Paid Search is also referred to as Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing. In paid search, the marketer is required to pay a fee whenever the ad is clicked. Paid search ads are placed on the SERPs for certain keywords.
Keywords play an important role in paid search marketing. Keywords refer to the words used by people to make searches. Whenever one searches using certain keywords, your ad will be displayed if those keywords match the search terms.
There are four main types of Paid Search Keywords:
Broad match keywords:
These keywords are the most generic, and their matching depends on the inclusion of the keyword anywhere in the search phrase. For instance, using the broad match type of the keyword “running shoes,” the phrase can match searches like “best running shoes,” “women’s running shoes,” or “where to buy running shoes.”
Phrase match keywords:
Phrase match keywords are more specific in nature than broad match keywords, and they will match only those search terms where the keyword phrase appears in the same order. For instance, the keyword phrase “best running shoes” will match queries such as “What are the best running shoes?” and “I am searching for the best running shoes.”
Exact match keywords:
This is the most targeted version of keyword and will only match to the searches which match exactly to the keyword. For instance, the exact match keyword “Nike running shoes” will only match to the search term “Nike running shoes.”
Negative keywords:
The following keywords will be used to ensure that your ad is not shown against certain search terms that you do not wish to target. For instance, if you are advertising running shoes, then “marathon” can be added as a negative keyword for your ad.
Importance of Keywords in Paid Search
Keywords play an essential role in paid search advertising. The proper use of keywords is critical in targeting your audience. Using proper keywords ensures that your ads will appear before the right audience. This will increase click through rate, conversion, and sales.
Some of the advantages that come from using appropriate keywords include the following:
- More relevant ads: Your ads become more relevant to the search queries for which they appear and thus have the potential to increase the click-through rates (CTRs).
- Higher quality scores: Quality scores measure how relevant and high quality your ads and keywords are. Higher quality scores mean you will pay less and have better positions for your ads.
- Targeted traffic: You will have more targeted traffic coming to your website that is likely to convert into customers.
- Higher ROI: You can improve your ROI through the use of appropriate keywords in paid search marketing.
Choosing the Right Keywords
Selecting the right set of keywords for your paid search campaigns can prove to be quite a task. There are several things to consider, including:
- Search volume: This refers to how many times a particular keyword gets searched each month.
- Competition: The competition for a particular keyword.
- Relevance: The relevancy of a keyword for your products or services.
- Cost: CPC of a particular keyword.
There are several tools that you can use to research keywords, and some of these include the Google Keyword Planner.
Conclusion
Keywords play a very important role in paid search marketing. It will help you in targeting your ads towards the right audience and getting better results from it.
There are not only four main types of paid search keywords, but there are numerous other matching types that you can utilize, such as Broad match modifier, Phrase match modifier, Exact match modifier. Such types of matches will help you get more control over the ad matching process.
I hope this blog post helped you to gain some knowledge about different types of paid search keywords and how to choose the right keywords.
