Keywords are as important for your Adwords(now Google Ads) campaign, as they are for the search engine optimization of your website. Therefore, knowing how to choose keywords for Google Adwords is as much important as it is when you are optimizing your content.
We have published an article in which we’ve covered what is Google AdWords if you still don’t know. If you want, you can check out the ins and outs of using Google AdWords.
There is one key factor when choosing the right keywords for an Adwords campaign.
You need to know your customers.
You have to know what type of people they are, what their interests are, and most importantly how they use Google Search. What are people looking for when they end up buying products like yours? How often do they search for it? How exactly are your customers typing their queries, questions, and searches?
To find out how to choose keywords for the Google AdWords campaign you can use the so-called Keyword Planner.
Google AdWords Tools to Find Keywords
In order for you to find the right keywords for an ad campaign, Google has incorporated the so-called Keyword Planner in the tools that you can use for free with AdWords. Thus, it is not that hard to find the right keywords.
By using the Google keyword planner you can find what people are searching for, how exactly are they typing it in the search field, and what is the average number of searches for a specific keyword, related to your business.
On the other hand, to properly take advantage of these features, you need to know what is the main keyword of your business. And, of course, the synonymous words that people are using to find your business.
For example, when you are looking for Free Hosting, you can search for, well, ‘free hosting’ but also ‘Gratis Hosting’. They can use words like complimentary(although it has a slightly different meaning), chargeless, costless, free of cost, and so on.
And while each of these searches may lead to the page that you want them to lead to, when starting an ad campaign it will be better for you and your budget to use only the words that are really close to what you are doing, and do have big enough search volume for the investment to be worth it.
Google Keyword Planner will surely help you to find the right keywords. Still, it is not the only thing that you should take into consideration when starting a campaign.
Let’s find out how to choose keywords for your next search campaign.
How to Choose Keywords for Google AdWords
Get in Your Customer’s Shoes
There is no product or service that we buy for the sake of owning it. What we choose to pay for is caused by deeper reasons. We are paying for premium products to boost our social status, and we pay more plum for the sink to be unclogged. When you are buying food, you are either already hungry, or choose to get it in advance to prevent being hungry in the near future.
Meaning, more often than not, we don’t know what exactly we are looking for. Especially when there are a number of possible solutions to the deeper need that we have. Our social status is often demonstrated through the clothes we are wearing, and the material goods that we own could be raised through a large number of different goods like vehicles, phones, clothes, etc.
But when we buy for our status to be raised, we hardly notice that as the reason behind the purchase. Yet, when we buy food, we know that we are not buying it for any other reason than fulfilling our hunger.
Therefore, you need to know why people are buying your products. Is it a confidence booster? Is it a status booster? What needs is your product fulfilling?
For example, no one is buying books, because they want to own a pile of paper, shaped like a rectangle. We are buying books to educate ourselves, explore, dream, live another life, to entertain ourselves. Maybe people that are looking to enhance their careers will search Google for exactly that. And maybe, if your bookstore has a book that could satisfy that need of your customers, this is what you need to write in your ad copy for the book.
Do: In your Google AdWords campaign, add keywords that are targeted to the result/s that people are looking for, when they’ll use your product. Don’t settle only for features and descriptions.
Be Specific
The better you pick the keywords you will use for your ad campaign, the easier you will find suitable customers.
Every industry has its words to describe specific products, features, and results. Being more akin to your industry will help your potential customers to find you. Furthermore, doing so will make your ads more relevant to your website.
Google AdWords, is working in such a way that the more relevant your ads are to the content of your website, the better performance, and lower overall price your campaign will have.
Every ad copy should be correctly targeted to a product/service that you offer. The more products you have, and the more ways people could call these products, the more ad copies you should have.
Each of the Ad Groups that these copies are attached to, should have its set of specific, relevant keywords.
On being specific in your AdWords campaign, we can, and should, add something more. We should add a location.
When people are looking for an attorney or a plumber they need them to be in a specific location. We need a plumber in our or a close neighborhood, and the attorney to be at least in the same city. Even for online services, more often than not, people are choosing those, who are in the same country.
That is why, it may be good for your campaign to add a location, thus, making it even more specific.
NB! Adding a location to your ad copies is a move that depends on the essence of your business and the overall location targeting of the campaign.
Add Negative Keywords
Last but not least, you need to give Google a list of words that you don’t want your ads to show up. Say, you are a great attorney, and, naturally, your services are costly. Therefore, you may want to exclude words like, cheap and inexpensive from your ad campaign.
To exclude a keyword from your ad campaign means to further narrow the number of searches that will end up showing your ads.
Yet, this is one of the best things you can do.
The more targeted your audience is(the people that will eventually see your ad copies), the cheaper your campaign will be, and the better the results (sales/leads) it will have.
So, excluding the words that don’t much your business. Words that will cost you a pile of money, with no return.
Final Thoughts
If you still don’t have anything started, here are 6 ideas for your first online side business.
The Google AdWords Campaigns, like every other marketing effort, is not something that you do once, and never get back to.
The more time you invest to improve your campaigns, the more keywords you will exclude and, naturally, add.
There is no straightforward answer to the question of how to choose keywords for a Google AdWords campaign. Yet, there are some rules that will help you find the right keywords.
Think like your customers. Be specific (and add location). Add negative keywords. Analyze. Repeat.