The world of Google Adwords may seem daunting to someone who just set up their Adwords account. Luckily, there is a great way to make sure you’re not throwing your money away. The answer is long tail keywords. If you’re new online marketing, you may be unfamiliar with long tail keywords so here is a quick definition.
Long tail keyword – A keyword with more than two words that is specifically focused on what the user is searching for.
Example: The keyword “cars” gets searched, on average, 1.2 million times a month. At first, this may sound like a great keyword to target because it has a large search volume, however, the keyword “cars” is so broad it will be hard to know what those searchers are actually looking for. They could be searching for pictures of cars, the movie Cars, or even a red Porsche 911 turbo, but there’s no way to know from that keyword. If you’re a car manufacturer that specializes in fuel efficient SUVs, your website would provide no benefit to these users and your ad money would be wasted.
So instead of going after the really popular keywords, you can increase the effectiveness of your ads by targeting the following long tail keywords
- SUVs with good gas mileage
- Fuel efficient SUVs
- Gas efficient SUVS
These keywords account for only a few thousand searches per month, but it will be easier to rank for these keywords, you will have a much better click-through rate, and your visitors will be more interested in learning about your fuel efficient vehicles.
How Do I Find Relevant Long Tail Keywords?
To find relevant long tail keywords, you should start by looking at your target demographic and researching the tone and terminology they’re using.
Example: A business that sells sporting equipment to active 20-year-olds might use a term like “get ripped” whereas a business that sells sporting equipment to less active 60-year-olds might use a term like “healthy living”.
Once you have a list of words, use the keyword tool built into the Adwords platform to find out how many searches are being performed each month. This tool will also tell you how difficult it will be to rank for that keyword and the estimated Cost-Per-Click bid. Create a list of 10 to 20 keywords that have a good search volume and that have low competition, then add them to your Ad Group.
You should now have a better understanding of keywords and why they are important for getting the most out of your ad campaigns. If you’re still feeling overwhelmed about the whole process, you can give us a call and we can help you create a successful Adwords campaign.