Choosing keywords for PPC campaigns is basically saying “Open Sesame” to your revenue. The best strategy is to use PPC keywords that complement SEO keywords, because that’s how you connect to the right audience. In this guide, we break down a simple seven-step approach to choosing PPC keywords that maximize ROI.
If you’re ready to learn how to redirect that wasted spend toward keywords that actually convert, follow the process below:
Step 1: Define Your Goals and Understand Your Customers
Before choosing keywords for PPC, clarify your ultimate goal and target audience. Here’s how to do exactly that:
Set clear and specific campaign objectives. Once you know your goal, identify which keyword strategy you need. Lead generation campaigns will need informational and commercial investigation keywords. Direct sales campaigns prioritize transactional terms with immediate purchase intent.
Build your ideal customer profile (ICP). List the demographics, pain points, and needs of people who buy from you and pay attention to how they describe their problems. For example, a software company selling project management tools might have customers who search for solutions to team collaboration challenges, deadline tracking problems, etc.
Identify the language customers use. Find the exact phrases real customers search with; these become your most valuable keywords. People rarely use industry jargon or technical terms to find what they’re looking for. They use everyday language, which you’ll see more easily in customer emails, support tickets, and within sales call transcripts.
Determine your value proposition. Leverage your USP to find the best keyword. For example, if fast delivery is a key selling point for you, find terms that correlate to it. Similarly, if you prioritize cost-effectiveness, use keywords such as ‘affordable’.
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Step 2: Create Your Initial Keyword List Using Multiple Sources
There is no single tool or method that captures all relevant keywords, so you’ll have to cast a wider net to find all possible keywords from multiple sources.
Brainstorm seed keywords. Start with the most obvious terms. If you sell running shoes, begin with combinations like running shoes, athletic footwear, jogging shoes, marathon shoes, trail running shoes, and road running shoes. List every variation you can think of.
Use Google Keyword Planner. Enter your seed keywords into this free tool to discover related searches and see monthly search volumes. Google Keyword Planner shows you what people actually search for and provides estimates of competition. Export the complete list of suggestions for analysis.
Analyze competitor keywords. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs reveal which keywords your competitors target in their paid campaigns. Look for gaps where competitors are not bidding but should be.
Mine your website analytics. Find out what’s working in organic search. These keywords that drive high-converting organic traffic are strong candidates for paid search.
Explore autocomplete suggestions. Autocomplete suggestions for your core keywords accurately reflect what people are actually searching for. The related searches section at the bottom is also a good source of additional ideas.
Review existing campaign data. If you have run PPC campaigns before, look for high-performing search terms you have not yet added as possible keywords.
Step 3: Categorize Keywords by Search Intent
Choosing keywords for PPC starts with understanding what users actually want when they search. Someone searching for “best running shoes” is in the research phase, but someone searching for “buy Nike Pegasus 40 size 10” is ready to make a purchase. Your keyword strategy has to be mindful of these differences. Here are the top 4 keyword categories you should know of:
Informational keywords. The search intent behind these is to acquire more information. Informational keywords cost less per click but convert at lower rates. The best time to use them is if you have a longer-term content strategy to nurture these clicks.
Commercial investigation keywords are used most often when someone is researching purchase options before making a purchase decision. They have moderate costs, decent conversion rates, and work well for building awareness and capturing mid-funnel prospects.
Transactional keywords. These types of searches indicate immediate purchase intent and deliver the highest ROI. Transactional keywords cost more per click but convert at substantially higher rates.
Branded keywords. It goes without saying that if someone is searching for your brand name, they’re obviously high-intent. Always bid on your own branded keywords to protect against competitor campaigns. These also have the lowest cost per acquisition.
Step 4: Evaluate and Filter Your Keyword List
Choosing keywords for PPC also means letting go of terms that will not deliver results, no matter how relevant they seem. This is crucial because you need visibility into what you need to prioritize. Here’s how to filter your list:
What is the search volume? Keywords with zero monthly searches cannot drive traffic. Don’t be hasty to get rid of low-volume keywords if they have high commercial intent.
How competitive is the keyword? Highly competitive keywords require larger budgets to achieve meaningful visibility. If a keyword costs 50 dollars per click and you’ll need 20 to 30 clicks for a conversion, it’s best to eliminate it. Focus on keywords where you can sustain the investment needed to gather performance data.
Is it relevant to your offering? Some keywords might generate searches but attract people looking for something you don’t offer. If you sell premium running shoes, but a keyword attracts bargain hunters, it’s not a viable option.
Does it have commercial potential? Don’t forget to calculate if a keyword generates profitable conversions at likely click costs.
Step 5: Build Your Negative Keyword List
What are negative keywords?
Negative keywords are terms that stop your ads from showing up in irrelevant searches, which saves your from wasting ad spend and increases CTR.
Add generic negative keywords. There are some universal generic terms that clearly show non-buying intent, for example: free, cheap, DIY, how-to, jobs, career, salary, course, tutorial, Wikipedia, and download.
Negative keywords are personal to your brand. If you sell only new products, add negative keywords for used, pre-loved, and repair. If you serve specific industries, and locations, you have to include terms in your negative keyword list that relate to industries you don’t operate in.
