Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Choosing Your PPC Keywords

By Brian Basch

Just as a clever tagline can clinch the deal for a TV advertisement, the same way the right keywords are crucial for a good PPC campaign. The keywords can act as the foundation of your entire campaign. Strong keywords will help make your campaign a success but weak ones can lead to disastrous results.

For an apt keyword list, make sure you do all the necessary research beforehand. Dig deep; search every nook and cranny until you hit upon effective keywords that will expand your keyword list.

To give you a clear idea on how to expand your list, we will provide you with an example. In this example, the base keyword "real estate" has been taken as the base keyword.

Now, you must be aware that real estate is a very competitive keyword on the net. This is due to the fact that the commissions are very high.

The first thing to do is create your first list. Think of all the alternatives that your prospective clients could use to interpret the base word. Now for the word real estate, people can use words like real property, investment property etc. these words are still very similar to the base keyword therefore you should continue the search.

After this you will dig down into the different specialty markets of real estate. For example; commercial real estate and boarding houses etc. Then you will mix these sets of keywords and generate new ones.

You can also create an ad group that will focus entirely on real estate company names. You can also add a .com to the name or your own country extension. It would not matter if such a domain does not exist, sometimes people type similar things into the search engine giving you an opportunity to get your product some low cost clients.

It is unwise to use broad based keywords, instead try to use niche keywords that target your chosen market. Try to imagine that you are your potential client and think of the keywords they would use to search for your product.

Here are some winning tips:

- .com, .net etc. can be added to your keyword.

- Domain names and company names can also draw customers.

- Try adding superlatives to your base word like best, cheap etc.

- You can check out your site log files; they will tell you what words and phrases your clients use.

- Your competitors sales copy is worth checking out.

A good tactic is to make different lists for different categories of keywords, plurals in one, typos in another. If you do this you will be able to pinpoint your potential customers better.

Go ahead and make long lists of keywords with the help of the information provided in this article. With the right keywords there will be nothing standing in the way of your success. So build and cement your PPC campaign with a strong foundation of effective keywords. All the Best! - 15275

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