Friday, October 10, 2008

Keywords That Will Power Your PPC Campaign

By Brian Basch

The basis of a good PPC campaign is choosing the right list of keywords. It's vital to be sure that you've searched and researched high quality keywords and phrases to get the best results. Make a long list, and check out all the avenues open to you. Start with a very popular keyword - for instance, "credit". Lots of people search for this word every day. However, it's hard to rank well for this term, since it's also used by plenty of other advertisers. How can you improve your chances? Broaden your scope to include related terms.

Consider how searchers could be using the keyword in question. Someone searching for the word "credit" may be attempting to find out ways to get a credit report, ways to improve personal credit which lenders will give loans to people with poor credit or ways to consolidate credit card debit. When you've gotten a range of concepts that the word could be related to, then try to condense them a bit.

Some longer concepts become a group of terms that are searched for anything closely related to the original keyword "credit" becomes "bad credit loan" or "consolidate credit" there are many options. These words are just slight variations as you like.

Stay with what works, it's always best to keep things simple. But at the same time, experiment if you are not getting good numbers for your campaign. If you are stuck, try adding specific organization names, there are many companies out there associated with "credit".

Add an extension like .org, .net, or .com to the search term, or consider a country you're trying to target. The domain doesn't have to exist, it's just a specific term the search engine will consider. Some people still use the country index and you'll be able to target them with your ads and increase your chances of a sale.

Remember to avoid very general keywords. There's too much competition for these. Instead, expand on related terms, and rephrase existing keyword phrases. It's easy to turn "free credit report" around to get "credit report free". While the concept is the same, this phrase will reach a different set of viewers. Just ask yourself what your target audience is going to search for, and use the answers to that question to choose your keyword groups. Remember that search terms can be in an unusual order.

It's not all there is to a good PPC campaign, but a good keyword list is the foundation of one that works. Explore all your options and pick the right words, then track their progress to be sure your campaign is a successful one. - 15431

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