Microsoft adCenter Desktop Tool
As an avid user of the Adwords Editor, I was delighted when Microsoft launched their adCenter desktop tool. Sure, I knew it wouldn’t be as robust or user friendly, but at least it was something! Over the past year I’ve stumbled upon a few things that I hope will help streamline the use of the desktop tool, and make it a little more effective for editing and optimizing your campaigns.

When using the desktop tool, there are a few things that I think are important to keep in mind:

• Your entire account will be downloaded when exporting. Unlike the Editor, you are not able to choose specific campaigns, ad groups, ads, or views to download. You get the whole enchilada every time. However, when uploading, it is not necessary to have every row of your account in your spreadsheet, nor do you have to have every column accounted for. You do however, need to have enough information included so the level you are editing can be identified. For example, if you are editing your keyword status and bids, you need to include the campaign and ad group columns along with the keyword columns that contain your changes. When in doubt, more information is better.
• Your CSV import file can’t be more than 10,000 rows. Though a rep gave me this threshold, I haven’t seen an official limit documented. I have, however, had more success uploading when I kept my file between 5,000-8,000 rows. I also prefer to break up my account by campaigns, and upload them separately when possible, but that’s just a personal preference.
• You can edit multiple rows at once. Like the editor, you can select multiple selections at once within the tool. This is helpful, because you can quickly change things like the CPC, status, or match type for multiple rows in one step (assuming you want them all to the same).
• There are multiple account views. When viewing the various sections of your account, you have multiple choices about the data you are looking at. You can see the entire account, pending changes, errors, etc. However, as you change between the levels of your account (campaign, ad group, ads, keywords) the view doesn’t hold. This isn’t a big deal, but it’s something to keep in mind so you ensure that you are always looking at an accurate view.
• Your CSV Import file layout matters. When importing, I’ve found that I have fewer errors when I start with an export file instead of the template you can get online. As I mentioned above, you do not have to have all of the columns or rows from the export file, but you do need to make sure that headers you are using are in the same order, and are called the same thing in order for your import to be successful.

In addition to editing your campaigns offline, the desktop tool can help you with your keyword research, and you can automatically add the relevant results to your ad groups, or add them as campaign or ad group negatives. There are four tools that you can use, but it’s important to keep in mind that the data in these tools is based on US Traffic Only, and the only metric you will see is last month’s impressions.

1. Similar keywords: enter a word or phrase, and it will come up with (you guessed it!) similar keywords.
2. Extracted keywords: enter a website, and it will give you a list of keywords that are the most prominent and/or relevant from that site. This tool can be very helpful for competitive reviews.
3. Frequent keywords: this tool gives you keywords that have a lot of impressions, but they are EXTREMELY broad (think Google and Yahoo), so they probably won’t be very relevant to your business.
4. Category Keywords: This tool gives you keywords that generate impressions within categories created by MSN. For example, in the Animals category, the term “dogs” was returned. Again, the results from this tool are more than likely too broad to be of any real use to you.

Microsoft Advertising Intelligence
We all understand that quality keyword research is what helps not only get our campaigns off to a great start, but that it is vital for their ongoing success as search evolves. I’ve been able to use this Excel plug-in to create new keyword lists, have more insight into the Bing content network, and identify search trends. It’s very easy to use, and it’s incredibly fast considering the amount of information that is returned. As with the desktop tool, there are a few things that I’ve found while using the tool that you might want to keep in mind:

• Make sure that Excel 2007 is installed on your computer.
• The data that is returned comes from Live.com index and adCenter. It’s important to keep in mind that Bing accounts for less than 10% of the traffic share right now, so you can’t assume the data is applicable to your Google or Yahoo! accounts. Instead, use the information as a guideline to understand the relative search volume, relevance, and pricing for one keyword over another, and combine it with other research efforts.
• If you’re all of a sudden unable to access the toolbar after using it for a while, change the time on your computer/server. We found that by changing the time by about five minutes we were able to once again verify our account, and regain access.
• Once the plug-in is installed you can access the three tool sections through your Excel toolbar.

The Keyword Research section gives you access to a variety of tools that allow you to perform the following tasks:

• Identify keyword categories to help your campaigns and ad groups stay organized.
• Recognize trends by spotting traffic spikes. This tool can help you analyze seasonal trends, and help you prepare for upcoming shifts in traffic.
• Find high volume keywords across different business verticals to help with competitive research.
• Gather demographic and location information on searchers.
• Forecast keyword volume for the month to help you manage your spend.
• Analyze content network statistics so you can identify high volume keywords and potential relevant domains.

