In the world of digital marketing, Google Ads remains one of the best marketing techniques to boost traffic, engagement, and conversions for your website, products, and services. If done right, (Pay-per-click) PPC ad campaigns give high ROI for the money spent on ads. So how do you leverage these benefits of Google Ads?
While there are many factors to consider for a solid ad campaign, your target keywords are the heart and core of your strategy. Your ideal keyword should check three boxes:
- It should be highly relevant to your product or service.
- It should have less competition.
- It should have a decent search volume (or average monthly searches).
To find such perfect keywords, you must get better at keyword research, which is what you’ll learn in this post. We’ll make things even easier by giving you a step-by-step guideline to perform keyword research for Google Ads efficiently, so let’s get right into it.
Step #1: Determine your landing page(s)
Relevant keywords ensure that your ads are displayed to relevant users – people most interested in purchasing your products. But the first step is to determine where you want to send those users through your ads, which is basically your landing page. The landing page is usually the page that contains the products you are advertising for. For example, an online fashion and clothing store may have many products – shirts, tees, denim, jackets, sweaters, hats, etc. You can’t use the same keyword for each of these items, so you have to figure out a different set of keywords for each product. So if you’re running a campaign specifically for men’s t-shirts, determine which page will be used for this item’s landing page. Only then can you start researching keywords for it. But if you want to drive traffic and conversions for women’s sweaters, again, the landing page for it and relevant keywords will be different. You want your ads to be targeted, taking the right people to the right page on your site. That’s why finding keywords for your Google ads depends on which landing page you want to advertise.Step #2: Determine your starting keywords
Once you’ve determined the landing page, the second step is easy. Just write down what the page is about, and that will serve as your starting keyword.
For a rental property page on a real estate website, the keywords could simply be “flats for rent in Austin” or whichever location you’re covering. For men’s t-shirts, the same phrase can be the keyword or a variation like “men’s tees.” So in this step, you simply need to write the words or phrases that best describe your product or service.
Step #3: Generating more keyword ideas (brainstorming + tools)
Keyword: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/
This is the stage where you do most of the work – to create a list of keywords for an ad group. Simply put, in this step, you make a list of multiple keywords for the same product or landing page.
Those of you who are quite new to PPC advertising may not know what ‘ad groups’ are or why you’d need many keywords for the same page or product. Here’s why:
- An ad group is a collection of ads that are all related to the same landing page. It’s obvious that if you want to maximize traffic and conversion for a specific product or service, you’d want to publish multiple ads for the same.
- So when you’re launching many ads for one product, it’s also better to target a different keyword with each ad, as long as each keyword is relevant. That is why you need multiple keywords for the same product or page.
With that said, let’s see what are some of the most effective ways to create more keyword ideas based on your starting keyword.
- Brainstorming
Initially, you can just start by brainstorming whatever other relevant keywords your mind can cook up. It’s even better when you’re working with a team, as more people means more ideas.
- Google search auto-suggestions
Google’s own search bar is an effective tool for keyword research. In the search box, type in the starting keyword that you determined in the previous step. You’ll see a list of suggestions from Google that are closely related to your keyword. The best part is that these suggestions are actually based on what most people type and search on Google!
- Use Google Ads Keyword Planner
Google Ads itself offers a powerful keyword research tool. Log in to your Google Ads account and head over to Keywords Planner. This tool generates various keyword suggestions for your page or product based on two inputs. You can either enter your starting keyword and get related keyword suggestions, or you can directly enter the URL of your product page, and the Keyword Planner will scan the page to generate a list of relevant keywords.
- Use other third-party tools
Plenty of other keyword generator tools are available online, all incredibly easy to use. Some of the popular tools are:
- Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
- Ahrefs Keyword Generator
- Soovle
- Ubersuggest
- Moz Keyword Explorer
Remember that some of these tools have limitations on the number of daily free keyword searches, so you’ll have to pay some subscription fees to run unlimited searches. No matter which tool you pick, the basic process is more or less the same. Enter your starting keyword, and the tool will generate further keyword ideas. Simple as that!
So use all these four methods to generate plenty of keyword ideas. At this stage, we’d suggest not to be too picky and just note down any keyword that you feel is related to your products and your starting keywords.
Step #4: Understand important keyword metrics and keyword types
Next up, you’ll have to focus on two important things – understanding important keyword metrics and the different types of keywords.
Keyword Metrics
There are mainly three keyword metrics you must know about:
- Average monthly searches/Search volume: It shows the average of number of times users have searched the keyword. Higher search volume means more people are searching for it, meaning the keyword can potentially bring more traffic through your ads.
- Competition/Difficulty: This number measures how competitive the keyword is. High competition value means many businesses and websites are bidding for the same keyword and vice versa.
