Keywords: Turning Negatives into Positives

One of the most no brainer things an Adwords Marketer can do, but that doesn’t get enough attention is negative keyword reseach.

One of the great things about Google Adwords is it not only lets you target the keywords you choose, but it lets you apply broader terms and filter out what you don’t want included in those searches.

So if you have as your keyword:

    “Time Warner Cable” (phrase match for instance)

And you are selling programming guides..

You probably don’t want “installation” attached to the end. Because with phrase match Google will serve it to any phrase as long as those 3 words are in it, you need to make sure you are not getting words that change the meaning and target audience you are focusing in on.

So you would use “installation” as a negative keyword so you don’t get this..

    “Time Warner Cable Installation”

You want someone that is looking for your guide not an installation.

How do you find these negatives?

There are many ways. I’ll give you some examples:

• *New* Added this bullet in 2010:  There's functionality now in the Adwords interface that can help you identify negatives.  Go into your ad groups keyword tab.  On the menu you'll see a drop down "See search terms...".  Use that to see the phrase people are actually searching on.  Words can be added to your original phrase if you are using phrase or broad match.    * Start with your keyword tools. Do searches on your keywords and look for phrases that include words that don’t make sense for your product or service and your target market.
• Go to the search engines and plug in your keywords into the search box. Sift through the search results. Look for words in the titles, descriptions and other copy on the results pages that might not fit what you are targeting. Include those!
• Use Googles Keyword Tool in the Adwords interface. There is a drop down that will give you suggestions for negatives based on the keywords you plug in.
• Your logs and redirect tools. Take advantage of the data that is collected on your website and server. Your server logs will tell you what keywords were searched on by your visitors and also some software out there will give you data that can help you sift out good negatives.

Those are excellent starting points.

Don’t ignore this part of the game. You never know what kind of crazy, untargeted keywords people might actually be searching on to find your site. Don’t waste money on those clicks!

Expanding and improving your campaigns isn’t just about CPC, CTR, adding more keywords, improving quality score, split testing ads… It’s not only about spending more money. It’s about cutting costs. Saving money on junk clicks.

Hope this helps!

-Matt Levenhagen

PPC Advertising - Keywords