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In the digital marketing world, pay-per-click or PPC campaigns are one of the many tools you have at your disposal to attract customers and sell your products or services. Knowing how to do proper keyword research for a pay-per-click campaign is a must if you want to appear in front of your potential buyers.

People often think that just because you use advertising, the job of selling something becomes much easier. However, this is far from the truth. Reducing your cost per click and boosting your conversion rate is something closer to doing art than to a simple mechanic of selling.

Keyword research for PPC campaigns is a must if you are looking to position your brand and sell something. You must create your PPC campaign using the search terms people actually use when going online to find something.

Follow these basic guidelines to come up with the perfect keyword list for your Google ads campaign.

It all begins with the keywords.

Keywords remain one of the keys to entering the online competition to position your brand at the top of the SERPs.

Why is that?

Well, think about it. People search for things using, precisely, words.

To create a good pay-per-click campaign, you must include a keyword research stage when you focus your efforts on finding relevant keywords to your niche and your products or services.

But, what constitutes a good “PPC keyword”?

Well, the answer, as usual, is not that easy. However, to create a good list of keywords, you should pay attention to these factors.

• Search volume:

the higher the volume, the higher CPC for that keyword would be.

• Search intent:

some keywords have an informative intention while others are better to “sell stuff. You should have all the different types of keywords for your campaigns since every one of them will serve a purpose in creating the awareness needed to stand out from your competitors.

• See what your competition is doing:

jumping into the market without some intel about your competitors’ moves is like trying to go for a swing without knowing the depth of the pool; this is something you probably do not want to do. The only way to take advantage of the opportunities in the market is by closely watching what your competitors do or do not do to satisfy the customers’ needs. If your competitors do not rank for a keyword relevant to your niche is something that will find out while doing your research.

• Start with broad keywords and move to more specific search terms:

it is all about finding the proper balance between broad keywords like “furniture” and a long-tail keyword such as “home furniture made out of wood”. You should have both search queries in your list. The first will provide crazy volume on your website, but it will cost you more, while the latter, even though it does not drive as much traffic as the first one, would be more “intended” traffic.

• Do not forget about social media:

before going any further with your research, remember to always take a look at the different tendencies in the market. People go to social media also intending to find brands and products. Use this to your advantage and look for the most popular hashtags and how you can accommodate them to your keyword research.

• Negative keywords are a thing. Use them:

optimize your campaign using negative keywords. If you are looking to sell something, you do not want your search terms to be associated with others like “free” or “cheap”.

We recommend using keyword research tools like Ubersuggest, Google Keyword Planner, or the Keyword magic tool from SemRush. We have a guide for use of the latter you can read here.

Do the research in the house as well.

Now that you know what the market offers you in terms of keywords, you should optimize the landing page or pages of your campaign to contain those keywords.

What should you strive for?

• Not having keyword stuffing:

this makes your website look unprofessional and it is hardly punished by uncle Google.

• Have “brand keywords”:

the landing pages of your campaign should contain some brand keywords. These keywords are great because they cost you almost nothing, and the ROI is huge if you manage to rank them.

• Be sure not to have cannibalization problems:

a huge downside for a PPC campaign is having cannibalization problems between the landing pages of your campaign and others within your website. Be sure to optimize the rest of the pages on your website to make sure there is no problem in that area.

On the side reflections.

As a business owner, your brand is your most precious asset. You need to take care of the brand and present it to the market in a proper way.

• Have good designs and photos.
• Optimize your website for mobile devices.
• Be clear about what you offer.
• Be clear about your prices and work methods.
• Provide quality content for your customers.
• Respond to reviews and comments. Even the bad ones.
• Create a great customer experience.

If you take care of your brand, people will keep getting back to you every time they need the products or services you offer.

Inspiral is a place where you can grow your business to reach new territories. We want to tell your story to the digital world and help you reach the right people for your brand.

Growing is a path. Take it with us.