Building A More Effective Keyword List
I speak to many affiliates who advertise on the keyword channels without much success. On the flipside, I also speak to many who have a ton of success. Usually those who are successful, are unwilling to give up their secrets, but after all, who can blame them?
I did some research to find out ways that you can have more success on the PPC channel, with the hopes of generating more sales. My search focuses mainly on the Google engine as the bulk of our affiliate sales are generated from there.
According to an article published by the Google Adwords Help Center entitled How Do I Build A More Effective Keyword List? There are 3 main steps to success:
1. When creating your keyword list think like a customer : Google recommends that once you’ve generated your appropriate keywords, expand upon it by including as many relevant variations as possible. Add alternate spellings (lite and light), plurals (modules, receivers, etc.) , and synonyms (a word having the same or nearly the same meaning such as happy, glad, joyful, etc.). [2006].
2. Refine keywords that may be too broad or irrelevant: Google suggests that using words which are too broad can generate too many ad impressions but few clicks. For example, using the word electronics (instead of wireless camera) can generate a ton of impressions, but may not yield the clicks you are looking for because it is too vague. They recommend that making the keywords more relevant to your goods or services can help in receiving more qualified clicks. [2006].
3. Target your keywords using keyword matching options: Google discusses four different methods you can use when targeting your keywords:
a. Broad Match: The use of general terms without restrictions. By restrictions this means the use of quotes, brackets, or minuses to provide more targeted matches. For example, if you use the keyword wireless transmitter, searches on Google can be produced by either term dually or independently, in any way shape, form or order. This means that searches using the following terms can pull up a match: wireless, transmitter, wireless transmitter, or transmitter wireless.
b. Phrase Match: Using quotations marks around a keyword to provide a more targeted but flexible match. (Ex: “wireless sender” can pull up a search in which either term must be present). Searches using wireless sender or sender wireless can pull up a match.
c. Exact Match: By surrounding your keywords in brackets (ex: [wireless sender]), your ads will appear when users search for a specific phrase of this order without any other terms in the query. (Ex: wireless sender must be queried exactly for a match)
d. Negative Keyword: By using the negative sign before a keyword, you can omit certain items from a search. (Ex: wireless –sender when used in a search means that in order to pull up the keyword wireless, the word sender must be omitted from the search) [2006].
By following thess simple pieces of advice, you’ll have a good start to generating success on the Google PPC channel.