The Pricing section contains tools that help you:

• Access pricing estimates for the search and content networks.
• Create benchmarks based on key performance indicators (KPIs) for various verticals that have been pre-determined within the tool.

The Content section, while currently only for the US, gives you tools to:

• Identify most frequently seen keywords within various verticals.
• Analyze pricing estimates by vertical for both the search and content networks.
• Gather content network pricing and impression estimates.

Effectively Using adCenter PPC Tools
Overall I think Microsoft has come a long way in helping advertisers better manage their campaigns, and I look forward to seeing how the merger will further enhance these tools. At the end of the day it is our responsibility as advertisers to understand what our data represents, and know how to use it to effectively grow and optimize our campaigns. No matter what tools you use to streamline your account changes, or conduct keyword research, take a few extra minutes to try and understand what you are looking at, and what, if any, shortcomings the data might have. Combining data from multiple reliable sources will always help ensure that you are making the best decision possible.

This is not a philosophical, soul-searching question aimed at self-discovery, but instead an attempt to determine which terms and phrases we, as experienced (or not so experienced, in some cases) search professionals, might be using to narrow down and qualify our options during our own holiday shopping.

Without regard to the specific products I’m hoping to find for my friends, relatives, loved ones, etc., there are some common themes that continuously come up during my online searches for the perfect gifts.  Free shipping, fast shipping, Christmas discounts…these are just a few of the features and/or incentives that I tend to include in search queries during my holiday shopping.

So, how do you use your own searching practices to optimize your holiday search campaigns?  By using those ideas to add to your keyword lists, of course!

Any feature, sale or special offer should be exploited during this peak shopping season.  Are you offering free shipping, a buy one get one free offer or bonus accessories during December?  Add a new ad group, or multiple groups, and add those features as keywords – as part of long-tail terms, not by themselves, obviously.

Among the longtail terms that I’ve found to be useful during the holidays:
Holiday Deals on Product X
Product X Free Shipping
Product X Christmas sale
Product X Holiday Special

There are countless other variations on the theme, and all should be explored during this time of high search volume.  Any feature that might entice potential customers to find your product or site must be examined, and ad copy for those keywords should always focus on them as well.

While my PPC Hero colleagues have discussed in detail (here, here and here) the benefits of testing and optimizing ad copy and landing pages, those efforts are far less effective when they aren’t coupled with good keyword lists that take advantage of seasonal keyword additions and optimization.  

Good luck and happy shopping!

Match types can be tricky, especially when it comes to adding negative match keywords. Negative match keywords (or keyword exclusions) are a very effective way to reduce the number of unqualified clicks on your ad. But negatives can get confusing, and often times a manager will inadvertently add a negative that prevents a targeted keyword from showing ads. To me, Google keyword match types and negative match is pretty straightforward. My confusion settles in when it comes to adding negative keywords in Yahoo.

Recently in one of my Yahoo accounts I launched a campaign with keywords targeting satellite tv terms. However, I did not want my ads show up for a broad search term like tv or satellite. Herein my question: If I add tv and satellite as negatives, will that prevent satellite tv from triggering my ad all together? Before I get to answering this question, here is a quick review of the Yahoo keyword match types. Remember that these are set at the account level within your Yahoo account.

• Standard Match: Search query trigger an ad for an exact match to a keyword. This includes singular or plural variations, and common misspellings.
• Advanced Match: Ads are triggered for a broad range of queries related to a keyword, title, description or web content. This is the default setting in Yahoo.

If you are using Standard Match in Yahoo, it is not necessary to use account exclusions. Your ads will only be served if someone enters the exact keyword you are targeting. Negative keywords (or exclusions) only apply at the account or ad group level when you have your account set to Advanced Match.

Yahoo’s negative keyword feature is not as clear-cut as Google’s negative match type system. You have to be careful of the keywords you add as negatives, because you may be preventing your ads from showing. Back to my example.

If a search query exactly matches to a keyword you are targeting, then your account-excluded keywords will not prevent your ad from showing. In my example, I am targeting satellite tv channels but have tv and satellite as a negatives. If the search query is an exact match to satellite tv channels, my ads will show.