- Cost-per-click (CPC): CPC shows you the average cost of bidding on a keyword. This is important to calculate your ad spend, as you can estimate how much it would cost if your ad gets a certain number of clicks.
Keyword Types
There are three types of keywords:
- Short-tail keywords: These are highly generic and broad terms that relate to a product. They usually have high search volumes but are also highly competitive and expensive to bid on. Short-tail keywords are best suited for larger businesses with bigger advertising budgets. Targeting these keywords brings you more traffic, but since the keyword is generic, it may also draw visitors who are not interested in your specific product.
Example: “Men’s tees,” “Running shoes”
- Long-tail keywords: These keywords are the exact opposite of short-tail keywords. They are long and elaborate phrases that refer to a specific product. Long-tail keywords are less competitive and cheaper to bid on but have quite a low search volume. However, people who search for long-tail keywords are specifically looking for your product, so they are more likely to convert.
Example: “buy men’s tees with custom print,” “running shoes without laces under $500”
- Medium-tail keywords: These keywords offer some balance between short- and long-tails. They are somewhat specific, though not as detailed as long-tail keywords, and also offer decent search volume with moderate competition.
Example: “Men’s tees large,” “Running sneakers for women”.
Knowing about the keyword metrics and types helps you determine which keywords better suit your budget and your objectives, whether it is to drive as much traffic to your site or drive a small number of highly relevant traffic that will convert easily.
Step #5: Make a list of finalized keywords
You should have a good collection of multiple keywords for each ad group from the above steps. Now it’s time to refine and finalize these keywords. And that’s where you need the knowledge and understanding of keyword metrics and types. Determine your objectives and what metrics would be ideal for them.
- How much search volume is acceptable for you to bid on the keyword?
- Is the CPC of the keyword well within your budget?
- What level of competition are you able to bid for?
- Which type of keyword would be the best choice for your targets?
Based on these factors, you can cut off keywords that do not align with your goals, even if they are relevant to your product. Do this for all keywords, and you’ll be left with a list of final keywords you’ll bid for.
Additional Tip: Understanding Match Types and Entering Negative Keywords
Apart from the 5-step guidelines above, knowing about keyword match types and negative keywords on Google Ads is essential. These things do not directly affect your keyword research, but it’s needed to get the best results out of your chosen keyword.
Match Types: Google Ads has three match types you can choose for your keyword – Broad, Phrase, and Exact match. These options instruct Google how closely you want your keyword to match with user queries.
With broad match, your ads will be displayed for your keywords and any other keywords and phrases that are somehow related to your keyword.
With phrase match, Google will display your ads for queries that are more specific to your chosen keyword.
An exact match will display your ads only for keywords with the same meaning as your chosen keyword.
Negative Keyword: When you enter a negative keyword in Google Ads, it will never show your ads for that keyword. For example, if your main keyword is “running shoes”, but you set “Nike” as a negative keyword, your ad will not show to people who search for “Nike running shoes.” Negative keywords are a great way to prevent your ads from showing up for irrelevant terms, which gives you better control over ad visibility and cuts down your ad spend.
Benefits of Keyword Research
Now that you’ve learned a lot about keyword research for Google Ads, let’s take a look at its benefits and why it’s the core of your PPC ad campaigns.
- Improve Conversions
With proper keyword research, your ads can target people who are highly interested in your products and already searching for them. Such users are already ready to make a purchase, so they are easier to convert.
- Plan your Budget
Through keyword research, you’re able to analyze the CPC of keywords. By researching the bid price of a wide variety of keywords, you can plan the right advertising budget for your business.
- Better ROI
The metrics like search volume, CPC, and competition help you to determine the right keywords which bring good traffic and are cheaper with low competition. Such keywords reduce your ad spend while also increasing sales and conversions, which can give huge ROI.
- Beat the competition
The better you get at finding the best keywords, the easier it becomes to beat your competitors. Maybe your competitors are missing out on some potential keywords, which you can uncover through comprehensive keyword research. Such untapped keywords will give you maximum value for your money, as they will have little to no competition.
Conclusion
Keyword research is crucial for PPC ad campaigns because Google Ads revolve around keywords. That is why determining the best keywords for your ads should be the number priority, and now you have learned to do it through our simple 5-step process:
- Decide the landing page for your ads.
- Your starting keyword will be the name or description of your product/service.
- Generate more related keywords based on your starting keyword, using tools from Google and third parties.
- Analyze the keyword metrics, and determine which type of keyword is ideal for your ads.
- Finalize your list of keywords by removing those that do not match your requirements in terms of type and metrics.
So get started with keyword research right away, and we’re certain that it will greatly improve the efficiency and results of your Google Ads campaign.
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