Keywords are Curate's Egg, Make the Most of Them

Keywords are at the center of managing a search ad campaign.

You can further divide them into Exact, Phrase and Broad. They Provide targeting precision in the same order. Broad gives you really broad coverage of search queries, you need to block the bad part of it on routine basis. No matter how old and tight your campaigns are they will keep on surprising you. To a lesser extent same is the case with phrase too, however we can guess its bad part with reasonably good accuracy. Those who live and breathe exact matches find it too costly, sooner or later.

3 Solutions for Managing Keyword Match types

1. All Match Types In the Same Adgroup

   An age old practice in adwords. Soon after finishing up with Keyword List, break them into Three Parts: [kw], "kw" & kw, then & there. If you remember, we used to set the bids too using asterix after them. You can bid on them in decreasing order starting from highest for exact and lowest for broad for the same keyword. Earlier, no matter how many times you have added the keywords, Google consolidated the stats for them and assigned same Quality Score irrespective of the match types. However, things have changed now and all are treated differently. There are reports that it is no more the most restrictive type which will reflect the stats, actually broad may compete with exact and phrase for same query. So, this technique though has the merit of simplicity, there are some caveats associated with it.

2. Different adgroups for different match types

   Maintaining different adgroups for each match types allows you to add negative as exact in broad and phrase adgroups. So you go like this Phrase Adgroup will have Exact as negative and broad will have phrase as negative. In this way you will have traffic for each adgroups which does not interfere with each other and so you can set bids according to priority. This method achieves everything except for segregation of budget.

3. Different Match types in different Campaigns

   To allocate different Budget which are allocated to each type you need to segregate them into Campaign. I had talked about penumbra match type, for brand keywords. However, no matter what match type you added Google blocks all the queries around it and it spills over to many keywords. So, to keep tab on them it is better to put them into different campaigns now. Also, keeping different match types in different campaigns will give you better ROI, because there is nil chance your bad keywords eating into the share of Good ones. So, if you are dealing with account that has limited number of keywords and accuracy matters the most, it should be implemented.

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Keyword Details, Search Term Report- Blunders!

I have talked about the blunders, advertiser do, interpreting search term report earlier, too. This time I want to elaborate on them. Some Most Common mistakes are:

1. Deleting the broad match, after adding all converting search terms as exact:

   I equate this situation with a gamble with dice. A dice has 6 possible outcomes. Search Term reports are like, you know the 3 occasions when you were successful matching, say (1, 3 , 5). If you decide to quote only (1, 3, 5), your chances of failure to catch (2, 4, 6) are 100%. Because a dice has 6 possible outcomes, with equal probability you are reducing your chances of success by relying on historical data. 

2. Adding converting search terms as they are in the search term list, in the keyword list:

   After adding these terms, most of them get marked, low search volume. Some do get impression, but seldom converts again. What you missed, is that, keywords actually Never Converts. What converts are ideas and themes. A visitor rotates on searches throughout the theme/idea, through many websites, he may convert any time, on any of them. So, you rather need to crack the idea/theme which converted. Simply adding those keywords are of no use.

3. Promptly adding negatives, which seems non-converting:

   People easily figure out, some terms which they see as non-converting and try to block them. After this conversion falls, because they seldom went through the digging part, what triggered them? Dice analogy fits here too. I would like to block all the outcomes which are beyond 6, but would retain all that is within (1, 2, ... 6). Conversion dice has some unknown value! You have to dig deeper into the problem. Real problem may be bid, match type or keyword itself within the existing keyword list.

4. The only action which one may do easily without committing mistake:

   The only thing you may do with this report without doing major blunder is identifying some terms to be added as Exact Negatives. You are safe doing it!

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Broad Match Modifier- The Best Practices

Broad match modifier restricts the queries triggered by a broad match keyword to the inclusiveness of all the words modified in the keyword. A '+'symbol is used just before the modified word, which means any query triggered through them must include the modified term or its close variants.

For example, if I use modifier in the keyword, say, purple flowers online delivery. I may use it for all, some or one of the word in the keyword. If my concern is, it should not trigger ads on green, blue ... flowers, I may use modifier for the word purple and make it, +purple flowers online delivery. It solves my problem. It won't show on any search term which doesn't include the term purple. Additionally, if the advertiser want to show ads only to people who are interested in delivery, then modifier should shift either only to delivery or both to purple and delivery. This is the basic part of the usage of the modified broad match

We shall now explore further, the practices which may deliver better targeted ads.

Use to limit the exposure of ads to certain brand search terms

It is particularly beneficial for tech support business, who would like to avoid the exposure of Mcafee antivirus ads on norton or avg. To achieve this, simply use modifier for all the terms containing mcafee, like +mcafee support, +mcafee antivirus support etc., Similarly, in other adgroups containing norton use +norton, in all keywords. In hp printer adgroup, use +hp throughout the adgroup and so on.

