Keyword Selection – 4 Options For PPC Keyword Matching

Keyword Selection - 4 Options For PPC Keyword Matching

When determining what keywords you are going to target in your pay-per-click campaign you are taking the most important step towards PPC success. Start your keyword research keyword through the Google Keyword Tool after brainstorming 50 or so variations of who/what/where/why of what you are trying to accomplish with your traffic. Once you have your pay per click keywords, there are four options for keyword matching that you need to consider.

1. Broad Match - This matching system will take your keywords and break it down for additional matches. For example, if your keywords are “wooden high chair”, in a broad match format your PPC ad would appear if the user searched: wooden, high chair, wooden chair and even high chair accessories. Because your keyword phrase is being broken up there is a chance that your ad will show up in a less than ideal search situation.

2. Phrase Match - By simply putting your keywords into quotation marks you are using phrase match. This means that everything inside the quotation marks must appear in the search field. For phrase match your searches may include: “wooden high chair”, “wooden high chair cushion”, “wooden high chair restoration” and “used wooden high chair.”

3. Exact Match - Placing your keywords into brackets makes them exact match. This system requires an exact match for your keywords. If a keyword is missing you will not show up in the search results. This will result in significantly fewer clicks however the clicks can be far more valuable. Not only are the leads higher quality but the ad will cost you less because you'll receive fewer clicks but the ones you do get will be well worth it.

4. Negative Match - There are search phrases that you do not want your ad to show up as a result for. An example would be “broken wooden high chair”. Other words that you would want to avoid may be cheap and used. In order to list negative keywords you will need to put a dash in front of the word you do not want to be associated with such as -broken.

Once your keywords are all set up it is important to monitor them consistently. Pay attention to what bids are successful and how your website visitation and conversions are being affected. Keep in mind that the more specific your keywords are the fewer matches you'll get, but the more likely you are to obtain a customer that will make a purchase with you. PPC requires some trial and error but consistent monitoring will strengthen your campaign and help you find a formula that works for you.

Flat-Rate - When a PPC ad is done flat-rate, this means that the advertiser and the search engine's publisher have come to an agreement on the flat rate that will be paid whenever the advertiser's ad is clicked on. This is most commonly used by a website with a very narrow focus of interest in their website.

The publisher can look at the traffic surrounding keywords and content and determine the value of the visitors that will be obtained through the PPC ad. This is how they decide on price.

In most cases bid-based campaigns are better for businesses. This allows them to measure the competition, find niches and adjust as necessary. The downside of a PPC campaign is that it typically requires a lot of maintenance. If you cannot devote enough time to managing the campaign it is important to hire someone who is skilled in running PPC campaigns to manage it for you.