Building a PPC Keyword list?

[Jordanl18]

I am somewhat new to the whole PPC world and sponsored search. I have never been taught any methods or strategies of how to approach building a keyword list or what tools to use. Right now I use the Overture and Goole tools for my keyword research.

I am curious how others go about researching and building a keyword list and what tools they use.

I look forward to reading all the your posts!

[TheBrain]

Well, what PPC program do you use? Google has pretty clear guidelines in its AdWords - and you can also find on their groups and blogs useful info. And it also depends what you want to achive with the campaign. I suppose you want to increase sales. Then you should target the most relevant keywords to what you want to sell. And don't double with the ones you aready have high rankings for.

[GuyFromChicago]

Check your server logs/analytics. I always look for the word(s) people used to find my site(s) via organic search that converted and start with those. Wordtracker is pretty good too.

Originally Posted by TheBrain

And don't double with the ones you aready have high rankings for.

If a keyword/phrase converts that you rank for naturally you should bid on it in PPC as well.

[andheresjohnny]

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Check your server logs/analytics. I always look for the word(s) people used to find my site(s) via organic search that converted and start with those.

This is excellent advice, and something that can work surprisingly well. Especially if you discover that certain converting phrases are out of the mainstream for your product.

These are the ones that you can target on PPC for low bids.

[Jordanl18]

If I use Google Analytics, where is the server logs/analytics located

[Webfu]

Look inside there for a button called keywords / search terms

[TheBrain]

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Check your server logs/analytics. I always look for the word(s) people used to find my site(s) via organic search that converted and start with those. Wordtracker is pretty good too.



If a keyword/phrase converts that you rank for naturally you should bid on it in PPC as well.

Why? Statistics show that users trust more organic results and less sponsored results. Bidding on the phrases that appear naturally on the first positions will only cost money loss! Many users don't read the description of the link, they don't notice they were on a certain site before. They just click.

[thePro]

I manually think of every possible keyword people could use to reach my site. It takes a lot of time indeed, but it pays off in the long run.

[Thomas Schulz]

Me too. I try to cover every conceivable variation and alteration :-)

[andheresjohnny]

Originally Posted by TheBrain

Why? Statistics show that users trust more organic results and less sponsored results. Bidding on the phrases that appear naturally on the first positions will only cost money loss! Many users don't read the description of the link, they don't notice they were on a certain site before. They just click.

If you're not using PPC because your website ranks high organically then you are leaving money on the table.

You don't have to compete with your own high ranking keyword(s) if you don't want to ... just exclude them (negative match) from your keyword list and go after the other 1,000,000 keyphrases where your site doesn't rank #1.

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by TheBrain

Why? Statistics show that users trust more organic results and less sponsored results. Bidding on the phrases that appear naturally on the first positions will only cost money loss! Many users don't read the description of the link, they don't notice they were on a certain site before. They just click.

Number of reasons...

1) A sale is a sale is a sale.
2) Organic - here today gone tomorrow.
3) Your competition is doing it.
4) Why appear once when you can appear twice.
5) Experience - I've seen it work thousands of times.


It's not "money loss" if you're converting. Go for maximum exposure at minimum cost.

Originally Posted by thePro

I manually think of every possible keyword people could use to reach my site. It takes a lot of time indeed, but it pays off in the long run.

Nothing wrong with that but if you're not using keyword tools you're missing some words/phrases that people may be using to find similiar products/services. Guaranteed.