Every online marketing campaign starts with keyword research for its successful execution. Keyword research takes you closer to the search terms your target audience is using.
Google Ads campaign is an inorganic way to list your business on top of Google search results. While SEO works organically, ad campaign enables businesses to appear in front of their target audience’s search results through paid ads.
However, lead generation through Google Ads isn’t as simple as just paying for the space and listing your ad in the space available. Many factors determine the success of the ad displayed. Think of answers to questions like:
When will my Google Ad appear in the search results?
For how long will my Google Ad appear?
Does the description and heading of Google Ad matter?
Who will click on my Google Ad?
The answers to all these questions lie in keyword research. Keyword research is essential to control when your Google ad appears. It also helps in writing killer Google Ad content that makes it clickable.
Any guide on how to perform keyword research on Google Ads will take you through the keyword research process. However, it fails to provide an in-depth study of why is a certain step being performed.
In this article, we will know the right ways to perform keyword research for Google Ads. Keyword Research for Google Ads isn’t just limited to correctly using the Google Keyword Planner. You can take many other actions to ensure your Google Ad performs effectively.
Here is a list of all the neglected steps involved in keyword research.
Know about keyword match types
Keyword match types save a lot of your marketing budget. Through keyword planner, one can know the different keyword combinations. But it’s futile without knowing the importance of different keyword match types.
To keep it short, there are three match types – broad, phrase, and exact. By default, Google Ads consider broad match type keywords for Google Ads, which are the least restrictive and most expensive. This means using broad match type keywords will trigger your ad to anyone that uses even slimly related keywords in the search query. Such keywords aren’t affected by close variants.
On the other hand, the phrase match keyword is slightly affected by close variants. It controls your Google ad visibility moderately and is suitable for low to medium-budget marketers. Exact match restricts your ad visibility to the maximum and is the most affordable of the three.
Source: support.google.com
To change the match type for a given keyword, follow in the Google Keyword Planner:
Select the keyword
In the edit panel, select the match type (broad, phrase, exact) from the drop-down menu).
Alternatively, you can add the given keyword match symbol around the keyword to let it behave accordingly.
Make use of the Google search console
Google Search Console (previously known as Webmaster Tools) is an analytics tool that measures the performance of your ad as well as your website. It gives insights into search traffic as well as fixes the common issues related to site performance. It can be an important tool for keyword research.
You only need to enter your website URL to get started on the Google search console.
Source: search.google.com
Marketers can easily gather essential keyword metrics through Google search console like which keywords are performing well and which aren’t.
Know your business goals
Do you have your business goal clear in your mind? Ask yourself what you are trying to achieve by placing your Google Ad. When you start your Google Ad campaign through Smart Mode, it asks you to mention your motive.
Are you looking forward to getting more website visits? Are you aiming at increasing sales? Are you aiming at more subscriptions?
Your business goal influences the type of keywords you need to incorporate in the business Google ad. For instance, a Google ad aiming at an increase in sales would include keywords like ‘Get 50% off on footwear.’ Google ads aiming at subscriptions would read a ‘Subscribe to our newsletter to get daily news.’
Knowing the motive behind the Google ad placement is important before searching for the keywords in the keyword planner.
Analyze your competitor’s Google Ads
This is a smart tip to rank your ads above your competitors. Many businesses are bidding over the same keyword. You have to have a lot of budget to bid for high-ranking keywords or work smartly.
Look at the keyword your competitor is using in Google ads. Use keywords that are closely related to the focus keyword, and not as popular. This will save your budget as such keywords are cheap. Use the broad match type with such a keyword, and you would gain a lot of traction without spending much.
Keep a close watch on the keyword your competitors are targeting. Also, on their landing pages. You can use third-party keyword research tools for this purpose.
Use ad groups to group your keywords
Improve your Google Ad quality score with ad grouping. The lesser-known strategy to optimize your keyword research, ad grouping allows you to group relevant keywords.
One should start with the top-level keyword grouping. These are the main keyword related to your offering. For instance, for a balloon decoration business, ‘balloon decoration’ is a top-level keyword. Add it into a separate group to differentiate it easily from other keywords like ‘birthday decoration’.
Similarly, create subgroups of keywords. Taking the similar example ‘balloon decoration’, the subgroups would be ‘anniversary’, ‘birthday’, ‘baby shower’, ‘bachelorette’ etc. These can further be sub-grouped into ‘terrace’, ‘home’, ‘hotel’ and more. It can function as a long-tail keyword like ‘anniversary balloon decoration at home’ when put together.
Next, optimize your keyword groups. Optimizing them will ensure they match with close variants like singular/plural, synonyms, misspellings, stemming, and more. For instance, the Google ad will appear even if the search query says ‘bachlerotte balloon decornation’ instead of ‘bachelorette balloon decoration.’ Thereby, considering misspellings.
Expand and refine your keyword list
The main aim of keyword research is to keep your keyword optimized. Keyword research isn’t a one-time task but an ongoing process.
The more you keep a look at the changing keyword trends, the better a Google ad could perform. Keep expanding your keyword list to make it still relevant. Keep researching and upgrading your user intent, and incorporate keywords accordingly. Expanding the keyword list also means making it add its close variations.
For instance, a motorcycle may be an obsolete keyword. Update it with motorsport or similar keywords that are ranked higher.
Keep a look at Google algorithm updates
Google is constantly updating its algorithm to make the top search results as useful to the searchers as possible. Through its updates, it keeps irrelevant and duplicate content at bay.
If you see a sudden drop in your website ranking, it may be due to a recent Google algorithm update. Google algorithm updates come in almost every month or so. Such updates highlight what type of content Google wants to appear on the top pages.
To keep your Google ad relevant, it is important to keep updating your Google ad as per Google algorithm updates. Ultimately, this also brings down to making sure you are using the right keywords at the right place at the right time.
Remove keywords that are no longer relevant, and remove the overly long tail keywords that show lower search volume.
Common mistakes to avoid when during keyword research for Google ads
Mistake 1: Refrain from searching for your own Google ad
Checking your own Google ad by using related search query way too many times may negatively hamper your PPC rate. The ad would have false impressions and will alter the PPC conversion rates.
Mistake 2: Using only one type of keyword match type
Using broad keyword match types to get the most clicks is not a smart keyword research strategy. Instead, it is suggested to use a mix of broad, phrase and exact match keywords to balance the budget and reach at the same time.
Mistake 3: giving too much importance to search volume
While search volume is an important indicator of high-volume keywords, it isn’t the only metric you should focus on. To keep your budget and ROI in check, use the right balance of search volume, relevance and competition to achieve a stable return on investment.
Mistake 4: Not monitoring and optimizing the keywords
Keywords research is a continuous process that requires constant monitoring and optimization. You should regularly monitor the performance of your Google ad campaign and how each keyword is performing. Keyword relevance is subject to changes, which should reflect in the campaign as and when required to keep your ad relevance intact.
Covering all the aspects of keyword research from using keyword match type, Google search console, Google Analytics, grouping ad keywords to optimizing keywords frequently is key to Google ad optimization.
Image source: 8photo
