Coming up with really good long-tail keywords for your SEO or pay-per-click campaigns can sometimes be daunting if you don’t understand how buyers use Google, what buying cycle they are in, and how your content or offers align with those search terms people use to look for what you do.
Marketers must really understand their audience’s needs in order to provide something of value that can lead to a conversion. Therefore, that pay-per-click ad must align with the keyword phrase, as well as the landing page offer, for better paid search optimization. When ads do not align with the search query, click through rates are reduced, quality scores are reduced, cost-per-click increases, ad rank is reduced, and the campaign performs poorly.
So you really have to plan for your keyword strategy. It’s not just the tools, but it’s also speaking with customers, and many times, common sense. In fact, there are a number of ways to research keywords such as:
- As stated, speaking with clients and customers
- Reviewing competitive sites (and tools such as Spyfu)
- Your organic keywords obtained from your analytics program
- Google’s keyword research tool
- Other third party keyword research tools
- Industry research and news websites
- Social media monitoring
- General internal brainstorming- review all of your products and services- what do they do, what problems do they solve, what type of buyer needs them?
If you have multiple target audiences (industry and or job title), make a list of these personas. Job titles may have different needs for the same solutions. C-level audiences have bottom-line thinking. Mid-managers are more into specific features or benefits (efficiency, cost-savings, and productivity). Keywords, landing pages, and offers need to address these audiences within specific paid search campaigns.
When it comes to buying cycles, your campaigns need to address needs throughout the funnel. The typical stages are:
- Awareness. Your potential customers don’t know you exist. You need to target them to get their attention.
- Research. Potential customers not only know you exist but have shown an interest in learning more about products or solutions.
- Purchase. These people have a good idea about what they want and are ready to purchase.
Therefore long tail keyword phrases should align with the stages above.
Now let’s have a little keyword research fun. When I gather my seed keywords for my client’s campaigns, I match with appropriate complementary keywords as below, and then turn those phrases into modified broad, phrase, and exact matches, using a tool I’ll share later.
For the below, let’s use my firm, NuSpark Marketing, as an example, and one of my services, pay-per-click strategy, as search queries.
For each group (which can emulate Google ad groups), I show a sample actual search query, and a modified broad match (denoted by a plus sign) that is the keyword format included in my ad groups. A modified broad match is when a search engine query includes all of the keywords in your keyword phrase with a plus sign. It’ll make sense as you read the examples below.
Awareness Phase: Seed keywords focus in what your prospects’ needs are
Offer: Educational white paper
Group One:
- How to
- Why does
- Ways to
- Looking for
Actual query: How to improve pay-per-click results
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +How +To +Pay +per +click
Group Two:
- Tips
- Techniques
- Ideas
- Improving
Actual query: Pay-per-click optimization techniques
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +techniques
Group Three:
- Pdfs
- Powerpoints
- Presentations
- Articles
- White papers
- Blogs
- Research
Actual query: Articles on Pay-per-click management
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +articles
Group Four:
- Results
- Performance
- Process
- Productivity
- Success
- Effectiveness
Actual query: Improving Pay-per-click results
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +results
Research Phase: Seed keywords focus in what your company does or is
Offer: Trials, Demos. Benefit-focused copy
Group Five:
Actual query: Top Pay-per-click firms that focus on lead generation
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +top
Group Six:
- Reviews
- Opinions
- Case studies
- Advice
Actual query: Review of pay-per-click firms in Philadelphia
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +reviews
Group Seven:
- List
- Search
- Directory
- Guide
Actual query: List of B2B pay-per-click lead generation firms
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +list
Group Eight:
- Solutions
- Software
- Programs
- Tools
- Platforms
- Services
Actual query: Pay-per-click programs for b2b businesses
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +programs
Group Nine:
- Companies
- Firms
- Agencies
- Vendors
- Consultants
Actual query: Pay-per-click firms that specialize in b2b
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +firms
Group Ten- For specific industries you cover. List those industries in your research.
Industry specific
Actual query: Pay-per-click software for the accounting industry
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +for +”industry”
Purchase Phase
Ad/Offer: Discounts, Promotions
Group Eleven
- Affordable
- Cheap
- Discount
- Buy
- Purchase
- Sale
- Prices
- Deals
- Clearance
Actual query: Where to buy pay-per-click software
Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +buy
Below is a concatenate tool we use at NuSpark Marketing that helps us create and manage keywords, by merging terms for up to 4 themes, and outputting exact, phrase, broad, modified broad and negative matches. After we enter the seed keywords and the complementary terms as listed above, we output very specific long-tail keywords for the appropriate ad groups.
In a nutshell, when planning pay-per-click or paid search campaigns, you need to put a lot of thought into your strategy; determine what terms people use to consider, research, and purchase your products, and offer unique content and offers that best match those search queries within those buying stages. This process is crucial for optimizing a lead generation pay-per-click campaign. We’ll get to negatives keywords in a future post.
What do you think of this process? What works for you?
