Google AdWords is great for business owners who have a website and want to get boost on their search engine rankings. AdWords can be used for almost any business but is best for business owners who already have a website and have a budget to allocate to advertising. AdWords works by bidding on keywords so that when potential customers search for businesses like yours, Google shows them your business first.
In order to run an AdWords campaign for your business, it’s essential to pick the right keywords for your business. Here are some tips to find keywords for your AdWords campaigns to rank higher in Google searches for your local geographic area or business industry.
Choosing the Right Keywords for AdWords
Keywords are the foundation of advertising with AdWords. These are the phrases people type into Google to find something, and it’s your job to figure out what people type into Google when they’re looking for a product or service like yours. How do you choose good keywords and what should you do with them?
Perform keyword research in order to find the best keywords for your business. To get an idea of how you’re already ranking, check your Google Analytics or ThriveHive account (if you have one) to see how people are finding your website online. Once you know what you’re ranking for, you can optimize your website and blog posts to rank for other related searches.
Brainstorming AdWords Keywords
Start by brainstorming a list of 10-20 phrases that either describe your business, product or service or that you think people would use to search for your business. Stay away from one word keywords, as these are too general and will cause your ads to be seen for less relevant searches. Think about what you do, the services you offer, and how customers would describe your business.
Narrow the Keyword Focus
Focus on targeted keywords that are 3+ words in order to get the most out of your AdWords strategy. Phrases of two to four keywords tend to be more specific and will better target searchers looking for exactly what you offer. For instance, using a keyword like “red Nike womens running shoes” is a lot more specific than simply using “womens shoes”. Simply bidding on the words “womens shoes” could show your ad next to people searching for anything from snow shoes to high heels.
Keyword Research Tools
The old Google Keyword Tool is gone, so now what? There are other tools for you to use to find keywords, starting with the Google Keyword Planner. Google Keyword Planner is the new version of the old Google Keyword Tool and works in a similar manner. Use this determine the search frequency of the keywords you brainstormed to find keywords that people are looking up.
Find a happy medium between keywords that are searched frequently and keywords that are relevant to your business that you can rank for on Google. Bid on keywords that are searched a few hundred times a month to catch relevant traffic. Bidding on an expensive keyword phrase that’s super popular is a waste of money.
Types of Keywords to Use
Be descriptive and specific and you’ll drive more traffic, leads and sales at a lower cost. Remember this is only your first ad group, so keep the keywords closely related, and don’t worry if you can only come up with a handful of them. You’ll be able to start new ad groups with any extra keywords you come up with, and then expand on those terms and write a closely related ad to go with them.
AdWords Keyword Bidding
The last step of setting up the first ad group in your campaign is setting a bid that will apply to all the keywords in this ad group. You’ll be able to set up bids for each individual keyword later, and you’ll definitely want to, but to start, bid low perhaps starting at around a dollar per click. Starting out by bidding low gives you the opportunity to collect some data and figure out if you should be bidding more or less and for which keywords.
Optimizing Keywords
After you have your first campaign up and running, you should optimize your website for those keywords. Optimization is the process of improving the efficiency of your campaign—getting more traffic and customers for your dollar. To do this, you should optimize both on-site and on-page keyword content. Choose the pages that will give potential customers the most relevant information and capture their information. A landing page or a page with a Contact Us form will do just that.
Running an AdWords campaign isn’t difficult once you know what you’re doing and get some practice. But, we know that AdWords isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for more info on AdWords for small businesses, check out this eBook, or get more information about how ThriveHive can manage your AdWords campaigns for you. Happy bidding!