Use to gain exposure on some rare terms

One may use to gain exposure on terms which attracts little traffic on related terms. So, some location like +location, is useful, or +term can also be used. It is same as we earlier used "location", or "term", phrase match keywords.

Use to improve CTR & Quality Score

An adgroup themed on roses, may contain +roses in all the keyword and this will improve the CTR & quality score of entire adgroup.

Use to improve the cost of acquisition(CPA)

If you use modifier throughout the adgroup for words like +buy, +sale, +deliver, it will catch people at the last stage of the buying cycle. This achieves a short term boost in sales, however, those who are long term players and are concerned about branding, I don't recommend this practice. However, the technique does improve your CPA.

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Targeting Long tail Search Terms, marked Low Search Volume!

What are Long Tails?

Contrary to what many people believe, Long tail has nothing to do with the length of the search query. Even a short search term may be the part of long tail. The terminology has something to do with its graphical representation. If you  plot keywords against search volumes, you will get a graph of Small number of Search Queries getting most of the volume, which shows as a Graphical Peak with steep slope downward, and a Long tail afterwards, with steady slope almost running parallel to the axis, representing terms which are Larger in number, but individually triggers very low volume of searches.

History

Historically, it was Amazon, who discovered that a large number of their collection were unnoticed because of low volume of searches against them on homepage, and they can boost sales by presenting them alongwith their mainstream products. Individually, they have few seekers, but combined together they become huge!. Hence the term Long tail !

Importance and Targeting of Long Tail Keywords

What is of importance here is, in the Graph, Area under the curve represents, the Reach of your Ads. You can cultivate and grow this Long tail in the curve to such an extent that
Area (Long Tail  Search Terms)   >    Area (High Search Vol.. Keywords) !
Can you afford to ignore them?? 

In Google Adwords, Google doesn't allow you to target most keywords which are part of this long tail, because they are huge in number and individually have very low search volume against them. Since, Google has to monitor ads targeting search queries for a large number of legal, ethical and safety parameters and requirements, it is not feasible for them to allow targeting ads on such queries. So, you find Low Search volume notifications against them. However, you may have your ads appear for these terms through broad matched similar looking keywords. That seems to be the only simple way of targeting Long Tails. Other way you can use Dynamic Search Ads, but then a lot depends on Data Structuring of your Website and Content Optimization.

Chances of appearing on these Long tail terms increases with better structuring of your adgroups. If your adgroups are well themed, giving clear cut message to the system, what they mean for, with respect to keywords, categories, situations etc., it will in most probability, occupy most of the Long tail terms, automatically. The Google, though in its documentations  doesn't reveal much about the mechanism of how broad match keywords are matched, the point not to be forgotten is it always adds a factor, Other relevancy factors, in various documentations. So, actually it is all into the structuring of your Adgroups that gives the message of what is being targeted and where it can be matched and more important Projected ! You can fine tune it further by adding Nagative Matches or if you are willing to go farther, try Penumbra Match Type. Something, you should never forget, in adwords, it is actually the Good Structuring of Your Adgroup/Campaign, that leads you towards perfection in targeting, not by inserting a lot of keywords into your account.

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Adwords Penumbra Keyword Match Type for Brand Keywords

Just like Earth blocks the Sun but, Sideway rays still Lights! 

Penumbra targeting in adwords is, Keyword – [keyword], match type. It is not officially recognized!

There are situations when you find huge traffic around an exact match search query and you have sufficient reasons to believe a good potential lies around but out of it.

Whereas, traffic around [keyword] is like a bull that will hit only the domain bearing that, or if they ever drift towards you they will bounce out instantly, but traffic slightly away from the exact match is ready to flirt with you, penumbra keywords match type is the way to go.

Most of the competitor’s brand keywords are the categories where you find such type of situation, traffic there is highly disinterested in what you offer & targeting them may mean burn out. But, people may be ready to turn towards you who are just out of this exact spot. They may be review seeker, people having complaints with the brand or something like that. They will listen and entertain you. Go for Brand-[Brand] targeting. It works!

Another situation where you may find it useful is, Location-[Location], targeting. Here, too [Location] may have huge traffic in which you may not be interested in, but  search traffic region surrounding it may be of good interest for you. I myself have tried it in a travel campaign which seemed to have traffic only around the exact match and anything like, location travel, location holiday, location hotel failed to trigger ads due to low search volume. However, Location-[Location], targeting worked like a magic!

