Keywords For PPC Campaigns

Keywords are starting point of your advertising campaign. Your ads are displayed when a web searcher types a search query that contains one of the keywords/keyword phrases that you have selected.

The general structure is that you choose the keywords to bid on, and select the bid amount.

The process starts with a search query at a search engine. For illustration we will use Google and the search query is "loft ladders".

This search will result in Google ads being shown down the right hand side of the page with the organic results shown on the left and covering most of the search result page.

Now leaving aside the ads themselves the first step is what causes the ad to display?

The answer is the search query itself.

The advertiser has chosen to display the ad when the searcher uses that search query loft ladders, or a search query containing those words in that query. These words are what is known as the keywords and the advertiser must choose which keywords to use.

Keyword Basics

Keywords/Keyword phrases can be General or specific. So for example:

The more general the keyword the more often people search for it, and the more specific the keyword the less often people search for it. Here are the Overture search results for March 2007.

Note: Overture no longer works I presently use the keyword tool that come with Adwords.

Choosing the correct keywords is the first part of the ad process. It is also the most critical.

When selecting keywords for your PPC campaign you will find that although general keywords will potentially generate more clicks they don't necessary generate more sales.

When creating your keyword list for Adwords you can use:

Broad match
phrase match
exact match

By default your Adwords will be in broad match format to create a phrase match you will need to surround the keywords with quotes, and for an exact match with square brackets.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords are keywords which you don't want to trigger your ad. The most common one is free. The reasoning being that people who want something for free are unlikely to buy what you are selling and so you don't want them to click on your ad. After all that click costs you money.

Negative keywords are often used in combination with general keywords to make the ad more targeted.

Related Articles:

• Google Adwords Guide
• Calculating Maximum Click Costs