Chapter 4: Keyword Targeting

Chapter 4: Keyword Targeting

Keyword Targeting Basics

If you're going to use keyword targeting in your campaign, you need to make sure to select relevant keywords.  Ideally, the keywords you select will match the words or phrases people use to search for whatever it is that you offer.

You can add negative keywords so your ad won't show for searches for those terms.  These can help lower your costs for keywords that don't perform.

Here is how keywords work depending on which network you're using:

• Keywords & Google Search: Select keywords relevant to the terms people use when they search.
• Google Display Network: AdWords uses the keywords you select to place ads next to content that matches your ads.  A dog training site may have ads for dog training ebooks.

You need to pay attention to the quality of your keywords.  For instance, general keywords will not work well with AdWords.

For example, a word like 'dog' is going to be too general. Only use specific keywords your customers use. Once you have a list of keywords you need to group similar keywords into themes.  AdWords says it's best to use somewhere between 5 - 20 keywords per ad group.

When it comes time to bid on your keywords, you can choose to manually set a maximum CPC bid for each keyword.  It's important to realize that gaining a high Quality Score can lower the amount you pay for your bid. Quality Scores are calculated based on the performance of the ad and your keyword, along with a few other factors.

Keyword Matching Options

Another important element of keywords are the matching options. There are three keyword matching options; broad match, exact match, and phrase match. We'll go through each one in the sections below.

Broad Match

If you select broad match, your ads will run on relevant variations of your keywords (even if those are not listed).  That means your ads will run when synonyms, singular and plural versions, misspellings, and other variations are searched for.

Broad match will probably get you more clicks, but may not result in a higher CTR or higher conversions.

The trade-off with broad match is that you will spend less of your time building your keyword lists and your ads may be shown for keywords you would have never thought of. The system has a feature built in where it will stop showing your ads for keywords that don't result in clicks.

Here's an example. If you choose broad match for the keyword, 'iphone display cover' then you could see your ad on searches like:

• iphone display cover
• iphone cover
• iphone cases
• ipad display cover

To help increase your conversions, you can use a broad match modifier for more control. This makes it so even though you're using broad match, you're specifying which keyword terms or their close variants must appear in the users search query for your ad to show. 

As an example, in our situation above, you may not want your ad to show for any 'ipad' related terms. 

To create a broad match modifier, add the + symbol in front of one or more words in your broad match keyword.  It should look like this: +iphone +cover (make sure you don't insert an extra space between the + sign and the word).

Phrase Match

If you select phrase match, your ad will run for searches on your exact keyword, those with additional words before or after it, and for close variants of your phrase. Your ad will not show for keyphrases with an additional word in the middle of your phrase.

If you choose 'iphone cover' and are using phrase match then your ads may show on searches for:

• red iphone cover
• buy iphone cover on sale
• black iphon cover

It's not going to show when a user searches for 'iphone mini cover'.

With both broad or phrase match, your exact keywords (exactly as they are typed into the ad group) are used to determine your Quality Score, not the variations.

Exact Match

If you select exact match your ads will only run for your exact keyword or close variants of it.  This keyword matching option gives you the most control and usually results in a higher CTR, but the trade-off is you'll probably have a lower amount of search volume.

If you choose 'iphone display cover' and set it for exact match your ad will show on:

• iphone display cover

And that's about it.

Your ad will show up only when someone types that phrase exactly into the google search box (or very close variants of it like close misspellings).

The chart below serves as an introduction to the different match types, ordered from broad to narrow. We'll give more information on each option in the sections below.

Match type	Special symbol	Example keyword	Ads may show on searches that	Example searches
Broad match	none	women's hats	include misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and other relevant variations	buy ladies hats
Broad match modifier	+keyword	+women's +hats	contain the modified term (or close variations, but not synonyms), in any order	hats for women
Phrase match	"keyword"	"women's hats"	are a phrase, and close variations of that phrase	buy women's hats
Exact match	[keyword]	[women's hats]	are an exact term and close variations of that exact term	women's hats
Negative match	-keyword	-women	are searches without the term	baseball hats

Close Variants

You can change the settings so that close variants are not shown.  In order to accomplish this, go through your campaign settings under advanced settings and click the keyword matching options. In the exact and phrase match section, select 'Do not include close variants'.

This setting will only appear for campaigns using the 'Search Network only - All features'.

Negative Keywords

Adding in negative keywords can help your campaign perform better by keeping your ad from showing when people search for things you don't offer or when you're not getting a return on the money you're spending for those keywords. If you set up a negative keyword, then your ad will not show if that keyword is in a user's search query.