However, a negative keyword can prevent your ads from showing when the search query just matches a keyword phrase. In the same example, I am targeting satellite tv channels and have tv and satellite as a negatives. But the search query is the phrase: best satellite tv channels. Unless I am targeting this exact phrase in my account, my keyword exclusions will prevent my ads from showing.

In this case it would be best to set negative keywords at the ad group level. The terms satellite and tv should only be added as negatives to the ad group that contains the broad satellite tv term. These negative terms are too limiting for longtail search queries like satellite tv channels and best satellite tv channels, so these ad groups do not need negative keywords.

Where do you find these tools? Just conduct a search in Google. Within the SERP, you will see a link that reads, “Show options.” Once you click on that link, you’ll see a series options to alter your search results including video, forums, etc. What we are looking for is at the bottom of this list, as you can see in this screen capture (circled in red), Related searches and Wonder wheel:

Google Wonder Wheel

First, we’ll discuss Google Wonder Wheel. Honestly, I think this is a very helpful and insightful tool for PPC keyword research. I will walk you through a series of searches for the keyword “organic gardening.” Let’s just say that I sell a line of organic gardening supplies and tools on my site. I want to find new keywords that I am currently missing with my PPC campaign.

The search below has “organic gardening” in the center and there is a series of related terms included within the results. Sure, some of these may be more relevant than others but I am on the right path to finding new keyword niches with this tool. Within these results I am going to click on “organic gardening supplies” since this is what I offer on my site.

Now, as you can see below “organic gardening supplies” is in the center of the wheel. There are a series of related terms encircling our core term. And also, this tools displays the previous wheel from which we came below (very handy!).

For this example, I will say that I am lacking in fertilizer keywords. As you can see, this is a topic included in my keyword topic wheel. To dig deeper into this keyword niche, I am going to click and explore “organic garden fertilizers” to see what new terms I can discover.

Below, you can see now that “organic garden fertilizers” is in the center of my wheel and it is surrounded with an additional list of relevant terms. And this kind of digging can go on and on (almost forever!). There could be an entire keyword set, such as “bone meal fertilizer” or “herb garden garden fertilizer” that I am missing. But now I can add these terms to my keyword list for greater visibility and targeted search volume.

Google Related Search

The other tool that can be extremely helpful when conducting keyword research, looking for those new niches you may be missing, is the Google Related Search option. This tool works similarly to the Wonder Wheel but it has no graphical element. However, it contains more results and the results are slightly more detailed.

For this example, I am going to continue with my organic gardening theme. As you can see, the core idea between the two tools is similar: you have the ability to explore keyword unique keyword queries/niches in order to find new relevant terms for your PPC campaign.

As where Wonder Wheel provided eight options to explore for “organic gardening,” Related Search provides twenty different terms that I can explore. So, you are given more options here. Let’s go ahead and explore “organic gardening supplies” to see what results we receive.

Within the screen shot below, I am now focusing on “organic gardening supplies.” Again, the  tool provided 20 different related keywords that I can dig into at a deeper level. From the Wonder Wheel I realized that I am lacking in my “fertilizer” keyword groups so I will continue my research in this direction by clicking on “organic garden fertilizer.”

As I said previously, the Wonder Wheel provided eight different search terms and Related Search tool provided twenty (I didn’t include them all because they wouldn’t fit in the screen shot!). And here you can see all of the variations for “organic garden fertilizer” that I are waiting to be explored!

As I dig deeper into each niche I pick up keywords and add them to my list. This way, for each level of specificity, I am find keywords that get more granular. As you explore these terms and add them to your keyword list, you can go one step further by utilizing the keyword within Google AdWords.

Here, you can type in the new terms you have found using the Wonder Wheel and Related Search tools in order to hunt for even more new keywords. In the example below, I conducted a search for “organic vegetable garden fertilizer” and I found even more possible terms to add to my keyword list.

With these three tools as your command, you will be able to expand your keyword list aggressively. And the best part is that these terms should be highly relevant for your existing keyword  list! Happy hunting!

On its face, bidding on a competitor’s name or key product seems to be a money-losing proposition. After all, in pay-per-click advertising, we seek relevant traffic that is likely to convert into customers or leads. Someone looking for a direct competitor would seem to be the exact opposite of a likely customer – they are in fact searching, specifically, for your competitor.

