MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing

When starting out and not knowing too much about Pay Per Click advertising, one tends to start out using a wide variety of keywords with broad matches. This only generates unfocused traffic with little conversion and leaves behind a next to nothing budget. I find when starting out broad and trying to work your way to a specific, more specialised set of keywords is hardly effective, you waste not only your time, but also your budget, and achieve little conversion.

If you use the number of tools available to you, one can inject sanity early on in the process and watch your PPC ramp up. In my post I will focus on keyword matching - this is one of the basic tools available to you all major search platforms have similar tools - with reference to Google considering that it’s the most commonly used.

First up we have Broad Match, which is the default when you first set up a Google ad group. No surprise there, considering this matching option makes Google the most money. Broad match literally manufactures keyword permutations that are not on your list. Some of them can be disturbingly general and useless. This runs up your budget “Hella Quick” and provides you with little conversions. According to Google “Your ads will also automatically show for expanded matches including plurals and relevant variations.” With expanded matching, the Google AdWords system “Automatically runs your ads on highly relevant keywords, including synonyms, related phrases, and plurals, even if they aren’t in your keyword lists.” Many contend that Expanded Broad Match is hurting AdWords advertisers. For example the expanded match algorithm thinks that “software” and “hardware” are synonyms. As we know they are not the same product and treating them as such might generate useless clicks. The keyword “French holiday” could return with the updates of the “French election” or “French fries” which probably wont help your campaign. You’re relying on Google and what information it believes is relevant to your keyword.

Next up would be Phrase Match. When putting your keywords in quotes it’s a little more restrictive and less likely to result in unrelated ad impressions. For instance your ad for “French Holiday” will appear when a user searches for the words in the correct order and possibly includes other words. The ad will show for the query “French holiday Guide” but not for “French guide for holiday”. Phrase matching results are more targeted impressions than broad matching but they are slightly more flexible than exact matching.

When using Exact Match you surround your keywords with brackets [French Holiday] and the ad will only display when the exact words in the exact order FRENCH HOLIDAY is searched. The ad wont be displayed if you search for BEST FRENCH HOLIDAY because even though the words “French holiday” have been typed in the right order, the word “Best” was added in front. Exact matching is the most targeted method. Though you won’t receive as many impressions with exact matching, any clicks you receive will be highly targeted.

Negative Keywords are used when you have a specific keyword you don’t want your ad to appear for, example the keyword “springboks” could add the negative keywords; rugby, world cup, Schalk Burger, rugby players, tackles and tries. Excluding negative keywords will stop your ad from being displayed by users searching for the Springbok rugby team. Negative keywords can be applied for a keyword on both the ad group and campaign levels.

In my opinion when starting your campaign, use exact or phrase match not broad match. Brainstorm for keywords that you don’t want your ad to display for and use negative keywords. If your campaign has been running for a while and hasn’t been generating enough keywords because of the more restrictive match type, then only move onto broad matching. By doing this you save a lot of money by eliminating unnecessary clicks.