** by Niraj Shah **
Every search marketer shares one important goal: get more of the
traffic you want and less of the traffic you don't. One of the best
ways to get manage your traffic quality is by focusing on keyword
selection. By selecting the right keywords you can reduce the number
of untargeted clicks you get, reducing your costs. But it doesn't
stop there. Eliminating unwanted clicks increases the click-through
rates for your ad groups, leading to higher quality scores, lower
CPCs, and increased conversions.
Better keyword management isn't just a nice to have; it's
increasingly becoming critical to your bottom line. According to
Jupiter Research's US Paid Search Forecast, 2008 to 2013, average
keyword prices are set to rise more than 25% over the next five years.
With keyword costs rising quickly, it's critical that every keyword
in your portfolio deliver maximum value. You can save thousands of
dollars per month, and re-allocate that budget to better uses by
following a few best practices around keyword targeting. These inside
tips, detailed below, include pruning underperforming keywords, using
match type refinement and negative keywords and evaluating raw search
queries. The goal is to ensure your ads show on every possible search
that provides a good ROI, but don't appear at all for keywords that
don't.
Prune your under-performing keywords. The first step in keyword
management is to search for high-traffic keywords that get no
conversions. See if you can eliminate some or all of these terms. By
removing keywords that drive untargeted traffic you can free up
dollars to spend on existing terms that perform well or buy traffic on
completely new terms.
Add new terms using keyword research. Adding new terms that are not
included in your campaigns today can be a great source of new,
profitable traffic. One of the best sources for new keyword ideas is
raw query logs and reports. These logs/reports show which terms users
are actually searching and converting on, and in many cases will
provide you with insight into terms you should be buying but are not
today.
Refine broad match terms with phrase and exact match. Once you've
done your basic pruning and expansion, the next step is to view your
raw search query logs again. Focus on the high-traffic keywords on
broad match that actually convert, and try to determine the user
queries that are driving the conversions. Replace these broad match
terms with the raw search terms using the phrase or exact match
options provided by the publisher. This will help refine the traffic
associated with your keywords, increasing conversion rates and quality
scores.
Use negative keywords to eliminate irrelevant and non-converting
terms. Once again, check your raw search queries, but this time look
for queries that are irrelevant to your brand or not converting. Add
these terms to your negative keyword list to remove your ads from
irrelevant searches.
Let's look at an example of how keyword management can deliver
impressive results. PowPow Guitar Store bought the keyphrase "steel
guitar" on broad match below. They bid $2.00 on the term, which
provided a good return on average across the conversions that resulted
from search clicks on their ad.
Looking at their raw search query logs, however, PowPow Guitar Store
found that people were clicking on this ad and purchasing more than
just steel guitars. In some cases they were buying low margin items
such as steel guitar Strings, which didn't justify a $2.00 bid. Even
more concerning, they were paying for traffic on queries related to
products and services they don't even sell such as "guitar
repair" and "guitar lessons."
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/23148333@N06/4033046592/>
Based on this analysis PowPow Guitar Store decides to change how it
manages keywords. By shifting "steel guitar" from the broad to the
exact match type they are able to reduce the number of unwanted clicks
coming through on this term. Based on the raw search query data, they
also add new keywords related to steel guitars such as "used steel
guitar" and "steel guitar strings" and bid these terms
appropriately to reflect the margin of the products associated with
each keyword. Finally, by using negative keywords they are able to
eliminate clicks on keywords associated with products they don't
sell, such as "songs", "repair" and "lessons."
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/23148333@N06/4033046552/>
The net effect is more traffic on relevant terms, and less traffic
from visitors looking for products PowPow doesn't sell. More
importantly, because PowPow's keywords now match user queries more
closely, the company will see a boost in quality score, which further
reduces CPC and boosts traffic. Through simple changes like this,
marketers can make a big impact on sales and ROI without having to
increase spend.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Niraj Shah <http://searchengineland.com/author/niraj-shah/>
is a product manager at Marin Software
<http://www.marinsoftware.com>
in San Francisco, CA.
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