Google AdWords Tip #1

Make sure your ad is relevant to your keywords.  It seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at the amount of people who run the same ad over multiple keywords.  It is imperative that you write a new ad for every keyword that you use, even if it’s just a slight modification you make to the ad.  When people search on something, they want to see those exact words in their search, and they won’t click on an ad that doesn’t match their search terms.

Google AdWords Tip #2

Write good ads.  While it is important that you use the keywords in your ad text, the ad must also be good.  It has to be compelling, and it has to give the reader a reason to click on it over the other ads as well as the natural search results.  So why should they choose you?  You need to make your case, using your keywords, in very few words.  If you can develop this skill, it will be a very valuable thing to have.

Google AdWords Tip #3

Mix up your bidding strategy.  Don’t think that the same style of bidding applies to all situations.  When you first start out, you may need to bid a little higher on the more competitive keywords because your click-through-rate and standing with Google isn’t so high; but don’t forget, as your standing with Google increases, to go back and lower your bids – there’s no point in spending money when you don’t have to.

Conversely, you also need to bid differently on less popular keywords – in that case, you start low, and slowly increase your bid in small increments until you have the position you want on the first page of results.  By increasing your bid slowly, you’ll get the best possible placement for the least possible amount of money.

What is Keyword Expansion?

Keywords are the foundation of every search marketing campaign (be it paid or organic). Keyword expansion is a technique for constantly increasing the size and scope of a keyword list. By growing their keyword lists, marketers are able to ensure that their search efforts will also grow and evolve, which is imperative to a healthy, thriving search marketing campaign.

Point being, a business needs to be constantly moving in the search space to stay ahead of the competition and be successful in search. Keyword expansion is one of the keys to making this happen.

What are the Benefits of Keyword Expansion?

Expanding your keywords creates new opportunities to target and reach new potential customers. By identifying new, action-producing keywords and adding them to your keyword portfolio, you’re able to delve into uncharted markets that your business has yet to explore.

In short, keywords expansion done correctly will save a company money and boost sales.

The primary benefits of growing your keywords are:

• Discovering keywords that your competitors aren’t targeting.
• Finding keywords for paid search with lower cost-per-click and higher conversion rates.
• Uncovering fresh opportunities for traffic and conversions.
• Gaining more insight into how people search for and identify your product or services.

What are the Best Practices for Expanding Keywords?

There are many ways to expand your keyword lists for your search marketing efforts. Some of the most popular methods of expansion include:

• Brainstorming for new keyword ideas.
• Examining your competitor’s websites to find which keywords they’re targeting.
• Using keyword tools to discover new keywords and keyword variations.
• Checking the data from your own analytic files to find keywords that are already proven to work for your website, but ones that you may be missing

These are all good methods, but in my opinion the most reliable and effective way to conduct keyword expansion is to mine your websites search history for new keywords.

By constantly examining your own server log data, you will find new keywords that searchers used to find your site. These are keywords that are proven to elicit desired actions, such as clicks and conversions.

Point being, if these keywords worked for your website before, chances are they’ll work again.

Once you’ve discovered and compiled these new keywords, you can leverage this data and create new, targeted search marketing campaigns around these new keywords, which includes developing new, relevant content and highly-optimized paid search ads and landing pages.

By following this approach to keyword expansion, your business has the power to explore new search verticals with cheaper keywords, target new customers, and improve your overall search marketing ROI.