Welcome to lesson 2 – Keyphrase Analysis for PPC
Stage 1: Finding Keyphrases
As with SEO the obvious starting point is the keyphrase analysis. For PPC and SEO nowadays this should not just be basically visiting a keyphrase suggestion tool such as Google but this should incorporate a few different factors which are explained below in 6 simple steps but first we should talk about a starting budget, number of phrases and the different types of phrases you should be using.
When you start your PPC we recommend starting with a limited budget of up to £500 per month then as you take more sales/enquires you can increase your budget. Overall a £500 per month budget should cover up to 200 phrases: a combination of both general and long-tail. Long-tail phrases are generally longer and more specific to products and services. For example a general phrase would be Windows PC where a long-tail phrase would be Dell Alienware Aurora Windows PC. Long-tail phrases normally have much lower search volumes but generally have higher conversion rates. Long-tail phrases are also extremely useful in e-commerce websites where you can include sub categories and product names as well as the more general phrases.
6 Steps to finding great keyphrases
Step 1: Create a list of possible phrases that you think that people might type in if they are looking for your products or services. When you think of these phrases you should think about what potential customers would type in.
Step 2: Type these phrases into a Keyword Suggestion Tool, choose the relevant Suggestions to increase your keyphrase list.
We like to use the Google Keyword Suggestion Tool
So the first stage here is to type in one or a few of the phrases that you have recorded from step 1. On the screenshot below you can see that we have entered windows pc into the word or phrase text box.
Next we simply click the search button and view the results. Here you will see that Google has automatically ticked the broad match type. We recommend not using this (recommendation from Lesson 1) and either using phrase or Exact match types which will give us a better idea of search volumes (obviously exact is the true search volume).
For this example we can see how when we change the match types the search volumes change considerably. Windows PC did have 135,000 local searches but now has 240 exact match searches which is a huge difference.
Here you can see the importance of using the correct match type when choosing your keyphrases. You can either jot these down then add them to your spreadsheet or tick the ones that you want to add and export them to a file then copy and paste them into your keyphrase spreadsheet.
Step 3: Search for these keyphrases in Google and record the competitors in both sponsored and organic listings. So for this example we would search for windows pc, windows tablet pcand windows xp pc to search for competitors.
Step 4: Competitor Analysis
Step 4a: Sponsored Listing Competitor Analysis: After making a list of your competitor domain names visit comparison tools such as SpyFu and check the phrases that you competitors are using. Add any relevant phrases to your list.
Step 4b: Organic Listing Competitor Analysis: After working through our SEO lessons you will be able to see what phrases your competitors have optimised for. Visit your competitors listings from the organic listings and add any relevant phrases they have optimised for to your list.
Step 5: Now you should have a list that is a lot more substantial. Return to the suggestion tool and enter the new keyphrases to see if there are further phrases that can be added to your list.
Step 6: Repeat steps 3 to 5 until you are happy with the number of keyphrases in your list
Now you should have a substantial keyphrase analysis list to create effective PPC campaigns. This starts with looking back at the structure of a PPC campaign; this will allow you to ensure your keyphrases are in the correct place.
Stage 2: Grouping Keyphrases
In this stage of the keyphrase analysis you should group the keyphrases into categories which will later become AdGroups. So when you are grouping these you need to think of Ads that the keyphrases will relate to.
The key is to have similar keyphrases that can be triggered by the same Ad. You want your Ad to be extremely relevant to what a searcher types in. For example if the keyphrase Windows PC is triggered you want an Ad that gives the searcher information about a Windows PC and not an Ad about PC’s in general or an Apple Mac.
