Tips For Choosing Effective PPC Keywords

Determining the best PPC ad keywords to bid on can be overwhelming, especially for a beginner in the PPC market. 

Should you spend more money on one very popular term or diversify your PPC dollars by bidding small amounts on multiple related keywords that may or may not be used that frequently by consumers looking for your website's product or service?

Guidelines for choosing PPC keywords are not set in stone.  What works for your competition may not work for your website as effectively.  Factors like the SEO of your website, organic page search engine results ranking and the product and service you offer all play a part in effective PPC advertising. 

While there are no absolute rules that will work for everyone, a few guidelines are generally accepted as a good starting point for beginning a PPC ad campaign by choosing your keywords.

Relevance is king.  Your keywords must relate to your product or service.  Misrepresenting your website with irrelevant keywords to increase your traffic is never a good idea. It may increase visitors to your site, but it will not increase your sales.

Focus your PPC ads on one particular item or service at a time.  This helps keep your costs down and makes it easier to evaluate how effective your ad campaigns are.

Check your relevant keywords to see how popular they are.  Most PPC services have this option available.  Check your keywords frequently, trends may change from month to month. Any keyword that relates to your website that gets at least 60 clicks per month should be a good investment.

Develop a very large list.  It is often best to bid on as many relevant keywords as you can afford.  By investing most of your advertising money into just a few popular keywords, you are limiting your exposure to the public.

Try bidding on common misspellings of popular keywords related to your website.  They may bring in some traffic at a lower price. Keyword research tools can help you find keyword variations that are relevant for your site.

Use variations of keywords that you might find in a thesaurus. You also may be able to capitalize on common variations of a popular keyword.  Instead of Coca-Cola, try to get Diet Coke or Coke for example.

Keep your keywords closely targeted to your product or service as possible.  If you sell red bow ties, bid on red bow ties, colorful formal wear, men's red ties, red silk bow ties, etc.

Be willing to give up on a keyword.  Sticking with a keyword that is no longer producing results will bring your profits down. PPC  has no room for sentimentality over a keyword.

Ask your employees, friends and family what words they would type into a search engine box to find a product or service like yours.  This can be a great way to brainstorm keywords that you may not have come up with on your own.

These tips are not all the only guidelines for selecting PPC keywords, but they are enough to get you started.  By utilizing these tips, you can choose effective PPC keywords that will keep your budget on track.