Justin Harrison

One of the biggest factors in the success of a pay-per-click campaign is the choice of keywords. A keyword is the word or phrase a person enters when performing a search on the internet.

If people are not searching for the keywords that match a pay-per-click campaign, the ad for that campaign will not be shown.

If you have a firm that sells products as well as services, or multiple product lines, the number of relevant keywords can grow exponentially. Create smaller, more narrowly focused ads based on specific clusters of keywords rather than one generic word.

For example, using a phrase such as “antique enameled bathtubs” is much more specific than simply using the word “bathtubs”. When the people searching for a phrase are pointed to the right information, they are more likely to become buyers.

Finding the right keywords will take some research, but it is worth the time. An easy way to test out a keyword is to type it into your own search engine and see what happens. If the ads or websites of your closest and most obvious competitors appear on your screen, a relevant keyword has been identified.

Using a tool such as Wordtracker can also help. This system enables people to enter in a keyword and see not only how many times it has been searched for, but also relevant keywords associated with it.

This information is very helpful when setting up a pay-per-click campaign, as it allows for a precise indication of which keywords will be the most popular. For example, when typing in the word ‘soy candles’, the results came back with ‘scented soy candles’, ‘all natural soy candles’, aromatherapy soy candles’, and ‘handmade soy candles’.

Someone who sells soy candles would benefit from creating ad campaigns around those specific keywords to ensure that the people looking for a specific type of soy candle are able to find them.

Pay-per-click campaigns can be very successful when the right combination of keywords is used. When the wrong keywords are used, the campaign can be ineffective at best, as well as costly.

With pay-per-click campaigns, the only time a user is billed is when a person clicks on the ad. If the ad is based around ill-fitting keywords, the person who clicks on the ad will have a lower conversion rate. The clicks bought with that specific ad campaign will have a lower return on investment when compared to a campaign that was created with targeted keywords.

Using services such as Wordtracker, and creating and testing small campaigns, will help a business find the best and most profitable keywords for them.