Keyword Science for Beginners

So, you’ve got your PPC campaign sorted out and you’re waiting for the next stage to kick in.

The next stage would be the waiting stage – waiting for the money to roll in. PPC campaigns are like any other system created to make money in that you have to monitor and review it- especially keywords. Anyone who tells you that PPC is a ‘set and forget’ business is telling you stories.

Keywords come in two different categories, these days. There are general broad based keywords and then there are the niche keywords.

General keywords are aimed at the general search engine user and something that is commonly typed into a search engine. “Home business,” is a great example that tends to be commonly searched for. This is a broad search that will no doubt be further defined by the person conducting the research.

A niche keyword, on the other hand, is related to a particular specialty. And, those people who search for a niche will give you a higher ratio of sales and leads.

In the PPC game, the main reason a campaign isn’t doing as well as predicted usually comes down to keywords. Keywords that don’t get a lot of clicks should be considered a failure, and the same goes for keywords that don’t return sales or leads. Time is money and that is especially true with Pay Per Click, so keywords that don’t perform really are money down the internet drain.

Monitoring the progress of keywords is just like any other business. If you expect that you can just go to the beach and forget about hard work you’re in for a shock. Track your keywords to see how much traffic they’re bringing in. There is software you can get to do this and Google Adwords is probably the best known.

You will also want to know how many clicks on a keyword eventuates in a sale, this is called conversions rate. This is where niche keywords tend to win out, whereas general keywords will have a high ratio of clicks but probably a lower conversion rate. This is where you need to use your smarts because every click costs you money.

The other factor you always need to consider is the cost of your campaign. Let’s face it, there’s no point having the best PPC campaign if you can’t afford to pay for it. Keywords cost money according to their popularity, so the most popular keywords might not be the best ones for your campaign.

The keyword business is dynamic and always changing. The keywords that are popular today could suddenly be forgotten next month, so if you aren’t keeping up to date your campaign will hit the brakes fast.