Negative keywords are an integral optimization for SEM campaign success. Negative keywords are used to filter and block queries which are unrelated to your defined customer experience.
Benefits of Negative Keywords
The benefits of negative keywords include:
- Eliminating low converting queries
- Eliminating low CTR queries
- Eliminating high CPC Undesired queries
The gist of it is – if your bidded keywords are matching into queries that are negatively impacting your program you should be negative matching the query. Depending on your keyword universe (total relevant query volume) you could be save anywhere from 5% to %50 on unnecessary cost! If you can do only one optimization it should be developing negative keywords.
How to Develop Negative Keywords
There are many methods to developing negative keywords; however, the most effective way is to pull a search query report. This report which can be generated in both AdWords and AdCenter provides a list of actually searched queries. From this list you can look at performance metrics such as CPC, CTR and even Conversion if you have engine level conversion tracking enabled.
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Follow these search engine marketing tips and become a proficient and efficient SEM professional.
Think Like a Student
As a search marketer you need to think like a student. Always be actively learning more about search marketing and advertising. There are a ton of knowledge gaps in the industry so you will not always have someone to lean on. Learn how to teach yourself, take risks and study up.
Think Like a Teacher
Once you learn something new apply it and spread the word. Become a thought leader. Teach your colleagues and friends (or start a blog and teach anyone who will listen.)
Test and Optimize
Now that you are a perpetual student and teacher you should know a thing or two about tests. Should you use an A/B test or Multivariate? Will Pre and Post data be statiscally significant? What should my actions be now that the test is over?
Master Analytics
Search engine marketing is all about data. It’s about a lot of data. Learn how to master the data and interpret it and you will become an invaluable asset to any company. Learn how to discover trends and speak to how and why they are occurring.
Master Excel
Excel is your friend. In fact it’s your BFF. Vlookups, if functions, pivot tables, macros… the list goes on. Mastering Excel will make you more productive and allow you to spend more time improving your account.
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Paid Search Keyword Research
With the advancement of Broad match and Match Driver technology many search marketers have the propensity to get lazy with their keyword research. Also while keyword research tools like AdWords Keyword Tool you may be tempted to start you search with one loose logic query and copy the results right into you PPC campaign.
Falling into this habit will result in poor CTR, Conversion Rate, higher than needed CPCs and hopefully a damaged ego. While you may find yourself developing your own method of keyword research please allow me to give you my two cents and do with it what you will.
Step 1: Research Your Product and Select Your Landing Page
Before you can start to understand how people are going to search for what you have to offer you need to know everything you can about it. There is a good chance you may already have a perfect understanding, but for those of you who are new to an account or offering then this is where you start.
Select your landing page and narrow it down to a handful of pages. This is a good place to start you account research. Read through the page in its entirety and get a good feel for how to navigate the page. Take note of the page hierarchy and the product descriptions. Start with the basics, who will use this product/offering and why would they want it?
Follow the break for all 5 steps to the perfect keyword research!
The Text Ad
Forget the Haiku- Text ads are the poetry of today. Four lines of hyper-condensed messaging wrote to entice a searcher to click through to your selected landing page. With successful text ads youcan expect an ad campaign to receive higher click through rates, higher Quality Score and Lower Cost Per Clicks driving some of the most efficient visitors to you clients site. Clearly poetry from the heart.
The Structure
Each engine has slight variations; however, the basic structure is the same. A 35 Character Title followed by a 70 Character description and a 35 Character Display URL.
Text ads come in different flavors depending on who is serving them, but the structure is basically the same. Here is an example of a Google Text Ad:
textad structure
Keys to Success
Writing text ads can be terribly easy or just as equally frustrating. Many search marketers find that the Character Limits actually improve their messaging, forcing them to become much more simple, succinct and concise (you see what I did there?). If you find yourself running out of characters, or one to two characters over with no room to edit there are several tricks to shortening things up.
First there are three main principles to follow when writing text ads:
What is Paid Search?
For the true SEM Noobs reading, this is step one on your road to SEM enlightenment. While Search Engine Marketing can involve a variety of different tactics, paid search is the primary focus of this website.
The Internet has become a way of life for more than 1,574,313,184 users worldwide, all of which are trying to connect with desired information, a product, entertainment, a friend or to add their opinion to just about everything. With a seemingly endless expansion of content on the web it would be nearly impossible to find what you are looking for without search engines.
Search engines have stepped in to help sort and index the internet. With their help we are often able to find what we are looking for, like finding out if anyone else has ended up with 5 sets of ShamWow from a sleepless night of infomercials… Just saying…
The “Bid” Dogs
While there are many different search portals to choose from, the vast majority of queries are made from four search engines.
Search Engine Market Share
As great a job as these engines have done to organize the web’s content they are not doing it for free. In order to pay the salaries of the brains behind the brands these engines have implemented a great advertising model that still provides relevant content to searchers.
If you are interested in learning more about top Search Engine Marketing agencies then this map will help you out. This Google map contains a comprehensive list of the top search engine marketing agencies in the United States.
This can come in helpful for anyone interested in where SEM agencies are located. If you would like more information, each location provides a link to the corresponding agencies Web Page. For all the SEM Noobs out there you may find this map helpful for research potential employers.
View SEM Agencies in a larger map
We have a new exciting addition to SEM Noob. As we move down the long road to becoming a one stop shop for all thing SEM I will continue to update you on our progress. First things first – we have added a list of Search Engine Marketing specific definitions.
This will come in handy as we write articles that may include a word you are not familiar with. While the list does contain a great amount of detail we are looking at it as a community effort. I have provided the ability to edit the definitions page after you have subscribed to SEM Noob. I encourage and welcome any comments, collaboration, critiques and constructive criticism.
