by Keyword Research is one of the most critical aspects of PPC universe.
Most of the advertisers even consider it to be rocket science.
Perhaps, it is the first step that the marketer should take when they are advertising through PPC.
Keyword research is like creating a foundation of the building.
It is complicated and requires a lot of hard work and is an important factor in determining the success of the entire PPC campaign.
A simple misunderstanding at the initial stage of PPC campaigns can endanger everything that you do from that point onwards.
Keyword Research basically helps you to identify and target keywords that are most relevant to your audience.
[bctt tweet=”Keyword Research can either make or break the performance of your PPC campaigns.” username=”adstriangle”]
Before carrying out a keyword research for your PPC campaigns, it is important to avoid common PPC mistakes that many PPC advertisers make while performing keyword research.
Avoiding common PPC keyword research mistakes will help you reach your target audience so that your ROI and conversions are maximized.
Here are some common PPC keyword research mistakes that should be avoided.
1. Selecting keywords that are irrelevant to your customers
It has been noted that most of the marketers pick keywords that have high search volume, but they often ignore the relevancy of the keywords to their target audience.
[bctt tweet=”Be sure to choose keywords that are relevant to your target audience. ” username=”adstriangle”]
If you are targeting customers looking for say high-end luxury clothing stores, you should not pick keywords like “low-cost clothing stores” or “affordable clothing stores”.
These customers are not searching for those keywords. Instead, you should choose keywords like “best luxurious clothing stores” or “high-quality clothing store”.
You need to understand that different customers have different concerns and user intent. And so they use different words when they search.
Identifying the user intent and user behavior is the most important. Different types of user have different user intent.
The best part, it’s not difficult to understand. All you need to do is understand the language and the needs of your customers.
It sometimes becomes really difficult to understand all the queries of your target audience because they are wide in number and almost every visitor has different terminology.
So, to avoid the confusion here, you should target keywords that are highly relevant and laser focused towards what your business offers.
But how do you choose highly relevant keywords without spending too much of your time?
One simple way is to see what your competitor is targeting for. This is very important in PPC.
Find out what your competitors are ranking for with PPC tools and use that in your business.
By picking the relevant keywords for your business you can not only beat your competitors but also rank on the top of the SERPs.
For instance check out how “budget hotels” keyword is used in the advert below:
If you are targeting keywords that are inconsistent with your users, you are simply wasting your advertising budget.
Remember, every visitor has an intent and is looking for something. So you have to make sure that you provide an apt answer to your customer’s query.
A better way of performing keyword research is manually searching keywords in Google and noting down the kind of results that come up.
By doing this you will get an insight whether the keyword is relevant to your product or service that you intend to deliver to your target audience or not.
2. Targeting too broadly
This is one of the most common mistakes that marketers make with keyword research.
They target keywords that are so broad that they become unrealistic for their company.
Search volume is one of the most important metrics to keep into consideration when you are looking for perfect keywords.
But when using tools like Google’s keyword tool, do not make this mistake of looking at broad search volumes rather than exact match.
Broad match keywords are significant in finding the search queries and estimating the actual behavior of the visitor.
Here’s an example of Broad match keyword:
If you aren’t careful with this, you will go beyond the limit of keyword research and that will only add up to your wasted ad spend.
[bctt tweet=”Specific keywords cost less for PPC and often have higher conversion ratios.” username=”adstriangle”]
Here’s an example of Exact Match Keyword:
Exact match keywords is important and it will help your advert to rise to the top of the SERPs more quickly.
Remember this, when you are using tools to estimate search volumes, use less of broad and phrase match keywords and more of exact match keywords.
3. Aiming at unrealistic keywords
Keyword Research emerges to be a straightforward yet lengthy task.
You choose a keyword research tool of your choice and select keywords that are related to your campaigns with the highest search volumes.
Is it usually the correct and the most productive method of finding keywords?
Sadly! No.
It is definitely not the correct way to research for keywords if you want to see real results.
If you have just started a campaign, you should not aim at competitive head keywords.
Instead, you should choose long tail keywords as they are easier to rank and have a relatively higher chance of conversion.
[bctt tweet=”Targeting one-word keyword is quite unrealistic plus unprofitable.” username=”adstriangle”]
For example, someone who is searching for “Acer laptops” is quite ahead in the purchasing process than someone who is only searching for “Laptops”.
While targeting keywords, think about the searcher who is almost on the verge of conversion.
Perhaps, there is no major fault in targeting generic keywords.
But if you have a campaign that is limited by budget and you want results in less time, targeting less competitive keywords is a much better way to utilize resources.
4. Opting for keywords that have no traffic
Long tail keywords are a great way to begin a keyword research.
These keywords get less traffic but then you have a higher chance of converting your visitors into customers.
Long tail keywords absolutely become a good match for those users that use specific terms when they are searching.
Moreover, if your keyword is too specific and does not attract any traffic, it will help your campaigns.
