As a paid search marketer, one of our main goals is to drive qualified traffic to our clients’ websites in the most efficient, cost effective manner. These days, expensive keywords, fierce competition and the mystical Quality Score have forced us to find new ways to find this “perfect searcher.”
So how does one go about finding the perfect searcher? How do you find the right keywords for the lowest CPCs? Mainstream tools such as Trellian’s KW Discovery, WordTracker, Nichebot, and Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool are extremely valuable resources and offer many great keyword research methods and statistics. While these tools are a great starting point, when you’re ready to hone your campaigns to the level of maximum efficiency and ROI, the next step is to utilize the advanced keyword data available through tools like Google’s Search Query Report or our internal Raw Request report. These reports provide the actual search queries that are triggering your PPC ads.
Without spending too much time on their definitions, Broad and Phrase match keywords have the unique ability to trigger ads by matching relevant search queries with keywords you are currently bidding on. Utilizing Broad and Phrase match keywords, search query reports will show you exactly how people are searching for your products or services. You have the opportunity to continuously harvest new keywords and expand your Exact match keywords, which typically have lower CPCs than Broad and Phrase match. In addition, if you find your ads are triggered byirrelevant search terms, add these to your negative keywords to weed out unqualified clicks, thus reducing unnecessary costs.
Another helpful report you can use to help understand searchers is a keyword click path report. Often, a buyer’s decision making process first involves carrying out research by searching for very generic, costly terms. When the buyer is closer to purchase, they will use brand keywords or more specific keywords in their search. While the expensive, generic keywords can play a vital part in the research phase, on paper they have low conversion rates and deliver a low ROI because they don’t get credit for the conversions. Keyword click path data gives you the ability to understand the entire consumer journey versus the traditional “last click wins” methodology. Now you can assess the value of all clicks in the consumer journey and take action. For example, you might increase bids on those generic keywords that appear at the beginning of the click path where CPCs would have previously been reduced.
Search query and keyword click path reports might seem a little daunting to a new paid search marketer. But utilizing these types of advanced datasets will definitely help in conducting good keyword research and finding the perfect searcher, which is crucial to the success of any paid search campaign in today’s complex market.
Jacqueline Brown
