Intro to Keywords: Get The Party Started

Keywords: Get the Party Started

Join Trada for an upcoming webinar on Crash Course on Keywords - Weds., Dec. 15 at 11 am MT.

There are three main elements in the construction of a search ad campaign: keywords, ad copy and ad groups. Once you understand these pieces, putting together a paid search campaign becomes easier. We’re going to start with an introduction to keywords.

Let’s say you’re brand new to search engine marketing. What exactly is a keyword? When people search for something online, they choose search terms to define what they’re looking for. Each paid search campaign selects keywords that match search terms that are relevant to the products/services the business offers. The paid search ad is triggered when someone uses search terms that match the keywords.

There are two types of keywords: head-of-tail keywords and long-tail keywords. Head-of-tail keywords are short: one- or two-word keywords like “shoes” or “pink shoes”. Head-of-tail keywords tend to drive much more traffic, but tend to have vastly more expensive bid prices. Plus, because the keywords are broad, they are less likely to drive conversions.

Long-tail keywords are three or more words. For example, a long-tail keyword would be “neon green Nikes”. They’re much more specific, and thus drive less traffic. But the traffic they do drive converts at a higher rate, and has a lower CPC, since demand for the keyword is lower. While each single long-tail keyword tends to drive less traffic, overall long-tail keywords will drive the bulk of the buyers.

In PPC advertising, businesses bid for relevant keywords on search engines. All three of the major search engines use a bid-price model. This is an auction where advertisers bid the maximum price they’re willing to pay for a keyword. The highest bid is most likely to win the top result, but other criteria are considered. The search networks will consider the historical CTR of the ad/keyword and the relevancy of the keywords to both ads and landing pages.