But when you reconsider, you realize that a user searching on a competitor’s brand name is clearly in the market for your competitor’s product or service, and, further, that you provide the same or a similar product or service. What’s the situation then? Here’s a searcher, a potential customer, somebody probably nearing the end of the decision cycle, and you’re effectively ignoring them.

With that in mind, here are some keys to successful advertising on a competitor’s branded name:

Don’t misrepresent yourself. Don’t pose as the competitor. This tactic will leave your first-time customer disillusioned, and it is the only tactic that might result in legally enforceable repercussions. From either perspective, it’s not worth the risk. Stand behind your company’s name, and be confident in bidding for your competitor’s customers.

Emphasize what makes your company special, unique, and better. In a competitive marketplace, your brand must stand for something different from and better than your competitor. Bid on your competitor’s name, and then use your 140 characters of ad text to make these differences clear. Examples could include superior customer service, the best prices in the marketplace, or longstanding experience online or in-store beyond what your competitors have. (If you don’t have something special, unique, or better, it is time to reconsider whether you should be in business at all…)

Consider responding to your competitor’s claims. Look at what your competitors are claiming, either through their ad text or through their general online messaging, and attack it. Presumably, a user searching on a specific competitor’s name is attracted to these claims, and by emphasizing your superiority in their area of strength, you are more likely to draw clicks and potential purchases from these new users.

Prepare for an increase in cost-per-click. In my experience, the only downside to bidding on a competitor’s name is the cost-per-click. But make sure to get past the sticker shock, and analyze whether the keywords are working. Monitor the cost-per-acquisition or ROI on these new keywords, and let the raw numbers determine whether they are effective keywords. I suspect that they will be. (If you are with a PPC agency, arm yourself with the numbers to support this tactic to your clients.)

Now, whether you think it is a bad policy or a good one, it is time to adjust your strategies to reflect it. If anything, this adjustment will bring in more bidders on your company name.

With that in mind, if you have not been bidding on your own company name and your own trademarked terms, stop reading, open up your AdWords accounts, and add these keywords right now. These are, have been, and always will be your cheapest and best-converting keywords.

With more competitors drawn in due to the new policy, it is likely that you will see a more competitive landscape. Prepare to stand behind the strength of your brand, and reap the benefits.

This week we are featuring guest articles from our PPC Hero allies! We requested submissions from our readers and we received excellent responses from some great PPC bloggers! The PPC Hero team will return to our regularly scheduled articles next week. Enjoy!

I love log files, analytics, and looking in your own backyard for PPC keyword strategies. I think your own site’s keyword data is the best and purest (though not the only) place to start your keyword research. Your site’s keyword data offers you three things: relevance, accuracy, and relevant accuracy.

Relevance - You know these keywords are relevant to your business and your site’s content, because people have already gotten to your site via these keywords.

Accuracy – I find that actual traffic data is a much better indicator of actual traffic than playing around with the daily/weekly/monthly estimates from keyword tools.

Relevant Accuracy – If I go to a keyword research tool and see that a lot of people are searching for a keyword, that’s obviously useful data. But what would be more useful is to know if the people who searched for that keyword would then become a conversion on my site. I can learn this by looking at my own analytics.

And, I don’t think there’s any debate that keyword data is becoming a proprietary commodity for businesses who advertise online. As such, I think it makes a lot of sense to invest in building out a keyword list complete with actual data about how many times people will actually visit your site if you bid X, and about how many times people will convert (and at what price!) if you advertise against a given keyword.

Acquiring This Data Without Breaking Your PPC Budget

A great way to build this keyword database would be through organic search engine optimization. While I balk at the idea that SEO is “free” (try hiring good copywriters, creating the kinds of relationships that build trust, and employing someone competent to ensure that your information architecture and keyword targeting are optimal for “free”), you can at least pay a minimal price for irrelevant clicks in SEO, and you should be targeting various keywords and tracking their value, anyway.

But what if you don’t have much SEO data? You or your client has a new or poorly optimized site? Here are a couple of tricks for doing PPC keyword discovery “on the cheap”:

• Embedded Match – This is a “matching option” offered by Google (really it’s a mash up of two matching options, but either way…). Basically, it allows you to advertise against variations of a keyword without bidding on the keyword itself.
• Multiple Match Types – I think it’s a good idea to employ various matching options for testing purposes. You can also apply this principle to frugal keyword discovery.

Let’s take a closer look at how this would work for each option…

Embedding More Keywords Into Your PPC Campaign

I like broad match for keyword discovery, but it certainly presents some efficiency issues if you’re trying to provide ROI and hit a target CPA. SO what’s the solution?

