Google has made public a new “Keywords to the Wise” document for AdWords advertisers. This updated guide to best Keywords practices includes practical tips and examples of how to optimize your AdWords campaigns. You can also skip this section and watch the video below.
Matt Lawson, Director of Performance Ads Marketing at Google, writes: “As people search for things on Google, advertisers target those searches, or queries, using keywords. The relationship between queries and keywords is at the heart of search advertising with AdWords.”
He also asks direct questions to AdWords advertisers about how they are handling their campaigns, such as:
- Do you target the meaning of a user’s search, in addition to the language a user may or may not be using?
- Are your long tail keywords too long?
- What opportunities for expansion are you missing out on in your account?
- How diligent are you with your negative keywords, and do you understand the ways in which their matching behavior differs from positive keywords?
The new guide covers all of the above topics and more. It is divided into five sections:
- Align Keywords with Your Business Goals
- Manage Match Types for Growth and Control
- Find New Targeting Opportunities
- Expand the Reach of Existing Keywords
- Refine Your Traffic with Negative Keywords
Perhaps the most useful section of the Keyword Guide is the opening checklist including a summary of the best practices that search engine marketers should consider to optimize their AdWords campaigns. Here are the list highlights directly from Google’s document.
Align Keywords with Your Business Goals
1. Think holistically about the different ways that customers could reach you.
2. Align your keywords and their management with your overall business goals.
3. Delete your low search volume keywords.
Manage Match Types for Growth and Control
4. Use broad match to capture long tail queries, reserve exact match for your primary volume and value drivers.
5. Don’t create minute variations of phrase/exact match keywords.
Find New Targeting Opportunities
6. Use Dynamic Search Ads to streamline account management.
Expand the Reach of Existing Keywords
7. Maximize the presence of your keywords by improving their Ad Rank.
8. Extend your reach to users that aren’t on Google.com by targeting search partners.
Refine Your Traffic with Negative Keywords
9. Make negative keyword additions a regular part of account maintenance. Use the Keyword Planner or your search terms reports to find the most impactful negatives.
10. Just like your main keywords, focus negative keyword management on the places that will do the most good.
The guide also includes some “Google Tips” as well as other case studies and statistics showing what types of keywords may work better depending on your particular campaign. The guide is only 12 pages long and it can be downloaded here.
And as always, if you need any assistance setting up or managing your AdWords campaign, you can always contact our SEO Team at MGR Consulting Group and they will make sure that your campaign is constantly optimized.
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Until next time, this is Manuel Gil del Real (MGR)
