As I’m preparing to launch a Google AdWords campaign, I’m learning about what makes a good keyword good and what makes a bad keyword bad. Relevance plays a big role in this decision.
One of the best “tips” I found in my research is 1) to give top keywords ample budget. Sometimes bidding on only a couple top keywords can be more effective than using your budget on several cheaper, lesser keywords. These keywords are usually top keywords because they perform the best.
I also read about 2) including ad extensions to your campaigns. An ad extension is something that expands your ad with additional information. This could be a phone number, location information, or links to specific parts of your website. Ad extensions do not cost anything extra and they have seen an average of 10-15% increase in click-through-rate.
Additionally, negative keywords can be very important. Essentially, you add a word that is not relevant to your service and it will avoid displaying ads on sites that are associated with that word. For example, if a dentist offers root canal services, he wouldn’t want his ad to inadvertently show up when people search for root canal malpractice. To avoid ever associating his name with that negative word, he adds the negative keyword of malpractice to avoid that situation.
Lastly, I learned that using keywords that are slightly misspelled can be very effective. Let’s be honest, not everyone out there is an English major and when we get typing quickly, it’s easy to make mistakes. For example, many people incorrectly spell the word sandals. Snatching up sandles or sandels could prove to be very effective so it’s important to keep an eye out for common misspellings.