’s own advertising platform, the method is slightly different. When you add new keywords to a campaign, there’s a simple drop-down list. If you want your ad to appear for a specific, exact keyword phrase, you just select this Go to the full article.
Article Curated From…: Business2Community