Keep revising your negative keyword list. Plan to review your search terms report weekly during the first month, then bi-weekly. Your negative keyword list should grow continuously as you discover new ways people waste your budget.
Step 6: Select the Right Match Types
What are exact match keywords?
Exact match keywords, aka perfect-match keywords, consist of content that is written just as it would appear in a search query. Google defines exact-match keywords as a match type that lets you control who sees your ad, but it reaches fewer searches than phrase and broad match. Start with an exact match for all your high-priority, transactional keywords.
Add phrase match for expansion. Phrase match shows ads when the meaning of your keyword appears in the search query. It’s best to use phrase match to expand reach beyond your exact match terms.
Test broad match carefully. Broad match makes ads visible for synonyms of your keyword, expanding your reach even further. Use broad match only for small budgets to discover keywords, and maintain aggressive negative keyword lists.
Layer your strategy. Mix and match all three match types to ensure a strategic placement. This allows you to monitor performance by match type and adjust your budget based on what delivers better results.
Step 7: Organize Keywords Into Tightly Themed Ad Groups
Ad group structure determines how well you can match keywords to relevant ads. You want to avoid stuffing dozens of loosely related keywords into a single ad group, so you don’t end up writing generic ads that don’t align with any specific search intent.
Group similar keywords together. Each ad group should contain five to twenty closely related keywords focused on a single theme. All keywords in a group should share the same core intent so you can write specific ads. For example, diversify and separate ad groups for women’s running shoes, men’s running shoes, trail running shoes, and road running shoes.
Match ad copy to keywords. A tightly organized ad group lets you include the exact keyword in your ad headline and description. When someone searches for women’s trail running shoes and sees an ad specifically about women’s trail running shoes rather than a generic running shoe ad, click-through rates increase substantially.
Align landing pages with ad groups. Send traffic from each ad group to the most relevant landing page. If your ad group targets a specific product category, the landing page should feature that exact category. This relevance improves quality scores, reduces costs, and increases conversion rates.
Create separate campaigns for different goals. Organize ad groups into campaigns by objective. Branded keywords go in one campaign, competitor keywords in another, and generic commercial keywords in a third. This structure provides better budget control and performance tracking.
How to Test and Optimize Your Chosen Keywords
Some of the best ways to test and optimize chosen keywords include starting with a small budget, knowing when to pause underperforming keywords, and diligently monitoring keyword performance.
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Start Small
Add five to ten new keywords per week rather than hundreds at the same time. This allows you to monitor each keyword’s impact and sort out high-performing keywords.
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Quit While Ahead
The most common rule of thumb is to pause any keyword that accumulates 50 clicks without a conversion. Adjust this threshold based on your average conversion rate and sales cycle length.
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Review Search Terms Reports Weekly
Your search terms report reveals which keywords converted, and you can use those with more controlled match types.
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Track Metrics Beyond Clicks
Measure the conversion rate, cost per acquisition, and return on ad spend. Some keywords might have mediocre click-through rates but excellent conversion rates and low acquisition costs.
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Adjust Bids Based On Performance
Keywords that convert should receive higher bids, while those that don’t should be paused to avoid wasting your ad budget. Instead, redirect funds to keywords that, upon review, show a better performance.
6 Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing Keywords for PPC
Even experts fall prey to predictable traps from time to time when choosing keywords for PPC. However, if you don’t catch these mistakes early, they will start to drain your budget. Don’t make these mistakes so you can redirect your budget to more profitable keywords:
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Choosing Keywords Based Only On Search Volume
High-volume keywords are tempting despite fierce competition, but they don’t deliver results because they don’t target buyers. A keyword with 100 monthly searches and a 20 percent conversion rate outperforms one with 10,000 searches and a 0.5 percent conversion rate.
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Ignoring Negative Keywords
Even when positive keywords are carefully chosen, your ads will still show up for wasteful searches if you don’t cover negative keywords. Invest time building comprehensive negative keyword lists from day one.
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Using Broad Match Without Controls
Broad match keywords without an extensive negative keyword list lead to wasted spend. Google’s algorithms have improved, but broad match still shows ads for surprisingly irrelevant queries.
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Creating Bloated Ad Groups
Don’t stuff 50 random keywords into a single ad group because you will end up with irrelevant ads. Tight ad groups with focused keywords enable targeted messaging, improving performance.
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Not Optimizing Your Campaigns
PPC is an iterative process because you have to keep up with changing market conditions. Competitor activity shifts, and user behavior evolves. You have to review what’s working and what’s not working weekly and make adjustments accordingly to see results.
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Neglecting Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are less competitive because they’re so specific, and they cost less per click! Most importantly, they attract users with greater intent, which makes them the most efficient keyword category. Build substantial portions of your campaigns around long-tail keywords.
Conclusion
Keyword discipline could be the make-or-break for how profitable your PPC campaigns are. Start with a small budget and focus on what’s delivering business results, not vanity metrics like impressions and clicks. Remember that choosing keywords for PPC is not a one-and-done situation. Choose keywords that align with search intent and follow a systematic approach, and you will stop wasting ad spend.
