What is your Process??
I get asked by new prospects nearly every time. “Tell us your process.” or “Walk me step-by-step through how this will work.” Wow! Do they understand to write that would be a novel? If not an epic series? I’m not sure we are on the same page with what they are asking and what I’m interpreting the question to be.
However, I really don’t mind sharing our processes. We do have extremely detailed processes for each and every step in the PPC management process. Below is some great insight into our keyword selection process.
1. For us, once we have the the account structure (campaigns and ad groups) set up, we then “seed” each ad group with 4-5 keywords that “make sense” for the product category.
2. We then take it to the Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool (the obvious choice for Adwords users). I use the Adwords tool to expand upon the keywords that we had seeded finding multiple variations.
3. As we are adding new keywords, I also begin building an extensive negative keyword list, using the “improper” suggestions as negatives.
4. I typically start mostly with broad match to induce keyword discovery through search query reporting for the next coming days/weeks/months. After which we start testing other match types.
5. If you happen to already have some organic, SEO data on what is converting for your site, by all means, USE IT! Please remember to use the converting data. Don’t confuse high volume for a best performer — High volume with no conversions is not a desirable outcome of PPC.
Tip: Do not dwell too long on competitive research. This narrows your focus and blinds you to potential creativity. We never want to simply “copy” a competitor strategy anyway. Who’s to say it’s working for them? Who’s to say the exact strategy will work for you? Finding your own way is often best for keywords.
Tip 2: About 10-20 keywords per ad group is perfect to start. Gone are the days where you want to import 1000’s of useless keywords into your campaign for launch. How would you ever get enough useful data on those to make proper decisions?
Tip 3: Don’t use a spreadsheet and parse together your keyword variations into a long list of seeded keywords. Use actual research to discover your keywords. It will be much more effective.