Create a Keyword Strategy to Reach Users

Identifying the search terms that users might employ to find your business is crucial for preparing an effective keyword strategy.

This will ensure that your ads are served to consumers when they search for relevant queries.

By the end of this module, you’ll be equipped to prepare a keyword strategy that aligns with the goals of a search campaign.

Build an Effective Keyword Strategy

Consumers use Google Search daily to find products and services.

When they search, they use different combinations of words, known as search terms, which lead to varied search results.

Your ad may appear when someone uses a search term that matches the keywords you’ve listed in your Google Ads campaign.

For instance, if Paul works for a company selling trainers, she might add ‘running shoes’ as a keyword in her Google Ads campaign.

When someone searches for ‘running shoes’ on Google, several factors determine whether her ad appears on the search results page.

How Do You Use Keyword Match Types?

As part of your keyword strategy, you can use different keyword match types.

For example, Paul, preparing a new campaign for tennis shoes, can use the following match types:

• Exact Match: [tennis shoes]
• Phrase Match: “tennis shoes”
• Broad Match: tennis shoes

Close Variants:

All positive keyword match types can match to close variants, which are variations similar to a specific keyword. These variants include misspellings, singular or plural forms, stemmings (e.g., ‘floor’ and ‘flooring’), abbreviations, and accents.

Close variants help connect with consumers who are searching for your business in different ways, avoiding the need for exhaustive keyword lists.

Switching to a Broad Match Strategy

Depending on your current keyword strategy, you can transition to a broad match strategy in several ways:

• Standard Testing Solution: Test broad match with a standard setup.
• Custom Experiments: Identify a test campaign and manually upgrade keywords to broad match. Ensure the budget is not capped and keep performance targets steady. Avoid adding negative keywords to maximize reach. Evaluate results after the test phase and scale broad match across campaigns or accounts.

Set It Up: Create Your Keyword Strategy

Step 1: From the Overview page, select Keywords, then Search keywords.

Step 2: Select the plus button, then choose the Campaign and Ad group to add keywords to.

Step 3: Enter your keywords or use the Keyword Planner within the PLANNING tab for keyword discovery, traffic estimation, and implementation of Google Search campaigns.

Optimisation Score Tip: Use optimisation score recommendations to improve your keyword strategy by adding new keywords, removing duplicates, adding negative keywords, or addressing conflicting negatives.

Best Practices for Building an Effective Keyword List

• Think Like Your Audience: Consider all the different terms a potential user might use to search for your business.
• Organise Keywords by Theme: Grouping keywords by theme makes account management easier and allows for more relevant ads. For example:
  • Ad Group 1: Running Shoes
    • Keyword 1: running shoes
    • Keyword 2: running trainers
    • Keyword 3: sports shoes
  • Ad Group 2: Evening Shoes
    • Keyword 1: evening shoes
    • Keyword 2: high heels
    • Keyword 3: dress shoes
• Use the Search Terms Report: This report helps identify new keyword ideas and instances for negative keywords.
• Use Negative Keywords: Negative keywords prevent irrelevant queries from triggering your ads, keeping your focus on desirable searches.

Key Takeaways

• Google Ads search campaigns use multiple types of keywords to reach both known and unknown queries.
• Keywords should be added to ad groups in themes and match types based on business goals.
• Optimize keyword performance using negative keywords, search terms reports, and recommendations from your account’s optimisation score.

By following these strategies and best practices, you’ll be able to create an effective keyword strategy that drives relevant traffic to your ads and helps achieve your campaign goals.