[bctt tweet=”Selecting too specific keywords can sometimes be unprofitable. ” username=”adstriangle”]
Hence, you should make sure to aim for those long tail keywords that are capable of attracting sufficient traffic.
As it is said that “Something is better than nothing”. The same quote can be applied in the case of keywords as well.
Here are 5 best tools you can use to find out the high value long tail keywords for your business. Instead of having specific keywords that generate no traffic, you should choose long tail keywords that attract moderate but existent traffic.
Even if you select keywords that attract the adequate amount of traffic and are comparatively low in competition, might not be fruitful for your campaigns.
So, select keywords that are both productive and generate high-quality traffic.
Hand Picked Related Content:
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5. Focusing on one or few keywords
Another mistake that internet marketers do while conducting keyword research is that they tend to focus on either one or few keywords for their campaigns.
One or few keywords become very reluctant in generating more traffic as they are way too general and highly competitive.
Moreover, they do not cope up with the searcher’s intent.
They are led by a misconception that by focusing on one or few top keywords, they will fetch the most reliable PPC results.
Since in PPC, there is already a lot of competition for the keywords.
As pertaining to that if you still choose to go with one or few keywords, you would be doing nothing but wasting your dollars and time.
In order to drive more traffic to your website through PPC campaigns, you need to focus on optimizing more keywords for your PPC campaigns.
[bctt tweet=”Focus on optimizing more keywords that bring your potential customers closer to you.” username=”adstriangle”]
So to make most of your PPC campaigns, try composing your keyword list of mostly long tail keywords because they prove to be more relevant to the searcher’s intent.
Also, make sure that the keywords that you are incorporating in your keyword list should focus more on the user’s intent.
By simply mapping your keyword research to the buyer’s journey you will not only reach closer to your target audience but also register a hike in conversion.
Hand picked related content:
How to Determine a Keyword’s Commercial Intent
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6. Ignoring the search trends
Search trends can have a significant impact on the keywords that you are targeting through keyword research.
Search trends give you a good clue about what the people think while searching for a product/service and on what keywords are getting the most number of clicks.
So,it is definitely a wise idea to keep a close eye on Google search trends.
Keywords also face ups and down over time.
And staying up to date with these trends is a great way to formulate your keyword strategy effectively.
Targeting keywords all by yourself while conducting keyword research is not the correct strategy.
You should consider the intention and the language of the searcher as well.
[bctt tweet=”Also, before targeting any keyword, evaluate its current search result.” username=”adstriangle”]
This search evaluation of the keywords shows the competitiveness of the keyword, which is essentially important for keyword bidding.
Moreover, you should also know how to analyze search reports of your website and use it making strategies.
It gives you a ready made list of potential keywords which the users might have searched.
These keywords come directly from your targeted audience and make your work easier of finding quality keywords.
Hand Picked Related Content:
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7. Not reviewing the chosen keywords
It is universally accepted that PPC marketing is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring.
Same is the case with keyword research, as it is dynamic and flexible that need constant attention.
The tastes, preferences, and expectations of the users constantly change, develop and evolve over time.
As a result, their choice of keywords also changes simultaneously.
This makes reviewing your regular keywords comparatively essential.
While performing keyword research, know how to conduct keywords audit and check reviews to remove the under performing keywords and to identify more profitable keywords.
Have a look at our previous blog on “Complete Guide on How to Use Keywords in PPC”
In that blog post, we have mentioned the tips and strategies to deal with performing and non-performing keywords.
Do not leave your keywords running for too long.
You should regularly monitor your keywords to know:
- The keywords that are overspending
- The keywords that are under-performing
- Keywords that are generating no or less traffic
Hence, it is always beneficial to keep an eye on your keywords to assess their performance because the keywords that seemed relevant today might lose its relevance tomorrow.
So, you should constantly revisit the keywords of your choice to make sure that they are still working.
[bctt tweet=”Have a constant check on the keywords to ensure that they are still in progress.” username=”adstriangle”]
By reviewing the keywords every now and then, you will not only clean up the mess but be able to focus on keywords that drive results.
Hand picked related content:
The Only 6 Keyword Research Tools You Need to Use
How to Unlock Google Analytics Keyword Not Provided
Conclusion
Before you dive into keyword research for your PPC campaigns, you should know about these common keyword research mistakes that many advertisers make.
Executing keyword research takes a lot of time.
It is important for you to take a considerate amount of time and really think about the keywords that you actually want to bid for.
Avoiding these mistakes related to keyword research can save your time, help you to formulate a successful marketing strategy and drive in the potential and targeted customers.
[bctt tweet=”By targeting valuable and appropriate keywords, your traffic and conversions will increase.” username=”adstriangle”]
On the other hand, by choosing the wrong keywords, you will simply waste your budget.
So, it totally depends on how you conduct the keyword research.
Hopefully, we have provided you with ample information that might prevent you from making common keyword research mistakes.