Bid low on your keyword discovery engines, bid high on the keywords you know perform well.

Let’s say I run an online retailer focused on the sale of banjos (hey, someone has to be selling banjos online, right?).

Anyway, I know that the term “banjo” is too broad. It has a very high CPC, and aggressively bidding on it with broad match will lose me a bundle. In fact, clicks on “banjo” are simply an overall loser for me. But I still want to find all those great banjo terms I don’t yet have on my keyword list (more importantly, I want to know which ones convert).

I can just take the term banjo, and set it to “embedded match”:

-[banjo]
banjo

This means that I am advertising against banjo on broad match, but if someone types in “banjo” exactly, my ad won’t show:

banjo – WON’T show
banjos – MAY show
cheap banjos – MAY show
banjos are making a comeback – MAY show (also the statement is just very true)

Key point: now I will turn the bid way down on this keyword.

This lets me accomplish two things:

• Find New Keywords – I can discover long tail keywords that people are actually searching for, that I wouldn’t have otherwise stumbled upon.
• Find Out How Effective Keywords Are – While a keyword tool might show me “cheap banjos”, it can’t tell me whether it will convert for me. This system can.

Option Two: Being Broad But Focused

For the second example, let’s assume we have a bit of account data already. We know that “cheap used banjo” is a great performer for our used banjo store (I know I was selling all kinds of banjos at the beginning of the article, but the banjo vertical is pretty cut-throat, so I had to focus on something a bit more niche).

Now, I have some conflicting interests:

• I want to bid aggressively on cheap used banjo. It’s a great performer and a key part of my campaign.
• I also want to discover new, effective keywords surrounding this one.
• I don’t want to pay for garbage; I have run the keyword on broad match, and bidding on all those extra terms killed my CPA from this keyword.

The solution is to bid aggressively on the more restrictive matching types (phrase and exact) and to bid considerably lower on broad match:

cheap used banjos ** 0.50
“cheap used banjos” ** 4.00
[cheap used banjos] ** 6.00

The way it’s been explained to me by my AdWords rep, is that if I run these three options, broad matches will be assigned to the broad keyword, exact matches to the exact keyword, and phrase matches to that matching option:

online banjo store – BROAD
where to find great cheap used banjos – PHRASE
cheap used banjos – EXACT

Thus, I get to bid aggressively and ensure that I am extracting the maximum number of impressions from my “cheap used banjos” keyword, while finding new phrase and even broad matched variations and getting a feel for how they perform.

If the “online banjo store” keyword turns out to be a great performer, I can give it it’s own “broad but focused” test run and see if I can’t discover a whole new vertical of keywords…on the cheap!

The Value of Great Keyword Lists

The moral of the post is really that keyword lists are valuable assets. If you would pay a monthly subscription for a keyword tool, why not invest some of your PPC budget in finding new keyword verticals? Why not pay to get data about how specific keywords and bids work for you or your client specifically?

Paying a little now for a proprietary, site-specific keyword list can offer you big returns in the long run.

Guest Blogger Bio: Tom Demers is the Senior Marketing Manager at WordStream Inc., a pay-per click software manufacturer specializing in PPC management and keyword solutions. You can contact Tom at tdemers AT WordStream DOT com.

