Developing a list of keywords is the first step in plenty of digital marketing strategies, including Google ad management. But how many do you need? And should you keep adding them to your campaigns as you go along? New keywords for your Google ads can be beneficial, but if that’s your go-to strategy, take a closer look.
Getting started
As a broad rule of thumb, 10-25 keywords will be a useful number for a typical campaign. Your initial list will be a hypothesis, based on your knowledge and experience as well as the tools available. Click through the post below to get the basics.
Imagine that you’re adding a new pilates class at your gym, targeting new moms, and you want to get the word out. Think about the specific charms of this new class and who it is intended to serve, and come up with an initial list. You might think of these keywords:
- postpartum pilates
- pilates for new moms
- mommy and me pilates
- rebuild core strength
- gentle pilates
- diastasis recti pilates
- fourth trimester pilates
- mommy exercise time
- gym time with child care
- pilates with child care
- post-baby pilates
Set up your ads with this group of keywords.
Watch your results for a while. We would say give it at least two weeks to get some data. At the end of that time, you should see that some of the terms are getting more impressions, more clicks, and more conversions than others. It’s time to fine tune.
That can mean winnowing down the list (did anyone at all respond to “diastasis recti pilates”?). It can also mean adding some additional keywords. But here are some things to consider as you make up your mind.
Remember relevance
If the landing page for your new pilates class doesn’t mention diastasis recti pilates, you will be taking a chance on reducing your quality score by choosing a keyword that doesn’t meet the requirement for relevance. If you really value that keyword, then you need to make sure it’s on your landing page. You can always make a new ad group and a new landing page with higher relevance to your new keyword. But you don’t want to pick a keyword that isn’t important enough to show up in your text.
Sometimes the broadest and most generic keywords aren’t the right choice for you because of relevance. For our example, we might decide to add “exercise” as a keyword because — hey, it’s an exercise class! If you’re positioning your new class as a social opportunity for the Mommy & Me crowd, though, your landing page might be a lot cozier than that. Adding “exercise” as a keyword could cause you to end up paying for visits to that page from guys looking for a tactical fitness class. More impressions and more clicks are only valuable if they lead to more conversions.
Base it on your budget
If you need more impressions and more clicks, then adding keywords can be useful. However, you pay for each click. When you use up your budget, Google stops showing your ad. So if you’re already getting all the clicks you can with your budget, you don’t want to cast a wider net. You might even want to narrow your focus to increase conversions.
Thinking of our pilates class for new moms, let’s imagine that we’re seeing a “Limited by budget” notice. That means that we’ve budgeted $10 a day and we’re getting 30 clicks a day before we run out of funds and our ad stops showing. That’s great! But we look closer and we see that the keywords with variants on child care are converting better than the ones focusing on the benefits — “rebuild core strength” and “gentle pilates.” It may be that people other than new moms are looking to rebuild core strength. They’re clicking, seeing our “Mommy & Me” message and leaving without taking action.
Consider your competition
You can see who’s competing with you for your keywords. Then you can use Spyfu or a similar tool to get an estimate of their ad budget. I just checked on the competitors of my imaginary gym and disco red that there is a website offering Mommy & Me pilates with a $5,407 monthly budget. My imaginary gym with a $300 monthly budget should not get stuck on the same keywords this competitor is using (and yes, they are paying for diastasis recti). Narrowing in on the things that make our class special, including geography, timing, or the awesome juice bar could work out better for us.
There’s nothing wrong with adding more keywords. Google often suggests doing this, and they will even suggest keywords for you. But don’t let this be something you just do. Use your data and make strategic decisions. If that’s not your cup of tea, we’ll be happy to help. Contact us to start the conversation.
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