The Beginners Guide To PPC Keyword Research
Are you looking for a way to accurately build ads and landing pages that get users clicking on your site? The answer is effective PPC keyword research.
Don’t know how to do it? We can help!
If you’re new to digital marketing, PPC might seem like sorcery. But with some knowledge, you can start the basics yourself. And once you fall in love with the power of Pay Per Click, you can enlist the help of our PPC experts.
Let us introduce you to the world of PPC keyword research. In this guide, we’ll cover the basic steps you need to get started on your PPC strategy.
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What is PPC Keyword Research?
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Why is Keyword Research Important for PPC?
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4 Steps for PPC Keyword Research
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Need a Little Extra Help with your PPC Strategy?
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PPC Keyword Research FAQs
What is PPC Keyword Research?
Before we fully dive in, let’s strip it back to basics. You might be wondering what PPC keywords are.
PPC keyword research is the process of identifying relevant keywords to include in your advertising campaigns that you want to bid on. Once selected, your ads should be displayed for users searching your targeted keywords online.
Different metrics are involved in selecting the most appropriate keywords for your campaign. These include;
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Average Monthly Searches: This tells you how many times people search for a keyword on the search engine each month.
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Cost-per-Click (CPC): This estimates how much you'll pay each time someone clicks on your ad when it appears for that keyword.
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Competition (CMP): This is a score from 0 to 100 in Google Ads’ Keyword Planner that shows how tough it is to get your ad displayed for that keyword. It's often labelled as low, medium, or high.
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Top of Page Bid: This estimate shows how much you might need to bid to get your ad to show at the top of the search results for a keyword. Since this can change, Keyword Planner provides a low-range and high-range estimate.
Why is Keyword Research Important for PPC?
Simply put, the keywords you choose mean the difference between a high-performing and a low-performing account.
It ensures that your website is visible to people searching for the keywords relevant to your product or service.
4 Steps for PPC Keyword Research
So, now that you understand PPC keywords, here’s how to find the ones best suited to your ad campaign!
This basic strategy, known as the' Broad Strokes' approach, is perfect for beginners while still giving you some accurate data to learn from. Following these steps will leave you with the positive keywords to form your initial ad groups and the negative keywords you should exclude.
Step 1: Begin with a Search
When looking for keywords to inform your campaign, the first thing you should do is type something into Google but DON’T click search. That part is essential!
Type the keyword or phrase that you think your intended audience is most likely to search when looking for your product or service. Google will then suggest some related keywords in a dropdown box.
Take note of these, and write down which should be included in your positive and negative lists.
For example, if we search for a ‘PPC agency’, we might see results such as ‘best PPC ad agency’ that we would want to add to our positive list. Location-based keywords not in your area might be added to the negative lists.
Step 2: Press Enter on Your Search
Once step 1 is done, it’s time to press that search button!
Completing the search will bring you to the results page. Often, we only look at the top few results, but this time, we want to scroll to the bottom of the page. Here, you will find some Google search suggestions.
Using the same analytical eye as the previous step, select keywords you want to include in your research.
You can also repeat the process so far to return even more suggested keywords, leaving you with the start of a healthy list we can use to inform the next step.
Step 3: Utilise Keyword Planner
Did you know that Google has a free keyword planner tool that is built into Google Ads? We can use this to ‘discover new keywords’.
Simply put in your list of found keywords, and Google will suggest relevant keywords that it thinks you should target. You can then filter these lists further, refining the results by the number of searches the keywords get per month.
However, you can only add up to 10 keywords at a time, so you may need to repeat this step a couple of times!
You can also use Google’s Keyword Planner to input your website and the URLs of your competitors. Google will automatically pull relevant keywords it thinks your site is talking about.
Remember: Right now, you’re pulling together the broad terms that will paint a general picture of your landscape’s search market.
Step 4: Set Up Your Campaign
Now, you can set up your campaign using this first round of research and use it to build up accurate search query data. You can do this by using phrase- and modified broad-match keywords.
You should review your search query report weekly and exclude irrelevant terms by adding them to your negative keyword list. You should also add relevant terms to their ad groups.
By following this process, you’re essentially getting Google to do the hard work and keyword research for you. You can run your ads to build up adequate search query data by starting with a decent amount of initial study.
Need a Little Extra Help with your PPC Strategy?
So, it seems pretty straightforward, right? This keyword research strategy is an excellent method for beginners and can help you gather valuable data to launch your campaigns.
But if you’re not seeing the results you were anticipating, don’t hesitate to enlist the help of our PPC masterminds at Breakout!
Our team are the experts in everything pay-per-click and can help you manage A* PPC campaigns. Learn more about our PPC services today, and don’t hesitate to give us a call for more advice.
PPC Keyword Research FAQs
How can I use negative keywords?
Negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant searches, helping you focus your budget on more relevant terms.
What is a landing page, and why is it essential in PPC?
A landing page is the web page users land on after clicking your ad. It's crucial because it needs to be relevant and persuasive to convert visitors into customers.
How do I track the performance of my PPC keywords?
Use tools like Google Ads to monitor metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS) to evaluate the effectiveness of your keywords.
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