1. Search Query Report: This should go without saying, but Google’s Search Query Report is your friend. This report will give you insight into what queries your potential customers are using to find your ads. Make a habit for yourself of checking this report frequently (Weekly? Monthly? You decide.). Pull this report at the campaign and ad group level. Looking at this report from the perspective of your campaign will allow you to add “big rock” negatives at the campaign level. Then go back through the report from the ad group level and really begin to target your negative keywords for each ad group.
2. Google Analytics: The Search Query Report isn’t perfect. There, I said it. Because of the infuriating “other unique queries” results that this report spits out, it forces all of us to broaden our research skills. Thankfully, you can use Google Analytics to get to the core of your search query data. To receive search queries for Google AdWords, you will need to set up filters to capture that data. For Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter, you can utilize URL tagging to pull in search queries. Yahoo!’s {OVRAW} parameter, when included in your tagged URL, will pull in search queries from Yahoo! searchers. Microsoft’s {QueryString} parameter does the same, and will show you actual search queries. Utilizing all three of these tactics will allow you to review search queries in Google Analytics and discover negative keywords for your campaigns.
3. Google Keyword Tool: Utilizing Search Query Reports and Google Analytics reports to find negative keywords is a reactive strategy. Those reports provide data for unqualified visitors who have already clicked on your ad and bounced – wasting your time and money. How can you take a more proactive approach? The first recommendation is to use the Google Keyword Tool. When you enter your search, make sure to check “Use synonyms.” This is one of the clearest ways to get a sneak-preview of how Google will broad match your keywords. Review both lists of suggested keywords – “Keywords related to terms entered” and “Additional keywords to consider.” Go over these lists with a fine-toothed comb and really think about search intent and how those keywords relate to your business. Another great way to use the Google Keyword Tool for negative keywords is the obvious one – choose Negative from the “Match Type” pull down menu. This will give you a great list of possible negative keywords based on the keywords you entered into the tool:
4. Search Assist: Using the search assist feature at any of the major search engines can be a very telling research tool. As you begin to type your search query into each engine, they will spit out suggestions to you along the way. As another proactive method for finding negative keywords, enter in your highest traffic keywords and see what suggestions they search engines are making – chances are you’ll be surprised. And it’s a safe bet that if your keywords are set to Broad Match (or Advanced Match in Yahoo!), than your ads are showing for all those search queries. If any of them are irrelevant, add them as negative keywords! Here’s what Search Assist looks like at Google, Yahoo! and Live.com:
5. Generic Negative Keyword Lists: If you’re just getting started and would like to get a jumpstart on creating a comprehensive negative keyword list, there are plenty of prepared lists floating around in cyberspace. Here’s the PPC Hero Negative Keyword List. Or you can check out the KoMarketing B2B for PPC Negative Keyword List. Whatever niche you’re targeting with your pay-per-click campaign, these lists will get you well on your way to weeding out irrelevant traffic!

Hopefully this quick post will serve as a reminder (or a refresher) on ways you can easily build and expand your negative keyword lists. How do you find negative keywords? Please share!

The main screen is pretty easy to understand and if you’re logged into you Adwords account, it will automatically pull all of the account profiles you’re managing into a convenient drop-down menu for the Website field.  Or manually, you can enter a specific page within the site you want to examine for new keywords.

After you enter your website address, a search results page will return that looks like this:

From this search results page, you can see new keywords that are currently not in your campaigns, the monthly volume of searches for each word, the competition, bid amounts and the page within your site from which your keyword was extracted.  Anyone can use this tool, so if you don’t have an Adwords account, you’ll be limited to only 100 keywords, the sky is the limit when logged in.

There are some other cool features I thought might be helpful too.  When we research keywords to add to our client campaigns or to use in SEO campaigns, we use a painstaking process to find how many searches are performed in a month’s time, usually done keyword by keyword.   This tool will help save time in that process by compiling that data in one column, “Monthly Searches.”  Export that into your spreadsheet and you’ve got the data you need to make intelligent decisions in one place.

The bids column lets you take an “at a glance” look at keywords and bidding amounts to also help you decide which keywords should be added to your campaigns.

Now when you click on the little magnifying glass, a new world opens up, something I haven’t seen Google offer before in this way.

You can filter your results geographically (even by specific locations) and by a specific date or time range.  This could be particularly helpful if you want to see how many searches are performed on a keyword in a specific location.  If you need to dial in your keywords to a finite audience, this function of the tool can really help you decide whether bidding on a certain keyword will prove beneficial for your campaign.
You can take this tool one step further and to a specific category search.  Just type in the specific keyword or phrase in the “word or phrase” field at the top of the page.  You’ll get the results you’re looking and you can go one step further and categorize them into deeper levels using the category menu on the left side of the page.

What do you think?  Just another keyword tool or something of real value here?  I’ve started using this tool and so far I’ve found it to be pretty helpful.  It’s given me some new insight into keywords I didn’t have added in my campaigns and I really like how I can geographically filter results for my clients who need leads from a specific area of the country.  Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Yesterday, we discussed the pros and cons of the heavy hitter search engines. Today, as part of our PPC basics blog series, I’ll be covering the fundamentals to building a killer PPC keyword list. The goal of this article is to give new PPC managers some insight into building their initial keyword list.

I am sure that every PPC manager has their own technique/process for keyword research. So, this is just one approach to building your list. We’ll break the process down into 6 steps. Keep in mind, you should complete all 6 steps before you load your first keyword into your PPC campaign.

