How to build the best keyword list for Google Adwords campaign
1. Think like a customer when you create your list.
Write down the main categories of your business and the terms or phrases that might fall under each of those categories. Include terms or phrases that your customers would use to describe your products or services.
2. Select more general or specific keywords depending on your goal.
If you want to get the most out of your money, select specific keywords that directly relate to your ad's theme. Using more specific keywords would mean that your ad only appears for terms that apply to your business. But bear in mind that if the keywords are too specific, you might not be able to reach as many people as you'd like.
If you'd prefer to reach as many people as possible, choose more general keywords. In most cases, adding very general keywords might make it difficult to reach potential customers because your ad could appear for searches that aren't always related to your business. Also, more general keywords can be more competitive and may require higher bid amounts.
You should try testing out both more and less specific keywords, and then decide which ones give you better results.
3. Group similar keywords into themes.
To show more relevant ads to specific potential customers, you should try grouping your keywords and ads into ad groups based on your products, services or other categories. Additionally, you can keep your account better organised if your keywords are grouped into themes.
4. Pick the right number of keywords.
Most advertisers find it useful to have somewhere between 5 and 20 keywords per ad group, although you can have more than 20 keywords in an ad group. Remember: ach ad group that you create should contain keywords that directly relate to that group's theme.
You don't need to include other variations of your keywords, such as possible misspellings or plural versions. Keywords of two or three words (a phrase) tend to work most effectively.
5. Use the Keyword Planner to find and select new keywords.
You can get keyword ideas and traffic estimates to help you to build a Search Network campaign by using theKeyword Planner. The tool will also show you how a list of keywords might perform, and the average number of times people searched for those terms. This helps you to decide which keywords can help attract more traffic to your website and increase awareness of your product.
6. Improve your click-through rate with negative keywords.
In some cases, you'll want to prevent your ad from showing for terms that aren't relevant to your product or service. Try adding negative keywords to help you reduce costs and make your ad appear only for the search terms that you want.
7. Use the search terms report to further improve your keyword list.
The search terms report gives you information on what people were searching for when they saw your ad and clicked it. This information can help you remove poorly performing keywords or add new ones. You can also use the search terms report to help you identify negative keywords.
8. Use keyword match types for better control over who sees your ads.
Keyword match types give you greater control over who sees your ads. With the exact match option, for example, you can make your ad eligible to show up only when someone searches for that exact keyword or close variations of that exact keyword (such as misspellings or plural versions) and nothing else.
Keywords aren't case-sensitive – they're matched without regard to uppercase or lowercase letters. For example, you don't need to enter running shoes and Running Shoes as keywords – just running shoes will cover both.
9. Choose keywords that relate to the websites or apps your customers see.
On the Display Network, your keyword list helps us show your ads on relevant websites or apps that your customers visit. Try choosing keywords that are related to each other and are related to the content that your customers browse. For apps, AdWords can extend the scope of your keywords in order to match your ads to more relevant search terms.
Since we match your ads to relevant websites using your keywords, all keywords used for Display Network campaigns are considered broad match. You can fine-tune your keywords by excluding certain keywords from ad groups that target the Display Network.
(Source: Google Adwords)
