Google AdWords Series: Using the Right Keyword Groups and Matches
Google AdWords is one of the most crucial tools for small business owners to optimize their digital marketing. However, many entrepreneurs jump into using it without a full understanding of what they’re doing.
Google AdWords, when used strategically and correctly, can be an outstanding tool in your arsenal to help draw more attention to your website and generate new sales. Best of all, it’s a rather inexpensive digital marketing option, and you can get it set up quickly and easily.
Over the next several weeks, we’re going to highlight some of the most common Google AdWords mistakes (a couple per week) and how you can avoid them. Today, we focus on using the right keyword groups and matches. In addition, a great article for you to read in conjunction with this one is “Long Tail Keywords: From what to why“.
The mistake: not properly grouping keywords
One of the key functions in AdWords is the ability to create ad groups by campaign, so you can manage different types of digital marketing campaigns all at once. For example, a campaign geared toward a specific product would likely have different keywords than a campaign geared toward long-running content. You are allowed to break down ads and keywords into specific groups within each of the campaigns you’ve created.
You’d be amazed at how many entrepreneurs do not use these ad groups at all. It’s an easy tool that helps you keep your campaigns organized, yet so many business owners either do not realize it’s there, or do not realize its benefits. Instead of putting their ads into groups based on keywords, they’ll instead just put all of their keywords into the same group and display the same ad to everyone.
The problem here is that the ad being shown may not actually match the keywords the users have put into their search. The ad copy displayed should always closely match the keywords being implemented, because that will make people more likely to want to click on the ad.
So if, for example, you have a home renovation company that offers bathroom remodeling, kitchen remodeling, home additions and landscaping, you want to have keywords for each of these service areas separated into different ad groups. Otherwise, people who search for your company using a landscaping keyword you’ve targeted could see an ad for bathroom remodeling services. While your company is still perhaps getting visibility out of the search, you’re certainly not going to be getting a click from that user, as the ad does not at all match up with what they’re looking for.
As a general rule of thumb, you should try to limit your ad groups to a maximum of 20 keywords each, with fewer than that being preferable. The more focused each of your ad groups are, the more effective your advertising will ultimately be.
The mistake: using incorrect keyword matches
Through AdWords, you can add keywords to your campaign through broad match, exact match or phrase match methods.
A broad match keyword will display your ads if the keywords are displayed anywhere in the copy, even if they are out of order. So if your broad match keyword was “Kentucky bathroom remodeling,” your ad would still be displayed even if the person searched for “remodeling my bathroom in Kentucky.” As long as the keywords are present in some form, your ad will be displayed.
Phrase match keywords are more specific, and require the phrase to show up exactly as it is. Using the same example, a person would have to use the exact phrase “Kentucky bathroom remodeling” to get your keyword to show up. This means the previous example of “remodeling my bathroom in Kentucky” would not be displayed.
Finally, exact match keywords are the most specific yet. The term in the search must exactly match your AdWords keyword. If your keyword is “Kentucky bathroom remodeling,” your search will not even show up if someone searches “Kentucky bathroom remodeling at an affordable price.” While this might seem a little too specific, it can be useful in certain situations if you are looking for ultra-precise keyword targeting.
The type of keyword matching you use will have a big impact on the success of your ads. A broad match can be useful in some situations, and will get you more impressions, but it’s not going to be as effective. Meanwhile, if your company is in an industry in which you are going to have a lot of people searching for your type of product or service, broad match keywords may “flood your system” a bit, which means you may need to implement exact or phrase match keywords to make your results a bit more precise.
Generally it’s better to err on the side of precision, and move to broad keywords if you aren’t getting enough traffic coming through. It can take a little bit of trial and error to determine exactly what types of keyword matching is the best for your campaign, so you should feel free to be flexible.
Contact us at Viral Solutions for more information about the best practices of using Google AdWords. We’ll be back next week with more tips.
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