Penumbra Match Type Best Practices

This kind of keyword-[keyword], match type should be practiced with utmost care. A Google rep. had cautioned me that, adding keyword as negative match, tells the system that you don’t want it. Since, you may be using the blocked word in some other targeted keywords, you should keep penumbra targeting in a separate ad group, so that it doesn’t at all interferes with others in visible or invisible ways.

Another point to note is that, you should not only set keyword-[keyword] match type, but should also eliminate different other keywords in such an adgroup which may trigger unwanted exposure. In this way you should refine your targeting.

Finally, don’t go for it without trying the keyword itself. Proceed in this manner stepwise:
keyword
keyword-[keyword]
keyword-“keyword”


photo credit: motjetom via photopin cc

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Adwords Keyword Level Automation for Top Position!

Some Keywords are highly competitive.

Some advertisers just want to be on top by bidding too high.

Point to be noted here is that, it is not Your Bid that you are charged for, rather it is the bid of the ad just below you that determines what You pay.

You can beat the highest bidder through Smart bidding strategy. She will feel the heat of the competition only when you make her pay for the position and force her come below you. Once bitten twice shy!

Two automated rules does your job smartly.

Just choose the position you want to target your immediate competitor, say 1. Now set the rule of increasing the bid by 20% whenever your position is worse than 1, and also set another rule simultaneously, to decrease the bid whenever the position is better than 2.

When your aggressive competitor will start really paying for what she is aggressively bidding, she will be forced to run out of the competition and will change her strategy. Note you pay according to what the advertiser below you bid and not what you bid, that is just the limit.

Slowly you will find your aggressive competitor adopting a more rational bidding strategy, giving you room to move up.

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Why adding Keywords through – See Search Term tool – is a bad idea !

Obvious is not the best solution on many occasions. At least not when you are on the internet. Seldom with Google, which will tax you heavily for your ignorance. It surprises me to see people getting obsessive with their keyword list. Some boasts of numbers of keywords, ridiculously breaking the limits of account. So much! despite their deteriorating experience.

Ever since, Google has added the capability to let you see the exact searched term for your keywords, advertisers have instinctively tried to add all the seemingly converting search terms as keywords. An advertiser from Australia called me, to ask if I could help his real estate firm in showing their ads on Google with rare location tail keywords. The guy even had invested in procuring software to nest and generate such keywords, acting on the advice of a PPC guy. Many advertisers think they have created a goldmine of keywords accumulated this way. A false belief, which rather leads them the other way.

Most of the exact searched phrases are, very unique in their own way, which seldom crosses the threshold of traffic to trigger the ad through that exact phrase again. As a result, you only find Google notification around them that they are Low Search Volume keywords, hence impotent to trigger your ad. 

I’ve always advised clients not to distort the structure of your campaign, running after long tails. The best way to get the traffic through long tails is not by adding them into your keyword lists, but by seeding the properly tuned broad match keywords, which evenly distributes the traffic throughout the probable conversion region. The best way to optimally receive high converting traffic is to increase your presence through the entire Span of the traffic. You definitely require some insight and intuition to make such a list, which is capable of showing your ad through that coveted long tail queries. Simply adding the queries through See Search term tool or any such tool just won’t lead you to the desired destination. Sorry, there is no short cut to this method. 

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Impact of Adgroup Restructuring on Conversions

We tend to break keywords into themes. Its a good practice. However, an optimum level exists, where further breaking may result into decrease in conversion rate, which might result into negative ROI.

We often break Adgroups into Themes and microthemes. You can break adroups into as many themes as you can. People tend to think, breaking Adgroups into themes increases Quality Score and hence decreases cost per conversion. However, it is not always true. It may increase your quality score but may also decrease your conversion rate. Further, Google's system does not have any Adgroup level Quality Score. System recognises only Keywords and adtexts. However, a pseudo quality score does come into existence at adgroup level, because of this very set up and assuming its existence is beneficial, but tighter theme does not enhance it. Consider a case, where:

ADG= Theme1 + Theme2 + Theme3. ; Now breaking it into, ADG1, ADG2, ADG3 for individual themes, would increase the frequency of ad delivery. However, it would also decrease the rate of conversion. It is my observation, though can be proven mathematically too, Conversion rate for ADG > conv rate of (ADG1 + ADG2 + ADG3). If you are concerned about the cost and have budget limitations, which is practically a barrier for every advertising campaign, breaking keywords into too many themes is not a good idea. Advertisers who manage dedicated campaigns for Display network alone, should pay more attention to conversion data, because you never get keyword level data for these campaigns, and adgroups are structured according to themes alone. If you have too many adgroups in your campaign, try consolidating them by removing unnecessary grouping. A good campaign does have keywords grouped around a theme into adgroups, I do not mean to propose anything against this idea. However, it might become too much and may require consolidation to improve your conversion rate, and this does improve it.

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