Trying Find the Right Keyword Matches in AdWords

May 4, 2010 by jford
Filed under: Uncategorized

I really think that Brad Geddes and David Szetela hammered the point of keyword matching the best on their PPC Rockstars installment on April 12th, PPC Advice for Small Advertisers. Geddes talked about the importance of phrase and exact matching when starting out in an AdWords campaign, particularly if you are managing a campaign for the first time. I totally agree. Forever ago when I start my first AdWords campaign, I took for granted the keywords that I wanted to target, and went after then. I thought that all searchers identified the services we were offering searched how I did, or how I perceived them to search. Yes, I was wrong. Thankfully, now that I co-run a search marketing firm, I don’t make those mistakes anymore.

Phrase matching and exact matching in AdWords are a must to learn if you are to run a campaign. For reading on the differences between broad, phrase, and exact keyword match types, go to the AdWords help section on keyword matching. Often times, trying to find right keyword mixes within these match types is the key to getting quality traffic. And while you want to use phrase matching - sometimes it is hard to tell what variations on a phrase to get traffic. You may find that impression levels are low on the exact or phrase match you have selected. What if you are missing impression share?

Enter the See Search Terms tab in AdWords. I present the following example to demonstrate. Say we start an ad group with broad matched keywords, such as “paving company”. Keep in mind, that your ad could now show for “asphalt service”, “blacktop”, and “tar for my driveway”. Now, in terms of writing an effective ad, it is hard to create an ad that incorporates these keywords into it, and still maintains strong click through rate. Meanwhile, you are monitoring the keyword both at the campaign level and at the Google Analytics level, you are just seeing the performance of the keyword as “paving company”. See the problem? You are not getting a full view of how potential customers are searching for your services.

Now, to see the actual search terms that users are clicking on for your keyword “paving company”, check keyword, and then select “See Search Terms” column. You will now see good list of actual key phrases in which your ad was triggered. Seeing this list hopefully gives you intelligence on how potential customers are searching, and how your ad is performing. Most importantly, it should provide guidance on what ad groups to start so that you may write more tailored, keyword-saturated search ads. It should also trigger some ideas on keyword matching. You may now see enough data to start a new ad group that is centered on the keyword and search ads for “asphalt company”. Or, you may decide that is will be effective to place a phrase match on “paving company”, so that you ensure that your ads will be effectively targeted, and you will still show up for “lansing paving company”, while avoiding getting ads triggered for partially related terms.

To conclude, keep in mind that when you are viewing your keyword reports, users are not just searching in neat and tidy phrases. It is important to keep track of the exact phrases and variations that your ads are showing for, and the See Search Terms tab is a very helpful tool in deciding your match types for AdWords.

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