This can help eliminate irrelevant impressions which results in a higher CTR of your ads. To illustrate this, the AdWords program gives you an example about glasses. There are eye glasses and there are wine glasses. If you sell eye glasses, you probably don't sell wine glasses too. 

They are completely different products so you'd use the one you don't sell as a negative keyword. That way you don't waste money showing your ads for keywords that aren't going to perform well for you.

Keyword Status

AdWords will show the status of each keyword in your ad group. You can see this in the status column next to each keyword. This column will let you know if your keywords are active or not. 

Statuses include the following:

• Campaign paused
• Campaign pending
• Campaign deleted
• Campaign suspended
• Campaign ended
• Ad group paused
• Ad group deleted
• Ad group incomplete
• Paused; keyword is inactive because it is paused
• Deleted; keyword is inactive because you deleted it
• Eligible; keyword is active and showing ads as long as your bid and quality score allow it
• Below first page bid estimate; keyword is active, but not showing on the first page of the Google search results
• Disapproved; keyword is inactive and not showing ads due to a violation of the AdWords advertising policies
• Site suspended; keyword is inactive and not showing ads to your site violating the AdWords advertising policies
• Low search volume; keyword is not showing because it has very little search traffic
• Rarely shown due to low quality score; keyword is not showing due to a low Quality Score

It's possible for a keyword to have more than one status.  In that case AdWords will show the status you control over one you do not (for example, a paused or deleted status will show over low search volume).

Keywords in the Display Network

Placements and keywords work together in the Display Network so your ads are shown on relevant webpages. Placements are certain websites you'd like your ads to appear on. If you also add in keywords then your ads will only appear on webpages on those websites with relevant content.

It's very important to refine your placements with keywords, especially if the websites you're selecting cover broad topics (like news sites).  That way your ads will only show on relevant locations on those sites. 

If you're not sure which websites to use as placements, it's possible to only select keywords. In that case automatic placements will be used to contextually target sites around the keywords within your campaign.

In addition to keywords and placements you can also use topics, interest categories, remarketing, age, or gender to trigger your ads.

You can always change your ad triggers and add in further refinements. For example, within a campaign or ad group you can start by using keywords and then later add in placements.

Display Network Ad Position

Similar to the Search Network, ads compete for ad units on webpages in the Display Network based on their ad rank.

Ad units are the blocks on a site the site owner will allow ads to be placed in. The blocks are different shapes and sizes and on different positions within the websites.  Ad units work in the following ways:

• They can include one or more text ad (some ad blocks will show as many as 4 text ads) or a single display ad (image or rich media).
• Text ads running on CPC bidding compete with each other for ad units that can contain one or more text ads.
• Display ads using CPC bidding or CPM bidding complete with each other to appear on an entire display ad unit, they don't share ad units with other ads.
• Text ads using CPM bidding won't appear on an ad unit with other text ads.

Within AdWords, you can see data including impressions for placements. These are reported as both a placement and a keyword impression.  If you use automatic placements and just choose keywords, you can review exactly which websites your ads were placed on through the placements tab. 

Choosing Keywords for the Display Network

The first step to choosing keywords for the Display Network campaigns is to pick keywords that best fit your campaign.

All keywords in the Display Network are broad match type only so you don't need to include plurals, misspellings, or other variations of your keywords. There is no way to change this setting, you cannot use phrase or exact keyword match types on the Display Network.

You can get keyword ideas using the Display Planner.  Make sure to choose the keywords your customers use to describe your products or services. You'll also want to group the keywords that are closely related to each other into ad groups.

Your goal is to create ads related to keywords describing your products or services that are shown to customers when they're on websites related to your products or services. According to AdWords, two or three word phrases usually work best. Use your brand name if it's something people will recognize.

In addition to the Display Planner, there are two other useful Display Network tools. The first is the List Suggestor. This tool will give you ideas for negative keywords and placement exclusions. The second is the Contextual Targeting Tool. This tool builds relevant keyword lists for you automatically.

Improving Your Keywords for the Display Network

After you've let your ads run for a while, you should evaluate your keywords and make improvements to them.  You can do this by lowering the bids for keywords that don't convert. And pause or delete the keywords that aren't working well for you.  Additionally, you can add in more specific keywords relating to your product or service.

Using your placement performance data, you can figure out which websites are not performing well for you.  Make sure you're driving the traffic you get from your Display ads to the most relevant page on your site based on the keywords in your ad group.