1. Identify your target audience

First, you need to determine who your PPC ads are targeting. From offline to online, your core customer probably isn’t going to change dramatically. But how you gain their attention and capture it long enough for their interest to be peaked is going to be different. You need to get into the mindset of your audience/customers. Here are some questions to ask:

• How would you describe your company/product/service to someone in 100 words or less? This description is filled with keywords! Write them down.
• What are the attributes and/or benefits of your product/service? People often don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, so they’ll use descriptors to search.
• What would you type in to the search engines to find your site without using your name? That’s how people may be searching for you.

If you follow these steps you should have a handful of keywords.

2. Review your existing materials

You might be surprised that you already have keyword-rich materials just lying around your office. Review your printed/collateral materials and your existing website. Simply read through your sales letters, brochures, presentations, catalogs, trade show displays, press kits and just underline the keywords.

3. Review your website analytics

Your website analytics will provide a wealth of keywords that people are using to find your site organically. Why re-invent the wheel when you can already get some great insight as to how your audience is thinking and how they are finding you.

4. Review your competition

Make a list of your top competitors and review their websites. You can get an idea of what they are targeting, and you can also brainstorm on how you can set yourself apart and make your company/product/service unique.

5. Expand your list with multiple keyword research tools

With the previous 4 steps you should have a pretty healthy start on your keyword list. Now, you need to find the variations for all of these keywords. Here are some free keyword research tools that we recommend:

• Wordtracker
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
• Keyword Discovery
• MSN Ad Intelligence

6. Sort your keywords

Now, you should have a very robust keyword list. Before you even put one keyword in your PPC campaign you need to break your keywords down into groups that should range from 5-20 keywords per group. This way your keyword groups are tightly themed and you can write relevant, targeted ad texts.

Following these steps to build you initial keyword list is a great way to build a killer keyword list. Remember, the sucess of every PPC campaign hinges on its keywords – so make them good!

The adCenter folks have done a good job pulling together a useful keyword tool that is quite robust. In fact, I can’t cover all of the functions in Ad Intelligence in just one post (otherwise this post would be huge!). So, I’ll break Ad Intelligence into digestible chunks and we’ll first focus on the keyword generation portion, and then we’ll discuss categorization/demographic functions at a later date.

Keyword Wizard:The keyword wizard is the core tool for keyword generation. It seems like there are no perfect keyword tools out there but this one does a rather good job providing keyword ideas and alternatives. We’ll go step-by-step through this function so that you can see what Ad Intelligence has in store for you (if you’re not using it just yet).

1. Keyword origination: The first step in keyword research is to enter your core keywords and then expand from there. There are 3 options that you can choose here. However, for simplicity sakes, we’ll maintain our focus and just use the keyword tool (as opposed to the vertical search tool, or keyword extraction). The keywords I will be conducting research for include: pay per click marketing, ppc, paid search marketing, search engine marketing, pay per click advertising. This step is simple enough.

2. Keyword expansion: The second step involves 3 options to expand your list:

Campaign association: Suggest keywords based on advertiser bidding behavior.

Contained: Suggest keywords which contain the original keyword

Similarity: Suggest keywords on their category similarity.

In this example, I am going to choose all three settings since I want to see how expansive the keyword variations can be in this function.

3. Similarity: In step three you will determine your campaign association settings. Your association options range from 0.0 to 1.0, and 1.0 is the highest level of relevancy to your original keywords. As you can see here, I am going to choose a relevancy of 0.5 as I want my keywords to be targeted, but I’m still open to suggestions:

Once I’ve entered my original keyword list, and set all of my preferences then I am served a list of keywords that are ranked by relevancy. You can see that these keywords are ranked with a 1, which is the highest ranking:

4. Traffic & monetization: The next step is where you can really get some great keyword detail. You can select to see each keyword’s monthly traffic and monetization (projected CPC, CTR, impressions, etc.). As you can see below, Ad Intelligence provides a lot of detail for each keyword. Click on the image to see the details more clearly:

I know there a number of keyword tools out there but MSN adCenter Ad Intelligence is quickly becoming my favorite because of the quality of the results; the breadth of data for each keyword; and it’s relatively easy-to-use interface within Excel (2003 & 2007).

And I haven’t even covered the 7-8 other functions that tool has to offer! Some of them work better than others, but overall, this could be a very nice piece of your keyword research puzzle.