A common question I get when explaining the value of Trada’s collaborative PPC campaign approach is “Can’t I just use a keyword generator to find all the keywords I need?” Businesses new to paid search are always looking for shortcuts and ways to make their PPC campaigns more effective – so it’s not inherently a bad question. My response though is always, “have you used one and what were the results?” I can say that 100% of the time the answer is that the inquirer has not used a keyword generator tool before (and thus never felt the wrath that these tools can incur).

There are lots of different keyword generators and suggestion tools out there:

• Google’s Search Based Keyword Tool
• Google’s Suggestion Tool
• Microsoft’s AdLab Tools

And a host of others…

While I am not throwing all keyword tools under the bus (or the use of them) there are some serious things you need to watch out for when using keyword generators. These issues are exacerbated when you have a relatively small monthly budget (<$2000).

Problem #1: Unapplicable Keywords

All keyword generators let very unapplicable keywords into their final data sets. While the tools have gotten much better over the years, if you don’t take a look at every keyword and consider its applicability to your campaign, you’re going to load up some landmines. I always work from the basic premise that some users will click on any ad no matter what search result was typed in or what the ad says. This is the lazy/unknowledgeable user problem. If you don’t believe me, put an ad into your PPC campaign for Crystal Stemware with the keyword “Britney Spears” and watch the clicks rack up (until Quality Score beats you down).

Solution #1:

Review every keyword you want to use from a generator before you upload it to your campaign. There is simply no way around this activity.

Problem #2: High Demand, Very Broad, Low Converting Keywords

Keyword generators work by building semantic models of what people search on. This does not necessarily correlate to buying intent. Most keyword generators will produce somewhat general keywords even though they may be 3 to 4 words long. This is natural because the semantic models are influenced by what is searched on the most. The problem is these search terms are general because people don’t refine their searches on the first shot. In addition, they are the most susceptible to very wide interpretation by broad match (which is the default format most keyword generator tools let you load into Excel). So you’ll get caught in that net. In addition, general terms are more expensive in paid search markets like AdWords. So you’ll be spending a lot of money on these keywords with relative low conversions.

Solution #2:

Start all keywords that are taken from a keyword generator as phrase or exact match. While this will reduce your volume up front, you’ll prevent a lot of unwanted broad matches from chewing up your budget before you can put in negatives. You should selectively add a broad match or two to each ad group to try and fish for related ideas you had not thought of, but phrase and exact match will likely constrain your clicks to more relevant terms. This should drive higher conversion rates and lower costs.

Problem #3: Chewing Up Budget

The final problem caused by the two mentioned above is that a lot of very general broad-match keywords in a small budget campaign will simply elbow out all of the more sophisticated long-tail keywords that could be converting well and thus highly profitable. If you’re spending $1,000/mo, that’s only $33/day. If you are in a keyword space that is on average $2/click (there are many categories that are this expensive if not more) then you’ve got $17 tries a day. If your keywords are very general, it will be easy to spend your whole budget on terms like “business software” or “marketing companies”. Even a few bad broad matches can eat you budget before 10:00am every day. You’ll never learn anything about what your actual customers are really searching for when looking for your unique products or services.

Solution #3:

Start your campaign carefully with phrase and exact match. Be willing to pay a bit more for these as they will likely convert better for you.  If you are not getting the volume you need, start dropping in some of the broad match keywords you think apply. Price them down until you understand how broadly the search engine will match them. Some broad match keywords only ever match search terms exactly; some are widely varying. Look at the search results related to those broad keywords and then work them back into your phrase and exact match while bidding down the broad match keywords and adding negatives. The key here is to proceed with caution lest you burn a lot of money with no results.

In the end, you’ll find that keyword tools are very useful for new ideas but very dangerous as export and upload mechanisms. Good paid search takes time, review and lots of optimization. If a keyword generated campaign seems too easy to be true, it probably is.